Seton Hill University’s Society for Human Resource Management student team made it into the semi-final round at the Northeast Regional Society for Human Resource Management Games competition March 27-28 at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ.

First-time student contestants were Mark McRobie, senior business major, of Irwin, Pa.; Jennifer Fair, senior accounting and business major of Freeport, Pa.; and Adam Kensey, junior business major, of Indiana, Pa. Gia Wenino, a junior business major, from Souderton, Pa., was the team’s student coach and alternate member during the preparatory stage of the competition. Catherine Giunta, Ph.D., associate professor of business at Seton Hill, is the Society for Human Resource Management Collegiate Chapter advisor.

Seton Hill’s contestants participated in seven rounds of competition. Seton Hill University placed in the top four out of the 20 participating schools after seven rounds and advanced in the games. Seton Hill faced a team from Penn State University in the semifinals and lost.

“We competed against a lot of great schools such as Cornell and Shippensburg. We were from the smallest school competing,” said Fair. “I not only learned a lot of information about human resources, but I also got the chance to meet a lot of people.”

Kensey feels good about the team’s accomplishments at the 2009 Human Resources games. This semester, the team of three practiced and studied the material for the games. They met with Giunta everyday and she would quiz them on different human resource terms.

“We began studying over Christmas break and didn't stop until five minutes before our first competition. Going into the competition we had no idea what to expect and we were both very nervous and anxious,” Fair said.

“This was a great opportunity because human resource is my major,” Kensey said. “It was a lot of fun and I look forward to competing next year.”

“If any human resource majors have this opportunity next year, I encourage them to take it. It's a lot of studying but it's worth it,” Fair said.

The Society for Human Resource Management is the largest professional society in the world devoted exclusively to the human resource profession. Founded in 1948, it serves more than 100,000 professional and student members.