Gabelli Is Giving the Sophomores $100,000,000!

In the fall, the other Gabelli sophomores and myself took a series of classes in cohorts. This means that the entire sophomore class was split up into groups of about thirty students who took all of their business classes together. These classes included Marketing, Financial Accounting, Strategy I, Management I, Information Systems I, and Business Communications I. This spring, we are taking the second part of many of these classes. 

My schedule for the Spring semester

For the Integrated Project, the students were then further divided into teams within their cohorts. Each cohort had six teams of five to six students each. Each team was then assigned a company to research throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, each team presented a business plan that they came up with themselves to their company. In March, the six best teams will be competing for first place in the competition with a prize of $1,000! 

Unfortunately, my team did not make it to the final round (even though we had an awesome idea for Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.), but that's okay because with the new semester comes the next Integrated Project! 
 
So, what is this semester's big project?

Like last semester, the sophomores are once again in teams of five or six students within their cohorts. However, each team has been given $100,000,000 (unfortunately, it's not real money) to invest in the stock market. Throughout the semester, each team will be faced with a series of investment decisions, which will involve researching a group of six companies within an industry. After researching the various companies, each team will have to choose which company they will choose to invest in. However, other than having to make these specific choices, the teams are free to invest in any companies they choose, and they may buy and sell as they please.

This project ties in well with a new course that the sophomores are taking this semester. While most of our classes this semester are simply the second part of the Fall semester's courses (i.e. We are taking Management II this semester, but took Management I last semester), the sophomores are taking our first Finance class. Therefore, we will be applying what we learn in Financial Management to our Integrated Project for this semester. Hopefully my team this semester will have better luck than my last team!

My textbooks for this semester!