{"id":5419,"date":"2016-11-29T16:33:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T21:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5419"},"modified":"2016-11-30T09:12:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T14:12:39","slug":"elizabethtown-college-wins-consecutive-client-problem-solving-competitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2016\/11\/29\/elizabethtown-college-wins-consecutive-client-problem-solving-competitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College wins consecutive client problem-solving competitions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aacs-540x372\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The second weekend in October, a team of sociology students from Elizabethtown College took its second consecutive win at the Client Problem-Solving Competition at the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology in Denver, Colorado. The team, sponsored by associate professor of sociology Michele Lee Kozimor-King and mentored by Barbara Prince \u201912, triumphed over teams from Virginia Wesleyan College, University of Tampa, Midwestern State University, Oklahoma State University and a graduate program from the University of Northern Colorado.<\/p>\n

Philip Ebersole and Caitlin Lockard, both Class of 2017, who were members of the winning team from 2016, were joined by two newcomers to the competition, Irene Snyder \u201917 and Katie Thompson \u201918. This strategy, Kozimor-King said, places returning competitors in a position of leadership as they are able to help the current team avoid previous mistakes.<\/p>\n

The problem-solving competition is a research project to be completed in 48 hours. In order to create a level playing field, Kozimor-King said, the problem is not given to teams prior to their arrival at the competition. Each team conducts research to find a solution for the problem posed by the client, based in the literature. Upon completion, the team presents their findings to a panel. Their solution is judged upon several categories including its coverage of the question, integration of theory and methods, appropriateness of solutions, creativity, feasibility and the overall quality of the presentation.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s kind of amazing what, in 48 hours, a group of dedicated individuals can come up with.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This year\u2019s client was the African Community Center (ACC), a child organization of the Ethiopian Community Development Council. The ACC is a nonprofit organization, which helps to resettle refugees from various countries, but was encountering difficulty locating housing and landlords willing to help them.\u00a0 Because of stereotypes, Kozimor-King said, the landlords viewed refugee tenants as a risk. According to Kozimor-King, only one person from the ACC was working with the tenants and landlords for more than 500 refugee families.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was responsible for every single one of them, which\u2026is pretty insane because how do you keep up with 581 people?\u201d Thompson asked.<\/p>\n

Though this is a competition, the nonprofit client participates because they need help and are hoping to receive a usable solution.<\/p>\n

The goal of the E-town team, according to Kozimor-King, was \u201cto provide a presentation that was professional and a concrete, short-term solution for the partner that they could use immediately.\u201d Based on the literature, Kozimor-King said, the team felt stronger connections between the tenants and the existing landlords are needed in order to retain them.<\/p>\n

\u201c[You need to] put away individual wants and work as a cohesive unit for the client,\u201d Ebersole said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about winning, it\u2019s about making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson said she enjoyed the challenge of the competition. Getting to know something well enough to give a presentation on it in 48 hours, Thompson said, was an interesting change from other presentations and school projects she had worked on for weeks in advance.\u00a0 She recommends this experience to anyone in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of amazing what, in 48 hours, a group of dedicated individuals can come up with,\u201d Kozimor-King said.\u00a0 She believes the competition is closely related to Elizabethtown\u2019s signature learning experiences and fits perfectly with the College\u2019s mission. \u201cI\u2019m an alum, so I\u2019m trying to provide students with some of the experiences I\u2019ve had. And I know real-world learning was a lot more powerful.\u201d This competition allows students to apply skills they are learning in the classroom to a larger setting. \u201cWe are educate for service, and not just service as in volunteering, but meaningful life work,\u201d Kozimor-King said.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s solution established a mentoring program between landlords and refugees. Lockard, one of the student team mates, called colleges and universities in the Denver area to determine interest in a partnership with the ACC and in establishing an internship. To other team mates, Snyder and Thompson, traveled to meet with the client and speak to their housing coordinator. A key part of their solution, according to Kozimor-King, was connecting with a mediation agency willing to help with issues between landlords and refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re actually going to implement our solution,\u201d Thompson said, \u201cThe fact that we can say that we helped a refugee resettlement agency in Denver, Colorado, from Elizabethtown is pretty huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the winning team received a $175 monetary prize in addition to a plaque and being featured on the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology\u2019s website.\u00a0 The team is still deciding how to use their winnings, but Kozimor-King said they want to help next year\u2019s team and keep the tradition going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second weekend in October, a team of sociology students from Elizabethtown College took its second consecutive win at the Client Problem-Solving Competition at the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology in Denver, Colorado. The team, sponsored by associate professor of sociology Michele Lee Kozimor-King and mentored by Barbara Prince \u201912, triumphed over teams from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":5430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,8],"tags":[490,1128,295],"class_list":["post-5419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-features","tag-achievements-2","tag-feature","tag-sociology","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5419"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5436,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5419\/revisions\/5436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}