Smith Honors Best and Brightest Undergrads

Seventeen years ago, the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business began hosting an Undergraduate Senior Awards Dinner to recognize a select group of students. They are the students, says Victor Mullins, associate dean of Undergraduate Studies, who have “successfully navigated the Smith Journey and who have inspired and positively impacted everyone here at the Smith School.”

The 2017 event took place on May 4.

“It's great to play a role in this celebration of the Smith Community,” Mullins told the group. Mullins presided over the event, along with Perveen Gulati, a Smith School sophomore, a College Park Business Scholar, Smith Fellow, and a Program Ambassador. Rebecca Ratner, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and professor in Marketing was also on hand to recognize the hard work of the students.

Also in attendance were members of the undergraduate program staff, including Assistant Dean Brian Horick, Emily Heavin, Evan Riddle, Ebony Fullwood, Kristin LaRiviere, Tori Shay and Claudia Donnelly.

Outstanding Senior Awards

The Outstanding Senior Awards celebrate the top student in each major, as chosen by the faculty.

Eugene Cantor, associate clinical professor of Accounting, announced the awards for that department.

“The Outstanding Senior receiving the Accounting Award is a double major in Accounting and Information Systems,” he said, “and I am proud to recognize this student, who excels in both academic areas. During his time at Smith, he has maintained a nearly perfect GPA while giving back to his colleagues as a teaching assistant for Accounting and for the Gemstone Honors Program. He has served as President of the Gemstone Student Council and as a researcher and financial liaison for one of the Gemstone teams.”

The student, Brian Frey, did a summer internship last year with KPMG in Washington, D.C., and was invited to return to the firm after graduation to join its federal audit practice.

Julie Pavlovsky, lecturer in the Department of Finance and the Faculty Champion for the Junior Wall Street Fellows Program, announced the Outstanding Senior in Finance Award. The award, she said, goes to Andrew Murosko, a Maryland senior double majoring in Finance and Economics.

“He has been in three of our 15 Smith Fellows programs,” she said. “I thoroughly enjoyed having him in my Junior Wall Street Fellows program last year, but he was also in the Banking & Private Wealth Management Fellows and is currently one of only 12 students chosen to manage over half a million dollars in the highly-selective Lemma Senbet Fund.

“He has served in leadership roles with Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, led a team in a Master of Finance Stock Pitch Case Competition and... that's just what he's accomplished here on campus. Summer internships with several leading financial institutions helped him secure a post-graduation offer as a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley in Baltimore.”

Hassan Ibrahim, clinical professor in the Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies, presented the award for that department to Maryland student Amy Liang.

Liang “is not new to receiving honors,” Ibrahim said. “She was awarded a Top 10 Freshman Award in 2014 and has been on several winning Case Competition teams. She began here at UM with a full Banneker/Key Scholarship -- an all-inclusive four-year merit scholarship awarded to the top 1 percent of incoming freshmen and she has continued to make all of us proud.

Liang will leave the UMD with a double degree in Operations Management and Information Systems, with a minor in Chinese. She spent a semester studying at the Copenhagen Business School and a summer interning with PwC in Sydney, Australia.

“This impressive young woman is a member of Quest, is a Presiding Officer of the University Student Judiciary, was a consulting team leader for ChangeTheWorld.org, and has been inducted into the Honors Society of Omicron Delta Kappa,” Ibrahim said. “Obviously not eager to remain for too long in her hometown of Gaithersburg, Maryland, PwC 's San Francisco office has invited her to return as a Commercial Management Consultant.”

Next, a student who was selected by two academic departments was honored.

“We actually did suggest to both departments that one of them might want to select another candidate - so we could spread the joy - but both said this student was far and away the most deserving,” Mullins said, introducing Department of Management lecturer Patricia Cleveland to present the award.

“The award for Management goes to an Outstanding Senior whose resume can barely contain all this woman has accomplished,” Cleveland said. “She will earn degrees in Management and Supply Chain Management with a minor in Sustainability Studies.

The student, Allison Leap, has been the Chair for the Business Honors Council, is an Innova Scholars Consulting Teaching Assistant, has served on the Dean's Student Advisory Council, is a Supply Chain Management Fellow and has helped her team during a "Consult Your Community" project. “She even found time to study business in Australia during winter break in 2015,” Cleveland said. “She has shone here at Smith and we know she will continue to make us proud.”

Professor Jeff Miller then gave Leap the award for Outstanding Senior in Supply Chain Management. “I'll tell you a bit about her already­ impressive professional resume. She has analyzed management and financial documents for the Naval Air Warfare Center in Patuxent River and for Lockheed Martin in Rockville. Following her internship with Unilever in Connecticut last summer, it is not surprising that it has selected her for their Future Leaders Program focused on Supply Chain Management starting in July.”

Miller then presented the award for the Outstanding Senior in International Business to Christy Rettig, who is double-majoring in Supply Chain Management and International Business. Rettig has interned with Chick-fil-A for the past two summers in Atlanta, Georgia. She has a near-perfect GPA, and also interned in UMD's Student Office of Legal Aid. After graduation, she will begin work as a consultant with Deloitte in McLean, Virginia as a Strategy & Operations Business Analyst.

Mary Harms, associate clinical professor of Marketing and a Faculty Champion for the Strategic Design & Innovation Fellows Program, presented the award for Outstanding Senior in Marketing to Dana D'Aquila.

She has excelled academically, and “has made giving back to her community a priority,” Harms said. D'Aquila has been a Team Leader with America Reads, America Counts, a research intern for Habitat for Humanity's Restore and has lent her creative talents to terpAMA's RedBlack Consulting.

She is a double major in Marketing and Information Systems with a minor in Business Analytics. After graduation she will go to work at Central Atlantic Toyota in Baltimore.
Michael Fu, professor and chair of the Operations, Management and Business Analytics Department, presented the final senior award to Robert Crumbaugh, the outstanding senior in that department.

“This is an unusual student indeed,” Fu said. “He is an excellent student, a double major in Finance and Operations Management & Business Analytics, a member of Quest AND he has received an UM Honors Citation in Advanced CyberSecurity Experience for Students-also known as ACES. This Citation goes along with his Federal Security Clearance - specifically titled: ‘Top Secret Special Compartmented Information with Lifestyle Polygraph’ clearance. No wonder this Montgomery County native will go to work after graduation with Deloitte Cyber Risk Advisory in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

“This young man came to UM as an Eagle Scout with a Banneker Key Full Merit Scholarship and continued to do great things. He served on the Dean's Student Advisory Council, as an Academic Achievement Program Tutor, as a business analyst with Consult Your Community and, spent a year studying abroad at the Cass Business School in London.”

The final student award of the night, the Dean’s Leadership Award, goes to a student who displays the hard work and dedication of an outstanding leader, demonstrates initiative by holding leadership positions and sets a good example for other students. There were several nominees for the award. They were Suhayla Ahmed, Nathan Case, Mohammad Gir, Benjamin Hawtof, Jessica Lewis, Camila Macedo, Gopal Srinivasan and Blake Sha, and the award recipient Mimi Verdonk.

“There are very few students who have graduated from Smith with as impressive of a resume and the diversity of global experience as Mimi Verdonk,” said Ratner, who presented the award.

“Mimi was selected as an incoming freshman to receive a Banneker/Key full scholarship and has more than lived up to the hopes and expectations associated with it.

Verdonk will earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Arabic this spring. “She has already represented the Smith School in wonderful and impressive ways both here in the United States and around the world,” Ratner said, “earning a Certificate of Management at the Harvard Business School, being selected for an externship with Google in Mountain View, California and serving as an intern with the American Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and with the African Export-Import Bank, also in Cairo.”

Verdonk was President of the Smith Undergraduate Student Association and served on the Dean's Student Advisory Council. She has been a financial literacy mentor, a teaching assistant for introductory business classes and an Honors Ambassador.

She spent last summer as an intern McKinsey and Co., in Cleveland. After graduation she will go to work for McKinsey as a business analyst.