Students from Susquehanna University’s Sigmund Weis School of Business recently competed in two business ethics competitions against teams from colleges and universities all over the country.
Winning first place in Providence College’s Michael Smith Business Ethics Case Competition were
- Maggie Bachman ’26, a double major in legal studies and management from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
- Jensen Duke ’25, an entrepreneurship & corporate innovation and management double major from Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
- Ryan Ford ’25, an entrepreneurship & corporate innovation and management double major from Erial, New Jersey.
- Tatiana Perez ’25, a management major from Ridgefield, New Jersey.
The competition requires students to examine a business ethics case over a two-week period and then present their analysis and solutions to a panel of judges consisting of corporate and ethics professionals. This year’s case focused on social media addiction in teens. Cases from the past include self-driving vehicles, the National Football League’s response to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the opioid crisis, and student loan debt.
Susquehanna’s team proposed practical business solutions all focused around protecting youth while also recognizing the positive benefits of social media.
“This ethics competition offered a unique opportunity to bridge my academic interests. It allowed me to apply concepts from both disciplines — especially justice theory — to a real-world ethical dilemma: teen addiction to social media,” said Bachman. “What I truly valued was not just the problem-solving aspect, but the chance to collaborate with a group of peers whose strengths and perspectives pushed me to grow.”
Susquehanna competed for the first time in the Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition at Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, with the duo of Balil Abdelnabi ’26 and Clarissa O’Neill ’25, finishing fourth.
The Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition is an annual competition that allows one pair of students from each university to propose their solution to an ethical case provided ahead of time. The program seeks to promote ethical business conduct, develop ethical business leadership, enrich undergraduate co-curricular educational opportunities and promote faculty collaboration in the teaching of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. This year’s event was sponsored by NASCAR.
“I’m not a traditional four-year student. I transferred to Susquehanna last year to complete my bachelor’s degree. Because of this, I wanted to take full advantage of everything Susquehanna and the Sigmund Weis School of Business have to offer,” said O’Neill, a marketing major from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. “Before transferring, I completed my associate degree while working full-time. This experience gave me a unique perspective as a student, and I believed I could apply that perspective to the competition.”
The case study addressed by Abdelnabi and O’Neill, “DEI at Daytona: Stay on Track, Accelerate Forward, or Race Away,” was particularly timely as it asked students to determine the impact of removing, maintaining or modifying diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the NASCAR organization.
“This experience gave me the opportunity to learn more about America’s politics and how DEI policies may affect businesses financially and culturally,” said Abdelnabi, a business analytics and finance double major from Plainfield, New Jersey.
Gene Cautillo, visiting assistant professor of management, mentored all the students as they prepared for their respective competitions.
“I want to prepare my students for real-world experiences that they could face in their careers, and this competition does just that,” Cautillo said. “It gives students the opportunity to explore ethical dilemmas in a controlled setting and gives them an ethical foundation to fall back on.”
