John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation

COBI’S PI SIGMA EPSILON CHAPTER EXCELS IN NATIONAL COMPETITIONS

Originally planned to occur in Norfolk, VA, the annual Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE) National Convention and its accompanying competitions had to adjust their formats and transition to an online offering due to the ongoing global pandemic.

However, this did not deter the UToledo College of Business and Innovation’s chapter to find great success.

The College of Business and Innovation’s Pi Sigma Epsilon’s official results were:

Typically a week long, the convention was initially intended to occur in Virginia the week of March 30^th, culminating in an awards banquet on Saturday, April 4^th. The newly formatted "virtual" convention was a challenging curveball to adjust to for the 58 chapters involved.

The team from the College of Business and Innovation’s Edward H. Schmidt School of Professional Sales typically begins planning the teams and logistics of their National Convention trip starting in early February. Finding out that it turned virtual in mid-March required some quick thinking and adapting by faculty advisors and student participants. They were tasked with figuring out a way to compete in these competitions from home, keep morale high and keep engagement up.

Students competed in various competitions that were both individual and at the chapter (team) level. Each student team consisted of an upperclassman student leader with prior nationals experience and 4-5 additional team members.

The Pro-Am within the National Convention was a unique competition, as it is the nation’s only yearlong sales competition. This means that a student’s score from both the regional convention and national convention are combined to award a "Yearlong Winner.” The workload and dedication to excellence displayed by the student participants was immense, as UToledo’s Jordan Fannin was awarded 4^th place, while COBI’s Pi Sigma Epsilon President, Hanna Capell, was awarded 5^th place.

“Our University of Toledo chapter, Epsilon Delta, consistently ranks amongst the top chapters nationwide, and this was one of the best award years we have ever had. Never before have we had this many team awards, individual awards and scholarship winners,” said Capell. “Our team leaders really demonstrated strong leadership and mentoring this year, and I'm so happy that their hard work paid off during awards night.”

Other competitions within the convention were designed to showcase what each chapter was able to do throughout the year and highlight the leadership structures in place at the chapter level.

To compete in a given competition, students normally have to (1) submit a written report before the competition about that particular activity, (2) present to a panel of judges at the competition and (3) answer questions from the judge panel after their presentation.

This year, the in-person convention was not formally canceled until after the written submission was turned in, so that portion of the process remained the same. However, the presentation format was changed such that each chapter recorded their presentation and submitted it with no questions from judges.