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Two teams from С����Ƶ’s Small Business Institute® are national finalists in the Small Business Institute® (SBI) Association’s Consulting Project of the Year competition. Both graduate and undergraduate teams are in the final three in each category. The rank order will be announced at the SBI’s national conference, held February 14 through 16, in Florida. The competition awards the best student consulting projects from schools around the country.

The undergraduate team placed in the business plan category and consisted of Natasha Tukeva ’12, Connor Dragone ’12, and Chris Dudo ’12, M.A. ’13.  The team produced the report as part of ENT-448: Seminar in Small Business Consulting course taught by Dr. Ron Cook, director of Rider’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Small Business Institute®. As part of the course, the students acted as consultants and created a business plan for Vanquish Fencing of Morrisville, N.J., which makes an animal deterrent system that keeps small crawling animals out of utility substations, thereby preventing interference with electrical equipment and potential power outages.

The graduate team competed in the graduate specialized project category and consisted of Elizabeth Williams ’10, M.B.A. ’12, Zack Brigman M.B.A. ’13 and Kristy-Rose Dougherty ’01, M.B.A. ’12. As part of the PMBA 8385Consulting for New and Small Ventures course, the team explored ways to increase the number of students in the Princeton YWCA’s English as a Second Language Program and reduce the program’s reliance on grants, and developed promotional materials to help the ESL program attract company-specific courses.

Since 1998, Rider has had 22 top-ten or better national finishes in this competition, including national titles.

“This is only the second time that Rider has placed two teams in the top three in a single year,” Cook said. “The competition is intense as Rider competes against some schools that require an SBI project in certain majors, and have 30-plus projects from which to select their best one to send to the competition.”

Rider’s Small Business Institute® is housed in the College of Business Administration and greatly appreciates the generous support of its SBI sponsor, Grand Bank, located in Hamilton, N.J. Rider’s business and accounting programs are accredited by AACSB International – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. To learn more about the Small Business Institute, please visit http://www.rider.edu/sbi.