January 2020 Issue

Published January 24, 2020
By Janis Carr

Business Students honored

The Beach Investment Group, students in the College of Business, earned second place at the CFA Society OC Request for Proposal competition hosted by Cal State Long Beach. Each year, the Foundation asks for requests for proposals that allow student teams to compete for the chance to manage the Foundation’s portfolio for that year.

Cal State Long Beach was represented by Ryan Scanlon, who did the Introduction & Portfolio Conclusion; Jose Rendon, Economic Outloo;George Balderas, Fixed Income;Eric Beaumont, Momentum/ETFs; Curtis Ashton, Value Overview; Ismael Espinoza, Value Buy Recommendation, and Paul Erickson, Value Sell Recommendation.

The CFAOC competition, held last December, allows student-managed funds from several Southern California universities to present their investment strategies to the CFAOC Investment Committee with the goal of securing the highest possible virtual endowment.

Two students receive scholarships

Students Tiffany Ushijima and Melissa Valencia-Damian were awarded $2,500 each for the Human Resources Undergraduate Scholarship in December by the PIHRA Foundation.

As part of its commitment to the human resources community, the PIHRA Foundation annually grants scholarships ranging from $500 to $3,000 to support HR professionals and students. The PIHRA Foundation supports workforce readiness in Southern California, including support for education. Scholarships are awarded to local students who are looking to enter the human resources field.

IIE helps entrepreneurs start business

For many promising entrepreneurs, finding space to create their inventions can be difficult and costly. So, when Closed Loop Plastics went looking for a place large enough to house their fledgling 3D plastics business, they turned to the city.

Co-founder William Amos presented his idea to recycle a high-impact plastic for 3D printers at a 1 Million Cups entrepreneur networking event in Long Beach. The city, along with Cal State Long Beach Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, the Downtown Long Beach Alliance and CommonGrounds Workplace are sponsors for 1 Million Cups.

Wade Martin, a professor of economics and director of the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, met with Amos and his partners and helped them get into a 5,400-square-foot space on the west side. Martin acted as a liaison and mentor for the company and city.

Amos told the Long Beach Journal that Martin’s guidance was key in establishing their operations, adding that “it was nice to have some people in the city us through those snags.”