Eleven students received awards from auditing firm Wolf & Company, P.C. as part of a new case writing competition at Stonehill. The cash prizes were presented at a ceremony and celebratory dinner on May 1 in Donahue Hall.

The Wolf & Company Case Writing Competition was incorporated as part of the curriculum for BA417 Auditing, a Business Administration course for junior and senior accounting majors. This was the first year of a four-year grant, and a total of 20 students participated in the innovative writing challenge.

“The first year of the event was a huge success,” noted Michelle Spriggs, instructor for the Auditing class. “The students took the project very seriously and put a lot of work into their papers and their presentations.

“They held up under pressure as they stated their company’s case in front of their fellow students, business faculty members, and Wolf & Company executives and staff,” said Spriggs.

• First Place: $1,000; Ryan Berube ’08, Amanda Carnevale ’08 and Colleen O'Connor ’08 for writing an auditing case featuring Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. of Winston-Salem, North Carolina
   
• Second Place: $500; Joseph Tashash ’08 and Paul Collins ’08 for writing an auditing case featuring global pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb.
   
• Third Place: $250; Lauren Perkins ’08 and Kevin O'Brien ’08 for writing an auditing case featuring McAfee, a world leader in antivirus, firewall, and Internet security software.
   
• First Honorable Mention: $150; Justin Shepard ’08 and Patrick McCusker ’08 for writing an auditing case featuring Qwest Communications, a leading provider of voice, video, and data services.
   
• Second Honorable Mention: $100; Joshua Gracia ’08 and Michael Cronin ’08 for writing an auditing case featuring Dell, the number one computer systems provider in the U.S.

“We look forward to the next three years of working with Wolf & Company under this grant and the many more cases to come,” said Spriggs.

“The case writing competition is just one example of Stonehill’s commitment to offer a progressive program that prepares students for the business world,” noted Debra Salvucci, chairperson of the Business Administration program.

Daniel DeVasto, C.P.A. ’70, a member of Stonehill's Board of Trustees, attended the dinner and presented the awards. DeVasto, president and chief executive officer of Wolf & Company, P.C., was instrumental in facilitating the grant.

“We are very grateful to Dan DeVasto and Wolf & Co. for their support of our accounting program,” said Salvucci.

05/09/08