Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Undergraduate Case Competition allows undergraduate students to take on hypothetical, real-world situations regarding private medical information overheard in a workplace. This is a excellent opportunity for students to participate in a thought-provoking business ethics case that they could face in their professional careers. The winning team moves on to the national case competition.

Thank you to all that participated in the 2023-24 Undergraduate Case Competition. View winners.

Get an incredible real-world understanding of ethics, make lifelong friends, and deepen your Eccles Experience! The final winner will participate in the national ethics competition.

Requirements

Teams must consist of four to six undergraduates and include at least two male-identifying and two female-identifying students. If you’re interested in competing but do not have a team, please indicate this on the application form, and we will work to build a team for you.

How does it work?

  • Before the competition starts, the team receives the ethical-dilemma case. The team acts as hired consultants for a firm, and members have to incorporate the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Principles of integrity, trust, accountability, transparency, fairness, respect, rule of law, and viability in their analysis.
  • Teammates must present their recommendations to a panel of judges. The team is then given a twist to the case, and teammates have four hours to reassess their original recommendations and make a second presentation to the judges.
  • Cases are meant to present ethical issues that students may one day encounter in their careers. The competition is designed to provide students with the tools necessary to make ethics-based decisions, challenge students’ ethical reasoning and raise awareness of the importance of principle-based ethics.

Hear from students

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Past Competition Winners

Daniels Fund Case Comp

2023-24 Competition

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah held its annual Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023.

Winning Team: Ethics Elevated – Diya Rao, Alicia Du, Nicholas Drossell, Aidan McMillan, Aarushi Verma, Tristin Foster

Second Place: New Heights Mary Cologna, Logan Bogesvang, Anika Rao, Harleen Saini, Jebediah Dean

Third Place: Ethics in Our Genetics – Michelle Zhuo, Ved Munot, Quaid Rasmussen, Catherina Fisher

2022-23 Competition

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah held its annual Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022.

Winning Team: Omega Consulting – William Cahoon, Bethany Anne Christiansen, Rachel Garff, Benjamin Knight, Cole Racine

Second Place: Orderly Conduct Gisselle Arias, Logan Bogesvang, Mary Kate Cologna, Ryan Deng, Angelena Eubank, Emilie Parra

Third Place: Ethica Consulting – Christina Dong, Ella James, Daniel Thompson, Kyler Zarate

2022 Competition

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah held its annual Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition on Friday, Jan. 28.

Winning Team: Birds Aren’t Real Consulting – Elisabeth Laney, Donna Tolman, Gerrit Van Beuge, Jacob Ward

Second Place: Themis Consulting Group – Gisselle Arias, Abhijith Harikumar, Hunter Knab, Ryan McBride, Cathleen Zhang

Third Place: Wasatch Sasquatch Consulting – Eden Campbell, Emily Lindsay, Lily McClellan, Pedro Rodriguez Gonzalez, Juan Rubio, Daisy Xiong

2021 Competition

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah held its annual Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition on Friday, Feb. 12.

Winning Team: Castamere Consulting – Mathew Craft, Jordan Hallman, Hallie Martinez, Murray Poulsen

Runner-Up: Ethos Logistic Consulting – Raaz Bhatia, Lexi Hoggan, Markie Hoggan, Aditya Tiwari

Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition

2020 Competition

The Daniels Fund Ethics Case Competition at the David Eccles School of Business took place on Friday, Feb. 7. A total of seven teams tackled real-world ethical dilemmas and utilized the principle-based ethics set forth by businessman Bill Daniels.

Selected winners go on to compete at a national competition in Colorado.

1st Place: Wasatch Ethical Consulting — Corrine Schramm, Finn Reinemer, Sarah Preece, Yash Vyas, Sarah Rinderknecht

2nd Place: Beehive Consulting — Nate Kremer, Nikayla Spriggs, Mathew Craft, Olivia Bithell

3rd Place: Risky Business — Rebecca Hoyt, Bobby Kallay, Michael Gonzalez, Lauren Smith, Kael Berkley, Joshua Meyer

2019 Competition

The Daniels Fund Ethics Case Competition at the David Eccles School of Business took place on Friday, Feb. 8. A total of 11 teams tackled real-world ethical dilemmas and utilized the principle-based ethics set forth by businessman Bill Daniels.

The first-place winners go on to compete at a national competition in Colorado.

First Place – Integra Consulting: Benjamin Battistone, Mitchell Kenny, Merry Joseph, Ladan Mohamed, Sheva Mozafari, Mathew Winterholler

Second Place – Eccles Consulting: Emilie Ebert, Jacob Johnson, Megan Kleinman, Zach Parker, Zoe Wadge

Third Place – Lighthouse Consulting: Ruth Barnum, Bryan Cruz-Castillo, Aspen Christensen, Solomon Livingston

Daniels Fund Ethics Case Competition Winners

2018 Competition

Ten teams competed in the 2018 Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition. The students presented admirably, showing off their real-world, problem-solving skills. In the end, one team was selected as the top performer and two runner-ups. The winning team went on to represent the University of Utah at the regional competition in Denver.

1st Place- Veritas Consulting Group: Sam Bemis, Jordan Reninger, Ghada Shehab, Merry Joseph, Franco Jin, Hunter Fredricksen

1st Runner Up- XIII Legion: Summer Walker, Kasey Dunn, Toronto Eschrich, Paige Lewis

2nd Runner Up- London Fog Consulting: Rachel Roberson, Melissa VanDerHeyden, Sarah Chang, Shannen Breen, Garren Tiffee

2017 Competition

Eight teams competed in the 2017 Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition. The quality of the presentations was impressive and judges were impressed with all of the students. In the end, one team was selected as the top performer and two runner-ups. The winning team went on to represent the University of Utah at the regional competition in Denver.

The winning team (Silver Pine Consulting) consisted of Sam Bemis, Jessica Ryann Gill, Franco Jin, Hans Harris, and Jordan Reninger.

The first runner-up (Vault Consulting) included Rachael Roberson, Garren Tiffee, Adrien Spiegel, and Jillian Kelley. The second runner-up (Nightfuries): Summer Walker, Kasey Dunn and Paige Lewis.

2016 Competition

The University of Utah David Eccles School of Business’ team took second place in the national Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative’s fifth annual Consortium Case Competition in Denver on April 14 and 15.

The five-member team of Ben Caine, Carly Ho, Paxton Klein, Howard Reeve and Jan Ostusinik competed against nine other teams from around the country. Associate Professor Jeff Nielsen served as the team’s faculty advisor.

Before the competition started, the team received the ethical-dilemma case. The team acted as hired consultants for a firm, and members had to incorporate the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Principles of integrity, trust, accountability, transparency, fairness, respect, rule of law and viability.

2015 Competition

Dozens of business students competed in the Eccles School’s 2015 Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Case Competition in February, but only one team took home first-place prize.

Six students who met through their involvement in the Business Scholar program — five of them freshmen — comprised the winning team, called Crimson 6. The six students — Cason Acor, Luke Freedom Hansen, Paxton Klein, Andres Lancheros, David Sagae and Kira Wachter — spent about 20 hours working together and at least that many hours preparing on their own in the two weeks they were given. They had to rebrand a company that had come under fire for marketing sugary drinks to children while promoting them as health drinks.