Murray State University students in the Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business excel on national level within the Kentucky Impact Broadcast Awards and the ERPsim North American competition

By Kaitlyn Black | Jul 28, 2021

Students in the College of Business continue to compete and succeed within various disciplines

MURRAY, Ky. —Murray State University students in the Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business continue to compete and succeed within various disciplines; most recently, the Kentucky Impact Broadcast Awards and the ERPsim North American competition. These are both national award competitions that students have engulfed themselves in.

The Kentucky Impact Broadcast Awards recognize Kentucky Broadcast Association members and their staffs for excellence. The competition has two divisions: professional and college. Entries came in news, features or sports categories. The college division recognizes excellence in collegiate broadcast journalism, including television, radio and digital. Eleven journalism students won awards in the college division of the 2021 Impact Broadcast Awards from the Kentucky Broadcasters Association.

Murray State winners included the following:

TV Division

Website (first place) - TheNews.org
Videographer (first place) - Piper Cassetto (Louisville, Kentucky)
Newscast (third place) - The College News, a show produced by students in JMC 398 Advanced Multimedia Reporting and the Murray State News 

Radio Division

Feature Story (first place) - Dalton York (Benton, Kentucky)
Feature Story (second place) - Hannah Bullard (Hopkinsville, Kentucky)
Public Affairs Story (second place) - Hannah Bullard
Public Affairs Story (third place) - Dalton York
News Story (first and second place) - Hannah Bullard
Best College Digital Journalist - Hannah Bullard
Best Radio Report - Dalton York

“WKMS provides opportunities for our students to further develop their skills, add compelling content to their portfolios and, increasingly, win competitions,” said Dr. Kevin Qualls, chairman of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. “And our students are doing just that.”

The WKMS students accounted for 40 percent of the awards in the college radio division. 

“WKMS is so grateful to partner with our Department of Journalism and Mass Communications throughout the year to aid in their education of the principles and ethics of journalism,” said Chad Lampe, station manager of WKMS. “We hope these students not only excel in their careers beyond WKMS and Murray State, but also with an appreciation of the importance of local journalism.”

Dr. Stephanie Anderson, adviser to the Murray State News during 2020-21, praised the News staff and her JMC 398 students for their work on the website and the online newscast.

“Our students made the newscast their own when we had to pivot to online instruction last spring,” she said. “I’m proud that their work on TheNews.org during the pandemic received such high honors.”

Murray State students have won the best college digital journalist honors for four consecutive years.

"Our student journalists worked hard during 2020 to continue to tell stories during a pandemic that disrupted their academic lives. These entries came from their hard work in student media and in our classes. We are thrilled that their outstanding work received statewide recognition,” said Leigh Wright,  associate professor of journalism and journalism curriculum coordinator.

Also, Murray State competed with eleven teams to finish fourth in the ERPsim North American business competition.  ERPsim is a business simulation game where participants use an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to manage their virtual company in a competitive market.

James Ambler from Calvert City, Kentucky, Eric McClain from Evansville, Indiana, William Sims from Owensboro, Kentucky, and James Webster from Clarksville, Tennessee indicated an interest in competing in this tournament at the end of the semester. Dr. Teresa Betts, associate professor of logistics and supply chain management in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Business Administration, agreed to coach them whenever they wanted to find time to practice. As an indication of the students' commitment and interest, they met for a minimum of an hour, four nights a week, to prepare for the competition. They moved from just understanding how Systems Applications and Products (SAP) works to creating dashboards that worked with live data coming from the SAP system so their team could be responsive to the changing business competition.

“Our students were competing against teams who had been in a course where they were working with this simulation for a full semester, as well as teams that had already competed in other ERPsim tournaments. Again, I just want to express how proud I am of the effort, energy, and positive attitude this team put forth. I think we learned a lot in the competition and it sounds like we already have some interest in engaging in the competition in March of 2022,” said Betts.

To learn more about the Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business visit murraystate.edu/business.