Skip to content
Reading time: 2 minutes
UH West Oʻahu CFA Institute Research Challenge team with UH West Oʻahu Chancellor Rockne Freitas.

University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu business administration students placed in two national student competitions–the Association of Government Accountants’ Finance Case Challenge and the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Research Challenge.

Association of Government Accountants’ Finance Case Challenge

UH West Oʻahu students Shena Bocalbos, Ryoko Lung and Mamina Tahara took home the national championship in the 2013-2014 Association of Government Accountants’ Finance Case Challenge competition in January. The UH West Oʻahu team competed against undergraduate students from across the United States, completing a written facilitative analysis of a municipality, and producing an oral presentation video of their findings.

Bocalbos, Lung and Tahara analyzed the City of Garland, Texas’ capabilities for attracting companies, individual residents and the investment community. The report includes demographic data, population growth, economic base industry, recreational, educational and cultural attraction information for the municipality as determined by the UH West Oʻahu student team.

UHWO students winning at the national level highlights the strength of our business and accounting programs,” said UH West Oʻahu student team faculty advisor and Associate Professor Franklin Kudo. “I congratulate Shena Bocalbos, Ryoko Lung and Mamina Tahara on their exceptional performance.”

Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Research Challenge

UH West Oʻahu’s Ke Lu Zhang, Timothy Marks, Ross Uehara Tilton, Adrianna DeMello and Daniel Gabriel took home the second place prize in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge Hawaiʻi regional competition. This rigorous global competition involves more than 1,400 universities from around the world and provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. UH West Oʻahu’s team finished a close second in the Hawaiʻi regional competition with their project on Hawaiian Airlines. The team placed first in the oral competition on February 7.

As part of the CFA Institute Research Challenge, the student teams are comprised of five full-time undergraduate and graduate students who each put in an estimated 150 hours of work to complete a written analysis and valuation of a publicly traded company with projects presented in an oral competition. Winners from the regional competition go on to compete in the national competition in Denver, Colorado.

UH West Oʻahu was well represented and our team gave a very strong performance on behalf of the university,” said UH West Oʻahu student team faculty advisor and Instructor Mark Weisbrod. “Congratulations to the team for their excellent work and dedication.”

A UH West Oʻahu news release

Back To Top