‘Our students are exceptional, and I expect many more top-100 celebrations this semester.’
COLUMBIA, KY. (04/03/2025) A trio of Lindsey Wilson College students are channeling their passion for competing in athletics into a business competition.
The students, who are members of the spring’s “Operations Management” class, are competing in the Business Strategy Game, a real-life simulation in which more than 3,000 business students from all over the world run an athletic footwear company. All of the students in the Lindsey Wilson class participate in the game. Student teams are ranked weekly based on earnings per share, return on average equity and stock price.
About midway through the competition, the Lindsey Wilson team of Esteban Perez ’27, David Requejo ’27 and Juan Sola ’26 tied for 12th place out of 3,055 teams from 140 colleges and universities in the competition. The final results will be determined later this semester. The Lindsey Wilson students’ current accomplishment is the latest of several top-100 postings by Blue Raider business teams over the last few years.
“Our students are exceptional, and I expect many more top-100 celebrations this semester,” said Lindsey Wilson business professor Cathy Boatright.
The power of athletics
Boatright said a factor that contributes to Lindsey Wilson business students’ success in the Business Strategy Game is that many of them are members of one of the college’s sports teams.
“We pair the game with the material we cover in class, so each week we discuss the material and then apply the concepts to the students’ companies,” she said. “We also have a lot of competitive students. A lot of them are gamers or athletes, and when what they are doing in the classroom is a competitive or gamified assessment, I think that helps.”
Perez, who is a member of the men’s soccer program, said that he has channeled the spirit of competition he experiences in athletics into his work in the business class project.
“We all help each other, because we are teammates, just like we are in soccer,” said Perez, a business major who is from Madrid. “Competition is a big part of this project and all of us are very competitive. Every week you see the leaderboard, you always want to be on top. That’s a big factor that motivates us. I think that the most competitive people are always going to want to do more, to do what it takes to win.”
‘Coach’ Boatright
Requejo, who is a member of the track and field team, said that Boatright serves as a kind of coach for the students in the class.
“This is one of my favorite classes, especially when you see how competitive it can get,” said Requejo, who is a business and communication double major from Salamanca, Spain. “I think that helps us learn even more because that gets us to take a deeper dive into the subject and ask questions you really wouldn’t maybe ask in a classroom.”
Sola, who is also a member of the men’s soccer team, said that he likes how the Business Strategy Game simulates real-life experiences.
“It enables you to make decisions on production, marketing and finance, among others, that real-life companies do,” said Sola, who is a business major from Zaragoza, Spain. “You can see the effect of your decisions on the company and how to improve it. You have to keep an eye on what the other teams are doing and try to do better than them. What makes the Business Strategy Game so useful is that it takes what you learn in class and shows you how it works in real life. You get to practice making decisions and get to see right away what happens as a result, which makes you learn more about business.”
Lindsey Wilson College students David Requejo ’27, left, and Esteban Perez ’27 are part of a team in business professor Cathy Boatright’s class that is competing against more than 3,000 college students in the Business Strategy Game. The game allows Lindsey WIlson students to experience real-life business situations.
Lindsey Wilson College is a vibrant liberal arts college in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey WIlson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students, and the college offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson College)