SDSUs Society for Human Resource Management Wins Statewide Competition

A team of students from the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University was declared the winner in the 2022 spring Student Case Competition hosted by the California State Council of the Society of Human Resource Management (CalSHRM) on March 11 - 12. The students are members of SDSU’s SHRM chapter and the team was under the guidance of their faculty advisor and Fowler management professor, Michelle Dean. 

From left: Vaishnavi Sridhar, Jordan Reyes, Hannah McGaughey and faculty advisor, Michelle Dean.

“I had an interview a couple days after the event where we spent 10 minutes talking about Case Competition and what I learned and did. It really helps because we are applying material we learned in class to actual cases.”

-Vaishnavi Sridhar, SDSU SHRM Chapter Secretary

Each of the ten teams competing in the competition consisted of undergraduate students from SHRM chapters at universities throughout California, including California State University at Long Beach, the host of this year’s event. 

Team members Jordan Reyes, Vaishnavi Sridhar, Hannah McGaughey, and Ayah Bayasi received the case on March 4, reviewed it, and submitted their executive summary with slides to the judging panel on March 10. The team presented their case to a panel of human resources professionals twice during the event where they were asked about their analysis of the issues and solutions to the case. 

“The case dealt with a fictional organization facing numerous human resources issues,” said Dean. “The team had been working on practice cases under my direction since November and they were able to overcome a major hurdle when one of their team members experienced a serious medical emergency the day before the competition. I am so proud of the way they were able to pivot, pull the case together and win the competition in spite of this unexpected challenge.” 

Reyes, the team captain and president of SDSU’s SHRM chapter, echoed Dean’s sentiment. “We were able to draw on our experiences from the past couple years' to pivot and succeed despite the setback, she said. “The experience was one I’ll never forget and will be a standout experience of my SDSU journey.”