Two Cal State Fullerton students were quarter finalists at the 9th Annual Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering Case Competition held on Feb. 23-25, a record for Titan achievement in this annual event that features teams of undergraduate students presenting on ethics in the workplace. The CSUF team, which included accounting junior Clint Cox and computer science major Fiona Keaney, ranked fifth among 72 universities, besting teams from UC Berkeley, Duke University, Iowa State and last year’s champion Texas A&M.
“I am very proud of our students’ achievements. The facts speak for themselves — our students are as good as best among business and engineering undergrads in the nation,” said James Gong, professor of accounting. “The impact on these students was two-fold: They received recognition for their talent and efforts and networked with the best students in the country.”
Cox explained that representing Cal State Fullerton empowered him with a sense of purpose. As an accounting major, his inclusion in this engineering competition was emblematic of the cross-collegiate collaboration that the College of Business and Economics is undertaking with its peers at CSUF.
The ability to provide advice when the correct answer is subjective is among the skills Cox gained by competing. He hopes to put this into practice in the future, where he seeks to work at a Big Four accounting firm specializing in the consumer products or sports industry.
“Now I have more experience providing solutions when there is no 100% right answer. This is a great skill to have after college because I will need to come up with ideas and plans for the future, when the future is unknown,” said Cox. “It was also fun working in teams with members of various expertise. I will be doing this a lot in the future, and I enjoyed utilizing each teammate’s strength to win.”
The public speaking and business classes were most important in preparing Cox, who also points to Gong’s prior experience supervising students in this competition as essential for success.
The School of Accountancy at Cal State Fullerton’s College of Business and Economics holds the distinction as the only business college accredited specifically in accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. For more information, read more articles on accounting.