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Today, successful students know that the business world is changing and demanding strong communication skills, cross-cultural understanding and higher level of skills than ever before. To address this need, this year, for the first time, PMI South Florida conducted a Project Management Competition at the University of Miami as part of the PMI South Florida Chapter Outreach Program.
The purpose of the Outreach Program is to advance organizations, educational institutions, partners and sponsors understanding and application of both project management and the project management profession. For 2007, the Outreach Program is focusing on educational institutions. The University of Miami competition offered the students the unique opportunity to gain “real-life” experience and work face to face with experienced project managers while participating in a competition. The PMI South Florida Chapter provided a scholarship to the first and second place winners.
University of Miami Faculty and Executive team, PMI South Florida Chapter Executive team, MBA students
The competition was fully aligned with the objectives of the University of Miami to encourage teamwork, leadership, creativity, critical thinking and organization, emphasizing that all members of the team have an important role that is necessary to succeed in the competitive workplace.
The first phase of the Project Management competition took place in the University of Miami on October 27th. . MBA students worked in teams on the development of a Project Charter for a fictitious project to improve a city-recycling program following the PMBOK principles. The teams were assisted by Mentors from the PMI South Florida Chapter, highly qualified certified project managers, who guided the teams through the competition. The project also was aligned with the goal of increasing the recycling efforts and encouraging the stakeholders to protect the environment.
From left: Linda Rump (Director – University of Miami School of Business, Kathy Ericsson, PMP (Director PMO Southern Wine and Spirits), Marcelo Fernandez, PMP (PMI South Florida Chapter Director of Development), Connie Maldonado, PMP (Certified Project Management Instructor for SoftKey, Inc), Teresa Colon, PMP (PMI South Florida Chapter President).
The second phase of the competition took place in the University of Miami on November 8th. Each team had the opportunity to present the Charter to a panel of judges, who selected the first, second and third place. The panel of judges were Teresa Colon, PMP, PMI South Florida Chapter President, Kathy Ericsson, PMP, Director PMO Southern Wine and Spirits, and Connie Maldonado, PMP, Certified Project Management Instructor for SoftKey, Inc.
“Most of the time, in real life, upper management doesn’t have the time to read and approve the Project Charter and the Project Manager has but a few minutes to defend it to get formal approval”, said Teresa Colon, PMP.
From left: Roy Vincent, PMP (Portfolio Manager Royal Caribbean International & Celebrity Cruises), Patricia Garofano, PMP (Director, Business Process Terremark Worldwide), Simon Siflinger (Specialist Project Management Analyst, Project Support Office).
I would like to thank the Project Management Mentors, Neyda Galvez, PMP, Patricia Garofano, PMP, Simon Siflinger, PMP, and Roy Vincent, PMP for their invaluable contribution and the Judges for the remarkable expertise. The program would not have been possible without the support of Linda Rump (Director – University of Miami School of Business) and Shivani Joshi (Assistant Director – University of Miami School of Business)
Marcelo Fernandez, PMP
Director of Development
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PMI South Florida Chapter
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