Undergrads Excel at Milgard Event

PROVO, Utah – Mar 31, 2016 – More than 45 years ago, the Jackson 5 taught the world “it’s easy as one, two, three.” Last month a team of Brigham Young University students shared the same idea — to a regional insurance company.

But while Michael Jackson sang about love, the BYU group shared the catchy phrase in regards to corporate social responsibility and a second place finish at the Milgard Social Responsibility Case Competition in Tacoma, Wash.

“We tried to make our proposal really simple,” says Margaret Melville, a senior strategy major from Centerville, Ohio. “We felt like when a company has a CSR strategy that’s really complicated, it’s hard to really connect with it because you can’t even remember it. So we said ours was as simple as one, two, three.”

The numbers corresponded to three initiatives the students proposed: allowing employees to use one percent of their paid time annually to volunteer service, two percent of company profits donated to environmental issues and three percent of their services used toward insuring the underprivileged at a discounted rate.

Handpicked by Romney Institute of Public Management faculty to participate against schools from across the country, the group of four students was tasked with devising a corporate social responsibility program for PEMCO and presenting it to a panel of executives. 

“The team did an excellent job,” says Darin Gates, adjunct faculty and team adviser. “They worked very hard to come up with a well-thought-out, compelling, and creative corporate social responsibility plan in the limited time they were given. They worked very well as a team and their delivery was beautifully done.”

Each student collected $500 for placing second. Team members included Melville, Thomas Stone, a senior economics major from Greenwood Village, Colo.; Jared Tate, a senior strategy major from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.; Miguel Viramontes, a junior entrepreneurship major from Fresno, Calif.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.