March 26, 2025

By Kelly Waldron ’26

Susquehanna University competed for the first time in the Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition at Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, with the duo of Bilal Abdelnabi ’27 and Clarissa O’Neill ’25, finishing fourth among teams from around the nation.

“We were by far the smallest school there, but I knew there was something special about Balil and Clarissa and they handled the whole competition very well,” said Gene Cautillo, visiting assistant professor of management in Susquehanna’s Sigmund Weis School of Business.

The Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition is an annual competition that allows one pair of students from each university to propose their solution to an ethical case provided ahead of time. The program seeks to promote ethical business conduct, develop ethical business leadership, enrich undergraduate co-curricular educational opportunities and promote faculty collaboration in the teaching of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. This year’s event was sponsored by NASCAR.

“I’m not a traditional four-year student. I transferred to Susquehanna last year to complete my bachelor’s degree. Because of this, I wanted to take full advantage of everything Susquehanna and the Sigmund Weis School of Business have to offer,” O’Neill said. “Before transferring, I completed my associate degree while working full-time. This experience gave me a unique perspective as a student, and I believed I could apply that perspective to the competition.”

The case study addressed by Abdelnabi and O’Neill, “DEI at Daytona: Stay on Track, Accelerate Forward, or Race Away,” was particularly timely as it asked students to determine the impact of removing, maintaining or modifying diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the NASCAR organization.

“Both students showed a lot of passion surrounding the DEI subject matter and given their different backgrounds, they were able to have and present their unique perspectives, making it a truly diverse team,” Cautillo said.

Alongside Cautillo, Abdelnabi, a business analytics and finance double major from Plainfield, New Jersey, and O’Neill, a marketing major from Selinsgrove, competed against 16 other universities, including Penn State, Ohio State and Florida State. 

“This experience gave me the opportunity to learn more about America’s politics and how DEI policies may affect businesses financially and culturally,” Abdelnabi said.

Abdelnabi and O’Neill presented a three-pronged argument that focused on:

• A rebranding effort they called the “Race for Unity”
• Leveraging digital integration
• Identifying new NASCAR talent rough first-generation and military programs

Apart from the experience of the competition, both students were able to network with mentors and peers and gain valuable insight into ethical solutions from other students and the judges.

“It is important for all students to be talking about ethics because when Balil and Clarissa leave SU, they’re going to have this ethical understanding embedded in their heads and that’s what is going to help make them the future business leaders of tomorrow,” said Cautillo.

As a result of the competition, O’Neill believes she learned some lessons that will stay with her as she embarks on a professional career.

“Dedication was not just about working hard but about striving to be our best. Bilal and I dedicated all our free time to this project, and I am proud to say we pushed ourselves to do our best,” O’Neill said. “As a team, we established clear objectives, but with constant developments in the news, we had to adapt. One day, I hope to lead my own team, and understanding how to collaborate now will prepare me for that responsibility in the future.”