Ascribe Newswire, June 26, 2006, Monday

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June 26, 2006 Monday 4:01 PM Eastern Time


HEADLINE: California State University, Stanislaus Student Team Claims National Human Resources Games Title

DATELINE: TURLOCK, Calif. June 26

BODY:
California State University, Stanislaus is now the home of the 2006 National Human Resources Games champions.
Battling from behind to turn back a challenge from Utah State University on Monday afternoon, the CSU Stanislaus student team claimed its first national championship during the exciting two-day Society for Human Resource Management competition held in Washington, D.C. Utah State held the lead until the last round when CSU Stanislaus came up with some key answers to pull ahead and hang on with correct responses to some difficult questions.
Leading the way for CSU Stanislaus was Crystal Jack of the tiny Calaveras County community of Volcano who was named Society for Human Resources Management Leonard Brice HR Student of the Year in May. The award goes to the nation's top HR student, recognizing academic excellence with overall organizational leadership within the field. Ms. Jack also received the J. Burton Vasche Award at the June 3 CSU Stanislaus Commencement. The Vasche Award, named in honor of the University's first president, is presented to the graduating senior who displays the highest standards of leadership, cooperation, participation, service and scholarship.
Teaming with Ms. Jack for the championship performance were Alfonso Valencia of Winton and Rosie Borjon of Escalon. Dr. Ed Hernandez of the CSU Stanislaus Management, Operations and Marketing Department faculty, who coached the team to a runnerup finish to Cornell University in 2004, served as advisor.
"California State University, Stanislaus takes great pride in this tremendous accomplishment by a very talented team in bringing home this honor," University President Dr. Hamid Shirvani said. "This is a well-deserved title and demonstrates that students here can match up with the best in the nation. They have spent long hours working very hard to prepare for this and are wonderful examples of the caliber of students and faculty we have at CSU Stanislaus."
The CSU Stanislaus team had to rebound from a narrow opening loss to rival Cornell in Sunday's upset-filled opening round, but came back to score consecutive victories over Utah State, North Carolina State, and Southwestern Minnesota State. In today's semi-final round, CSU Stanislaus avenged its earlier defeat with a win over Cornell and then outscored Utah State 5900 to 5400 to cap the championship performance.
Dr. Amin Elmallah, Dean of the CSU Stanislaus College of Business Administration, proclaimed the championship performances that have also included two Pacific Regional titles and two California crowns as a shining example of the high performance levels by University students.
"Our student human resources management teams, under the guidance of Dr. Ed Hernandez, have consistently performed very well at the state, regional and national levels," Elmallah said. "The first place finish as the 2006 national champion is an attestation to the quality of the College of Business Administration academic programs and to the excellence of CSU Stanislaus education programs. We are very proud of their achievement and congratulate them on this great honor and distinction."
The CSU Stanislaus team advanced to the national tournament after beating defending national champion Fresno State for the Pacific Western Regional Championship in Honolulu in April.
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CONTACT: Don Hansen, CSU Stanislaus Public Affairs, 209-667-3997, cell 209-620-7251, dhansen@csustan.edu