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NEWS / MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
LAWRENCE
Westar contest gives MBA students real-life experience
BY ERIN BROWN
ebrown@kansan.com
Graduate students in the School of Business participate in a competition with Westar Energy. Participants had 48 hours to analyze the company's place in the electric vehicle market.
For a group of graduate students in the school of business, last week was a blur.
Jake Mooney, a first-year MBA student from Overland Park, joined 15 other MBA students to participate in an intense two-day case competition with Westar Energy.
"I haven't had much sleep in the past couple days," Mooney said. "But it was a good experience."
MBA students have the opportunity to participate in case competitions every year, usually during winter break, said Wayne Thomas, communications coordinator for the School of Business. These competitions start with a presentation by a sponsoring company that is unknown to the students until the first meeting. The students, working in teams of four or five, then have about 48 hours to analyze the company and formulate a plan to address a problem the company is facing. The teams then deliver 25-minute presentations to a panel of judges, including executives with the sponsoring company.
"These case competitions are just a very exciting thing for our MBA students because they're one of the closest things you can get to real world work as possible," Thomas said.
This year, Westar Energy sponsored the competition and asked students to analyze the company's place in the electric vehicle market. Westar representatives challenged
the teams to consider what opportunities are available in the market and how the company can help promote electric vehicle adoption, Thomas said.
"The electric vehicle market is really a brand new opportunity for Westar," said Matt Lehrman, SmartStar program analyst for Westar. "So we were really looking for as many ideas as possible and wanted to know what these students think the place is for Westar in the electric car business."
For this competition, MBA students were given the opportunity to analyze a current issue and apply their skills in an intense work environment.
"What I enjoyed the most is the opportunity to address a concept that is going to really revolutionize the country and the world," Mooney said.
The competition began on Jan. 19 and the teams presented to Westar executives on Jan. 21.
Members of the winning team include Denton Zeeman, first year MBA student from Johannesburg, South Africa, Kai Thiele, first year MBA student from Germany, Trang Nguyen, first year MBA student from Vietnam, and Hatem Shoshaa, first year MBA student from Palestine.
Zeeman said the judges told his team they won the competition because they had fully identified the problem and had the most thought-out presentation. One judge said that it was as if the team had been sitting in on Westar's meetings and discussions about moving into the electric car market.
"We had less than 48 hours to conduct our analysis and develop a strategy, so this was quite a compliment," Zeeman said.
The winning team won three of the six judging categories, including "Best Industry Analysis by a team," "Most Creative Ideas & Strategy
by a team" and "Best Overall Analysis and Presentation by a team."
Lerhman, a former School of Business MBA student himself, said although the judges decided on a winning team, Westar will use ideas from each presentation.
"The students really exceeded our expectations," he said.
North Carolina officials said Friday they believed Pettway was on the run from authorities. They said Sunday they would seek her extradition.
Department of Correction officials there tried repeatedly to contact her after finding out investigators wanted to question her in the 1987 abduction of Carla White.
Edited by Amanda Sorell
Kidnapper surrenders after 23 years of deceit
A woman who answered the phone at a Pettway relative's home in Bridgeport on Sunday refused to comment on her surrender.
Nance told the New York Post in an interview posted Thursday that reuniting with her family was like a dream.
Pettway received two years of probation last June after she took items from a store where she worked, which is considered embezzlement under North Carolina law, state correction spokeswoman Pamela Walker said. Under terms of her probation, she wasn't allowed to leave the state.
"I'm so happy," she said. "At the same time, it's a funny feeling because everything's brand new. It's like being born again."
Carlina was just 19 days old when her parents took her to Harlem Hospital in the middle of the night with a high fever. Joy White and Carl Tyson said a woman who looked like a nurse had comforted them. The couple left the hospital to rest, but their baby was missing when they went back. No suspects were identified.
Pettway remained in custody Sunday and couldn't be reached for comment. She was to appear in federal court in New York on Monday to face kidnapping charges, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Ann Pettway surrendered Sunday morning to the FBI and Bridgeport police on a warrant from North Carolina, where she's on probation because of a conviction for attempted embezlement, FBI supervisory special agent William Reiner said. She turned herself in days after a widely publicized reunion between the child she raised, now an adult, and her biological mother.
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Members of her biological family didn't return telephone messages seeking comment Sunday.
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White and Nance met in New York before DNA tests were complete, confident they were mother and daughter. After the test results confirmed it Wednesday, Nance returned from Atlanta to be with White again.
HARTFORD, Conn. — A North Carolina woman who raised a child stolen 23 years ago from a New York hospital surrendered to authorities on a probation violation charge Sunday, and she was to appear in federal court to face kidnapping charges, the U.S. attorney's office said.
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She periodically checked the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and while looking through New York photos early this month found one that looked nearly identical to her own baby picture. She contacted Joy White through the center.
living under the name Neidra Nance in Connecticut and in the Atlanta area. She said she had long suspected Pettway wasn't her biological mother because she could never provide her with a birth certificate and because she didn't look like anyone else in Pettway's family.
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Authorities had been considering whether federal investigators would take the case because the statute of limitations may have expired in New York, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said earlier in the week. There is no limitation in federal missing-children cases.
Carlina is now 23 and has been
A woman who lives near Pettway in North Carolina, Sonova Smith, said Pettway mentioned that she had a daughter in Connecticut but had moved to Raleigh with her son. Smith and Pettway both had teenage sons who would often play together, and Smith said her neighbor seemed to be a good mother.
Even thought Lantz's office calendar is booked and full of wedding dates, he said that most income still comes from Thursday and Friday dance nights at the club.
"Of course, we aren't doing as well as when we first opened," Lantz said, "but that's not unusual."
"She was friendly. She was kind, She loved her son," Smith said. "We talked about our boys often. She talked about family. So, it's just really been surprising."
It's About Time, 816 Massachusetts St., is also closing, but not because of financial woes. Kelvin Schartz, part owner and main artist plans to move to Panama. Kathryn Schartz, partner owner is a full-time nurse at Children's Mercy Hospital and does not wish to carry the business load by herself.
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While businesses close because of the insufficient income, it is not the case for all businesses. Streets still littered with 'for sale' signs reiterate a continuing trend of the past few years: Businesses face challenges. Abe and Jakes and Its About Time are examples of businesses that, although they aren't forced to close, choose to do so to pursue new business endeavors.
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