Achievements and News

Collegiate DECA is back and bigger than ever at Michigan Tech! An inspiring group of impassioned students active in the business organization during high school led the mission to reinvigorate DECA on campus. Points of pride from their first year include six students competing and placing at the state competition in Kalamazoo and four students competing in the national conference in Baltimore, with two earning a top-10 placement.

First place $500—Madison Mattila (accounting major with data analytics concentration)

“I really enjoyed the competition! It was fun to compete against classmates. It also was valuable to spend time watching the market and using the simulator. I’ve been working on a strategy for a while, which I’ve yet to perfect, so I don’t want to share too much about it right now."

Second place $300—James Zuzelski (economics minor)

“This was an amazing experience. It motivated me to try new things. My strategy was to capitalize on medium- to high-risk stocks that were trending due to current and near-future geopolitical factors. Due to the short time frame I went with a high-risk, low-diversity, individual stock portfolio.”

Third place $200—Bill Rautiola (finance major)

“I consider myself an experienced trader, having done a fair amount of trading on my own. My strategy for this game was to invest in energy sectors, including oil. I also placed a couple option trades.”

Xin Li is Teacher of the Year

During his first year as assistant professor of finance in the College of Business, Xin Li was named by students as the COB Teacher of the Year. Li supports students as advisor to the Finance Club, in addition to instructing Principles of Finance; Advanced Financial Management; and Risk Management and FinTech. More than 80 COB students submitted instruction evaluation responses. Here are a few of their praises about Li: “It is a special experience to be in a class with a professor who clearly loves what they are doing.” “Dr. Li asks us to bring in outside opinions, so we can diversify our abilities.” “FIN 3000 is not easy, but Dr. Li helps students understand difficult concepts to really excel.” “He has a very logical way of teaching material and it has helped the content click for me.” “Dr. Li expressed his confidence in me ahead of the final exam.”

Computing[MTU] Showcase

Mari Buche, College of Business associate dean and MIS faculty, shared her expertise during the Women in IT panel discussion as part of the first-ever Computing Showcase on campus. Her advice to women in the field? “Hold the mic a little longer. Make eye contact and make sure that your voice is connected with the idea.” 

Mickus Endowed Faculty Fellow

Sonia Goltz, professor of organizational behavior in the College of Business, is the inaugural Mickus Faculty Fellow. The fellowship was created through an estate gift from Albert J. and Rosella J. Mickus to attract, reward, and retain highly talented faculty in the area of societal impact as it relates to business. Goltz is a co-principal investigator of Michigan Tech’s ADVANCE grant, which promotes faculty career development and gender equity in STEM. She was a recipient of Michigan Tech’s Diversity Award in 2021 and was an active advocate, based on research data, in creating Michigan Tech’s Diversity Literacy Program. Goltz also serves on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Sense of Belonging (DEIS) Positive Action Team. For Goltz, the designation will help deepen her scholarly work on defining coercion and freedom within psychology and business, continuing to impact the field of behavior analysis. The funding will also be directed to campus initiatives that promote business skill development and those that support efforts at Michigan Tech, specifically those that directly benefit student development activities, organizations, and internships.

First place Social Mission—$10,000
Bayle Golden, master’s in engineering management student, created SafeROW, an innovative wearable device designed to keep children safe when every second counts.

First place Two-Minute Pitch—$4,000
Construction management student Jakob Christiansen presented ProBoard, an e-commerce platform to solve issues in the construction material supply chain.

Third place High Tech High Growth—$2,000
Management information systems student Jordan Craven pitched Tall and Small Designs, a  technology company that provides software to online clothing retailers.

Summer Internship Highlights, Marketing Student Edition

Jaylen Body, Cedar Point
As a Cedar Point Workforce Management intern, Body was responsible for ensuring adequate staffing at park locations. The management and marketing dual major from Warren, Michigan, generated the workforce schedules in accordance with staff availability and the labor needs of the Ohio-based park. He says the most rewarding aspect of his role was working with fellow managers to resolve issues and help execute schedules that incentivized associates so that they continued their season. 

Summer Youth Programs—Explorations in Business

This past summer, 20 middle and high school students attended Summer Youth Programs (SYP) led by COB faculty, staff, and alumnus Dan Green. Middle school students explored how to “Be Your Own Boss” through team sales, marketing, budgeting, design thinking, and developing an elevator pitch, while high schoolers participated in trading exercises and created their own portfolios during the exploration “Stock Market with Blizzard: Turn $1,000 into $1 Million!” Discover more and sign up: mtu.edu/syp

Acts of service are a natural fit for our Huskies.

Management major Anna Nault spent the afternoon with an Alaskan Malamute residing at the Copper Country Humane Society.

Maggie Zimmermann and Calli Daavettila, REL Inc.

With support from their faculty mentor, Junhong Min, associate professor of marketing, Tech business students Zimmermann and Daavettila, who both call Metro Detroit home, landed summer jobs with high-tech equipment manufacturer REL Inc. Based in Calumet, Michigan, the output of REL’s work can be found in manufacturing facilities across the globe. For more than 25 years, REL has been the OEM of choice for the manufacturing needs of industries— from small machine shops to leading-edge aerospace project deployments.

During their internship, the Huskies integrated a geolocation application into an existing
database. The application serves as a pivotal tool used in REL’s business travel and introduced the interns to the layered complexities of user-interface design (UI). In addition, they identified, researched, and recorded future sales opportunities. Zimmermann says, “I loved being able to apply everything I’ve learned from Michigan Tech in database management and market research. I love data management and structures and seeing my classes come to life on the job has been extraordinary!” Daavettila adds that she benefited from hands-on experience using effective research methods, transforming data into organized visuals, and communicating with her colleagues. 

Ryan Stafford, Superior National Bank

Stafford, a marketing major, transitioned to a full-time internship at Superior National Bank based in Hancock, Michigan, over the summer. He was responsible for their newsletter and many other event communications. Understanding the brand and infusing it through all customer-facing touch-points was a cornerstone of the role. From Minneapolis, Minnesota, Stafford feels he gained valuable insight into what’s required for impactful marketing and communications, saying, “This internship experience has been extremely beneficial to my professional development.