HAMMOND – Continuing a trend of national recognition for its finance program, 鶹Ƶ had a team of five students recently place third in the Conference of State Bank Supervisors competition of real-world banking studies.
The project involved intense study and research, including dozens of interviews of executives and policy-makers in the banking industry. 鶹Ƶ’s project addressed the bank failures of 2023 and analyzed their partner bank’s financial resilience and social media strategy.
The 鶹Ƶ team was led by Finance Professor Danielle Lewis. Team members included Blake Eiermann of Madisonville, Putheara Sok of Hammond, Gabriela Santana Ziebarth of Pearl River, Tu Nguyen of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and DiJon Smith of Marrero.
The students worked directly with b1BANK for the project and had the opportunity to film a video with Drew Brees. After the final results, Brees surprised the finance team with a congratulatory video of his own.
“I would like to thank b1Bank executives, the Louisiana Bankers’ Association, and the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions,” Lewis said. “b1Bank was an exceptional partner that went beyond my expectations to facilitate our team’s project. This year’s CSBS team could not have performed any better.”
Each competing team’s work is judged in three rounds by reviewers from both federal and state bank regulators. Judges come from the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, as well as state regulators from around the country.
鶹Ƶ’s team finished third from a pool of 27 teams from various universities across the country through three rounds of judging by banking professionals. The 鶹Ƶ team bested teams from Arkansas State University, James Madison University, Mercer University, Mississippi State University and University of Maryland.
Lewis described the exercise as an excellent learning experience for the students with real-world applications. The work was well beyond something most students would experience in a typical classroom setting, she added.
“After competing in the CSBS case study, many students have gone on to work for their partner banks as well as federal and state bank regulators,” said Lewis. “Some have obtained graduate degrees in statistics, data analytics and finance. A 2017 CSBS team alum, Paul Obermann, went on to earn a PhD in Finance and is a professor at Idaho State University. As a PhD student, CSBS gave him a Young Scholar Award for his research in community banks.”
Each member of 鶹Ƶ’s team will receive a $500 CSBS scholarship, and their work will be published in the “Journal of Community Bank Case Studies.”
YOU CAN BANK ON IT – 鶹Ƶ had a team of five students recently place third in the Conference of State Bank Supervisors competition of real-world banking studies. From left are team members Putheara Sok, DiJon Smith, Blake Eiermann, Tu Nguyen, and Gabriella Santana Ziebarth.
