High school students compete in ethics bowl at Winthrop
Jennifer Mothersbaugh
Issue date: 4/4/07 Section: News
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This is one of the questions area high school students answered when teams competed in the second annual York County Ethics Bowl last Friday, March 30, in Withers.
The College of Business Administration, Students in Free Enterprise and Dr. Keith Benson sponsored the event. The 21 students in Benson's Management 428 class put the event together and invited several York County high schools to get involved. Benson said his class did a great job in making the event a success.
"I am responsible for theory. The class is responsible for delivery," Benson said.
He said the class does several in-class exercises such as videos and word games to prepare for the event. Benson's class works directly with the high school students.
One of Benson's students, Richard Tyner, kept busy Friday by taking photos and helping with the projector as high school students presented their PowerPoint slides.
"Dr. Benson is one of the best professors in the business department," Tyner said. "He makes the class a lot of fun."
There were four schools in attendance, including South Pointe High School, which competed for the first time Friday. South Pointe's Eric Hammond said his class had prepared long and hard for Friday's event. One of Hammond's 10th-grade students, John Waggoner, said the event required lots of research.
The high school students researched ethical issues in the corporate world, proposed solutions in dealing with the liability issue and presented their findings through PowerPoint. Cody Biggerstaff, one of the Management 428 students, said that it was good for the high school students to get a picture of today's business world.
"They are right on the explosion of business scandals like Enron," Biggerstaff said.
After students presented their findings and awaited the judges' results, Nate Barber, a local businessman, gave a speech about corporate responsibility. Barber, who works for South Carolina Bank and Trust, talked about doing the right thing in business and used Enron as an example.
"How does something that big disappear?" Barber said. "When you do it right, it really shows up, but when you do it wrong, it costs you in the long run."
When Barber talked about the banking business, he said that ethics is a must in order to build future customers.
When Barber concluded his speech, Benson announced the 2007 winner and for the second consecutive year Clover High School won the Weyerhaeuser Cup, which is sponsored by the Weyerhaeuser Corporation. Antwon Sutton, a former Winthrop student and business teacher at Clover High School, said he was proud of his team.
"I got a chance to see where student's ethics lie when they were faced with real world situations," Sutton said.
Three teams participated in 2006 and six competed in 2007. Benson said his goal is for the event to continue growing.
"I hope to see many more next year and hopefully I'll have some of you in my class someday," he said.
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