The Broadridge Challenge is an exciting experiential education opportunity offered by NYIT School of Management. Student teams work on real time business problems formulated by executives of the Broadridge Financial Solutions Corporation. The Broadridge Challenge is a semester long course taught by Dr. Diamando Afxentiou. Throughout this semester, Dr. Afxentiou worked with Broadridge and helps the students learn by guiding them through this hands-on experience. Dr. Paul R. Kutasovic has also taught the Broadridge Challenge in previous semesters.

On May 3, 2017, students who participated in the Broadridge Challenge presented at the company’s headquarters in Lake Success. The students learned more about Broadridge Financial Solutions Corporation from the company’s representatives, Bill Jacoutot, Jelani Arnold and our own former student and current employee of the company, Michaela Krejcova. Additionally, the students presented their recommended acquisitions to Richard Daly, the President and CEO of Broadridge Financial Solutions, and ten additional senior management professionals of Broadridge.

The students who participated in this class all had positive things to say about their experience. Matej Selecky, a senior undergraduate student majoring in Finance, states, “Learning about a company this big and successful in their field was an amazing experience, but learning about a company like this from actual employees was even more amazing. I have to admit, these three representatives who were leading the entire course, along with Professor Diamando, were always ready to respond to our questions, and they all set a great example of successful business people.” Furthermore, when discussing the presentation aspect of the course, Matej states, “I liked the fact that all the smaller presentations we did throughout the semester were part of our final presentation.”

Not only were the students able to learn from this experience, but some of them were able to conquer their fears. Jiayu Zhuo, a senior undergraduate student majoring in Accounting/CPA, states, “Through this experience, I overcame my weaknesses by talking in front of people even though it makes me nervous. I also gained many new skills on how to make a good PowerPoint presentation. I also made new friends.” Another current senior majoring in Marketing, Jonell Joseph, states, “As an amateur speaker, this process was a learning experience. It was my first time presenting in front of boardroom members, and most importantly the CEO, Rich Daly. This was all new for me and everyone else in my group, so naturally everyone was nervous.” Even though the students were new to presenting in this manner, they all gave successful presentations.

As the course comes to an end, all of the students express their gratitude for this experience, especially to the professor who taught the course and mentored the students along the way, Dr. Afxentiou. Joseph Lao, a senior Human Resource Management student, states, “Dr. Diamando was available for anything we needed. At times, it felt like she was on our team, and she would do anything she could to help us. She is by far the best for the job.” All of the student who participated recommend the Broadridge Challenge to other students in the School of Management!

By Konstance Teleisha