Three University of Central Arkansas graduate students fared well in a recent case study competition at the recent Southern Association of College Student Affairs (SACSA) conference in South Carolina.
SACSA is a regional professional organization for individuals engaged in college student affairs work and has members from 15 southern states and the District of Columbia.
At this year’s conference, Amanda Doyle, Danny Glassman and Marianne Price, students in UCA’s master’s degree program for college student personnel services and administration, formed a team and came away with a third place finish.
Doyle called the competition a challenging learning experience. ?Although challenging, it was incredibly fun, partly because I had such an amazing team. I felt I learned so much that will help me as I enter into the student affairs profession.”
Price added, “I was proud of our team as first-year graduate students. The competition required us to use theory we’d never used. We were faced with this challenge and took it head on.”
The team competed against 13 teams representing 12 institutions (Wingate University, Western Kentucky University, University of Arkansas, Costal Carolina University, University of North Alabama, Appalachian State University, University of Louisville, University of Georgia, University of South Carolina, Clemson, and Florida State University). Both master’s degree and doctoral students participated in the competition.
“The students were not given the case study until arriving at the conference,” said Dr. John W. Smith, the College Student Personnel Services & Administration program coordinator. “They had a short period of time to do all of their research and develop their response. I am very proud of the students and they did an outstanding job representing the University of Central Arkansas.”
Glassmann said, “I found the opportunity very rewarding. It was great being recognized at my first SACSA conference for my group’s team work. We spent about five hours working on the case study the night before and another hour rehearsing before the competition. We even missed the celebration that night because of how much work we were putting into our case study. From researching to discussing our own views on the case, it was incredibly exhilarating to be a part of a team that worked so well together.”