For the second straight year, Coastal Carolina University's chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Management (SAM) was awarded first place honors for medium size chapters in the Campus Chapter Performance Program at the SAM annual international conference held recently in Las Vegas.

In the Student Case Competition open division, the team of Jennifer Adkins, a senior from Myrtle Beach, and Kellyann Sacks, a senior from Myrtle Beach, took second-place honors. Heidi Stepzinski, a senior accounting major from Raleigh, N.C., Ron Rosania, a junior from Myrtle Beach; and Henry Vigfusson, a senior from Reykjavik, Iceland, also earned high marks in the case undergraduate division. A total of 28 teams competed in the case competition across two undergraduate divisions and one open division. The students analyzed the strategic performance of Harrah's Entertainment, a Las Vegas company, in 2000 and made recommendations for future strategic planning.

Stepzinski was one of three student representatives elected to serve on the SAM International Board of Directors.

Coastal students presented with Regional Outstanding Student Awards were Adkins; Tim Murphy, a senior from Columbus, Ohio; and Jason Wooley, a junior from Myrtle Beach. Adkins was also one of only 15 students chosen as an Outstanding National Student Award winner.

SAM Club adviser Darla Domke-Damonte, assistant professor of management at Coastal, received an Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award. Coastal's chapter of SAM was chartered in 1998, and has grown from 13 members in 1998 to more than 40 in 2001. The organization's goals this past year were to focus on professional development of its student members.

The mission of SAM is to provide an opportunity for the members to increase management skills and expertise through participation in programs and services designed to improve the professional quality of their knowledge, performance, and leadership ability.

For more information, contact Domke-Damonte at 349-2129.