Comets Shine at the Phi Beta Lambda National Leadership Conference

Editors’ Note: This feature appears as it was published in the autumn 2021 edition of UT Dallas Magazine. Titles or faculty members listed may have changed since that time.

Comets Shine at the Phi Beta Lambda National Leadership Conference

UT Dallas student competitors placed first in four events at the Phi Beta Lambda National Leadership conference held virtually in June. In all, six students took part in the conference, and all six finished in the top 10 in every event they entered.

Kristen Lawson
Kristen Lawson

“I don’t think we have previously earned more than two first-place finishes in a single national conference,” said UTD Phi Beta Lambda chapter advisor Dr. Kristen Lawson, a Naveen Jindal School of Management clinical assistant professor in the Organizations, Strategy and International Management Area. “I am so proud of all of our students who went above and beyond to compete. … They once again did a stellar job of finding ways to make it work and shine like the Comets they are.”

Phi Beta Lambda is the collegiate division of Future Business Leaders of America, and the UT Dallas chapter is based in the Jindal School. The student organization provides opportunities to develop business-related career competencies and promotes personal and civic responsibility. Each spring, members compete in events that test their business knowledge and skills, and top finishers at the state level are eligible to compete at the national competition each summer.

Ashley Garber
Ashley Garber
Dinesh Pandian
Dinesh Pandian
John Squire
John Squire

Two Jindal School students and one Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science student took first place in four categories this year:

  • Ashley Garber, senior in accounting, won Forensic Accounting;
  • Dinesh Pandian, senior in information technology and systems, won Programming Concepts as well as Project Management; and
  • John Squire, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science senior in biomedical engineering won Cyber Security.

And another Jindal School student took third place in a fifth category:

  • Vidhesha Vaid, senior in information technology and systems, placed third for Information Management

“UTD’s Phi Beta Lambda chapter will be hosting the Phi Beta Lambda Texas State Leadership Conference in April 2022, and there will be lots of opportunities for students who want to get involved, get some leadership and event-planning skills and service on their résumés,” Lawson said.