St. John Fisher teams score big in regional tax tourney

From left, St. John Fisher College students Ethan O’Donnell, Tom Agan, Todd Stebbins, Alex DeRosa, Michael Bonner, Leah Bitetti, Caylee Hanson, Lauren Owens, Shane Bloom and Rob Riggio. Courtesy St. John Fisher College

Two teams of accounting students from St. John Fisher College’s School of Business took the top two spots last month in a Deloitte FanTAXtic Regional Competition in Boston.

Deloitte invites nearly 100 schools to participate each year in its case study competition, in which students solve real-world, issues-based business tax scenarios. One first place team from each region then advances to the national competition, with nine teams heading to the final round.

The members of the Fisher team who earned the bid to Dallas for the national competition in January are Rob Riggio, Lauren Owens, Alex DeRosa, Todd Stebbins and Tom Agan.

Fisher’s second team — Leah Bitetti, Caylee Hanson, Michael Bonner, Ethan O’Donnell and Shane Bloom — received an honorable mention.

The Fisher students competed against teams from Bentley University, Boston University, the College of William and Mary and Georgia State University, and received $4,500 in award winnings that will benefit accounting scholarships at the college.

With the help of Assistant Professor Lynn Mucenski-Keck, Fisher’s two teams began preparing for competition more than a month ago, improving their presentation styles, analyzing nearly 100 pages of information provided by Deloitte, and preparing responses to the questions they would receive from the judges.

DeRosa, a senior majoring in economics, said the case dealt with a fictitious company and determining the best tax strategies for its purchase of another smaller company and a large sum of property. On the day of the presentation in Boston, Deloitte distributed additional information, and each team had an hour and a half (without the assistance of a professor) to factor these changes into their presentations and recommendations.

The national competition will be held at Deloitte University, a learning and leadership development center. The team will compete for over $50,000 in individual scholarships and institutional awards against teams from Boston College, Brigham Young University, University of Florida, Lehigh University, University of North Colorado, Ohio State University, University of San Diego and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.