Congratulations to Blair Lozier, Jordan Lloyd and Ishara Nanayakkara MPA and MPFM Students win Association of Governmental Accountants(AGA) finance Case Challenge

This year we had 2 teams complete in the Association of Governmental Accountants(AGA) finance Case Challenge, a nation-wide annual competition requiring students to develop a Citizen Centric Report (CCR) for a large city and 4-page narrative explaining the process that was taken. This year the competition was for Chattanooga. Our students will be featured on the AGA website https://www.agacgfm.org/Standards/CCR/CaseChallenge.aspx  The details of the competition are here: https://www.agacgfm.org/Standards/CCR.aspx

The purpose of AGA's Citizen-Centric Reporting (CCR) initiative is to help simplify communication between government and its citizens, who have a right to accurate information about the way their government spends their taxpayer dollars. AGA believes accurate government financial information should be provided to all citizens in a timely, simple and readily accessible format. 

Dr. Rhonda Trautman, director of Online Programs, served as the primary advisor for the project.  Teams included: 

Team 1: Blair Lozier (MPFM/MPA), Jordan Lloyd (MPA) and Ishara Nanayakkara (MPA)

Team 2: Lauren Hogsed (MPFM), William Twigg (MPFM)

The Challenge required students to present information about the city's vision, goals, achievements, financial and administrative environment and other factors such as economic development, etc. to clearly communicate this information to the citizens of Chattanooga (and others visiting their website).  Both of our teams worked really hard in a very short turnaround and did an outstanding job. Due to their hard work, we were excited to hear a few weeks ago that Team 1 advanced to the final 3 teams for the 2nd round of the competition. Stage 2 of the competition required them to produce a video presenting the information gathered for the CCR in a "public forum".

We were THRILLED to learn that TEAM 1 won the national AGA competition!  As winners, each will receive $1,000. As winners, they will also be showcased on the AGA Case Challenge Website. 

Congrats to Blair, Jordan, and Ishara and a big shout out to William and Lauren who did a great job on this as well. Also, a big thank you to Dr. Trautman for serving as the primary advisor and Dr. Joshua Bush who helped the teams as an additional advisor on the project.  Blair won the AGA National Collegiate Leadership Scholarship to attend their upcoming Leadership Conference in February in Washington DC.