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On Tuesday evening, Amanda Gutin heard the phrase eight contestants had worked the entire winter to hear: "You're hired."
The semester-long Associate competition came to a close Tuesday evening, as the final boardroom session ended with the hiring of senior Amanda Gutin by St. Joseph Medical Center CEO, and this year's "Donald Trump," John Tolmie. Gutin will be offered a six-month fellowship at St. Joseph Medical Center, which includes the opportunity to travel and do relief work in Africa.
"I'm really excited," Gutin said regarding the trip to Tanzania. "At first it was a little overwhelming…but it's going to be a really great opportunity; I'll learn a lot about myself."
In addition, Tolmie also offered finalist Kimberly Hawk the opportunity to participate in the six-month fellowship.
"We thought Kim and Amanda did a great job throughout the entire competition," Tolmie said. "We thought that with the ideas, skills, energy and passion that they brought, it'd be great to have both of them involved with [the Village Wellness Project] over the next six months."
The Associate is an annual competition held by the College of Business and Economics that is modeled after the "The Apprentice." Contestants participated in case studies each week offered by Baltimore businesses, and the winning contestant is offered a position by that year's "Donald Trump," typically a Baltimore-based executive.
This week's final case marked a first for The Associate competition. The final two contestants worked on a non-profit, service-oriented task. Gutin and Hawk were asked to create a mosquito net distribution plan for the village of Chemchem, in Tanzania as part of St. Joseph Medical Center's Village Wellness Project. Mosquito nets are hung over beds at night to prevent the spread of the malaria, a disease that, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, is the leading cause of death among Tanzanian children. St. Joseph Medical Center is an active donor and supporter of Tanzania, with contributions that include providing health care, food, and livestock to the Karatu district of Tanzania.
The final case study consisted of distributing the nets, educating the people in the village and fund-raising to complete the plan.
During the presentations on Sunday evening, Hawk, accompanied by former Associate contestants Heather Hurley and Shelby Cooperman, presented her plan to help the village of Chemchem. Hawk detailed an educational festival to educate the natives on malaria prevention, as well as detailed logistics on transporting the nets to the villagers. Hawk and her team also discussed fund-raising efforts through a basketball shootout, and raised $220 from selling baked goods, which were donated to the Tanzanian efforts.
Amanda Gutin, with the help of teammates Brian Coulter and Rommel Jones, outlined a plan that focused on net distribution, and designed a kickoff celebration for the villagers to encourage the use of the nets. Gutin also focused on education for the villagers that taught proper net use, which was provided in pictorial form with Swahili translations. Additionally, Gutin detailed her plan, which consisted of a similar basketball style fund-raiser and a $50,000 goal.
"This last case was really difficult, because there were so many different aspects," Gutin said. "Half the battle was figuring out how these people act, what are the best methods to teach them, and what would actually be receptive over there, because we had no idea."
During Tuesday's board meeting, Tolmie and the panel of judges inquired as to how the finalists chose their teammates, what they learned throughout the competition and why they should be this year's Associate winner. Hawk and Gutin emphasized teamwork as a critical skill that they developed during the competition.
"You have to have faith in your teammates even when you think you're going to fail," Gutin said.
After both Gutin and Hawk made a final pitch as to why they should win, Tolmie and the judges convened briefly before returning and announcing the results.
"I think the students have grown tremendously, and they've taken the comments and the criticisms we've had to heart," Tolmie said. "We're very proud to be part of the process."
Director of professional experience for the center for applied business and economic research, Laleh Malek said that the competition gets better each year.
"It has been such a joy working with Mr. Tolmie," Malek said. "He has just been unbelievable in how personable and helpful he has been to the students."
According to Malek, work has already started on next year's competition.
"I've already talked to a couple of companies who are ready to submit cases next year, and we have some big names again," Malek said.
Despite the promise of "big names," the next "Donald Trump" has not been determined.
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