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Classmates for merely a week, when this group of five first-year MBA students from Drexel University’s Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento came together for the first time as a team they barely knew each other.But 10 days later, Samuel Bradshaw, Justin Johnson, Alexander Malana, Bill Reaugh, and Shaun Youngberg not only knew each other well, they were in perfect sync. The newly-minted Drexel students captured first place in the 2010 Spring Capsim Foundation Challenge, winning with a record-setting score in the finals. The Drexel team finished on top in the business simulated game that drew 226 college and university teams throughout the United States and internationally. Just being the top team from Drexel University was no easy chore. Besides the one team from Sacramento, Drexel was also represented by nine teams from its Philadelphia campus. Three of the Philadelphia teams finished second, third and fourth in the semifinals, which was also won by the Sacramento contingent. Contest rules state only one team per university is allowed to compete in the six-team finals.Drexel’s record-setting score in the finals was 805, while second place Brigham Young-Idaho had 730 points. The previous record was 776 points in the 2007 Capsim. Drexel’s part-time MBA program was recently ranked No. 1 in the country by BusinessWeek magazine for academic quality.“This is a tremendous accomplishment for a group of new students who literally just entered our program,” said David Stewart, Senior Director for Drexel’s Graduate Programs. “The Capsim Challenge always has many top-tier schools competing, so winning it is a terrific achievement. This demonstrates that Drexel University continues to attract and cultivate some of California’s brightest students and future leaders.”The diverse skills of Bradshaw (software engineer), Johnson (mental health technician), Alexander (investment analyst), Reaugh (regional manager), and Youngberg (worker’s comp team leader) melded together right away. The group met online or in person for an estimated 40 hours during the eight rounds of competition.“When we started the competition we were just beginning to get to know each other, but right away we had some good group dynamics,” Johnson said. “We took an informal approach and everyone had an equal say in our decisions. Winning such a prestigious business competition was a nice surprise.”The popular game, established by Capsim Management Simulations Inc., is held twice annually and provides students a way to experience success and failure in a risk-free business environment. The overall competition included teams from the University of California-Berkeley, University of San Francisco, St. Mary’s College, Oregon, Baylor, and Brigham Young universities, and countries as diverse as Canada, the Czech Republic and Austria.The Capsim Challenge requires students to compete against both a computer and other teams by winning the most market share with a computer-simulated business. During the first round, the teams competed against a computer. In the finals, the surviving teams competed against each other. “This was a great introduction as we start our MBA program at Drexel,” Reaugh said. “The Capsim Challenge really gets you thinking about running an entire business rather than just running a department. It gives you a much larger perspective, a greater sense of what it would be like to run a real enterprise.”Drexel opened its doors in Sacramento in January 2009 and more than 250 students have enrolled in its graduate programs since then. It is now enrolling students in the eight programs that will start next fall, including the Executive Master’s in Public Health. All of the programs Drexel offers are focused at the heart of Greater Sacramento’s growth and economic development initiatives – health, entrepreneurial business, human resources, education, knowledge management and information science.The next Information Session for graduate programs will be on Saturday, May 22 from 10-11:30 a.m. For more information on the Center for Graduate Studies, visit www.drexel.edu/sacramento or call (888) 389-3781 or (916) 325-4600.### News Media Contact: Niki Gianakaris, Drexel News Bureau, 215-895-6741 or 215-778-7752 (cell) or ngianakaris@drexel.edu