College of Business students Christina Bell, Evan Gore, Michael Mowduk, Sophia Ode & Krishna Patel teamed up to win the 2025 Great Capstone Case Competition on Friday, and thanks to sponsor Royal Caribbean Group, each team member took home $200 in scholarship funding. The Great Capstone Case Competition is typically the final course before graduation where students present inventive proposals for modern, real-world business issues as part of their final coursework in the college.
The Capstone course provides the opportunity for students to collaborate and further develop their analytical, communication and teamwork skills. The finals’ judges included Royal Caribbean Group’s Vice President of Digital Product Heather Bishop, Director of Technical Accounting Jesse Gonzalez Sr., Director of Finance Marina Armani Haider and VP Assistant Controller David Vidal, as well as the college’s Finance Executive in Residence Paul Gregg.
“The most satisfying teaching outcome for me is to see our incredibly talented students take what they’ve learned in an academic setting and apply it in a business setting,” said Christopher Leo, associate lecturer of the Strategic Management course. “We go from academic theories and frameworks straight to a Fortune 500 company’s boardroom.”
Ocean’s Five (Olivia Caperton, Kylie Doherty, Sebastian Hernandez, Kavia Lazard & Madeline Lucyshyn) finished second, earning $150 each. And perhaps the best team name in the competition, Ship Happens (Ken Harris, Christina Jimenez, Mia Mitchell, Mayumi Porto & Colton Root) finished third, with each student taking home $100.
Leo presented the winning team’s lab instructor, Jade Laderwarg, Ed.D., with the Nichols Cup, named in honor of longtime Capstone instructor Gary Nichols ’87. The winning lab instructor keeps the trophy until the next competition.