By Bud Grimes, UT Martin Chief Communications Officer
MARTIN, Tenn. – The Conference of State Bank Supervisors named a University of Tennessee
at Martin student team as winner of the 2021 Community Bank Case Study Competition. The team
included four students from the College of Business and Global Affairs and one student from the College
of Agriculture and Applied Sciences. The CSBS announced the competition results July 15 at
www.csbs.org.
The annual competition is open to undergraduate students in all fields of study as an opportunity
to gain valuable first-hand knowledge of the banking industry. This year’s case studies submitted to the
competition examined how local community banks navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and what they are
doing to encourage greater diversity and inclusion.
“This competition underscores the importance of banking education and helps undergraduate
students learn about the value of community banking. The exceptional analysis and quality of work of the
top three teams tell me we are building a strong workforce of tomorrow,” said CSBS Executive Vice
President Jim Cooper.
The winning UT Martin team members were Benjamin Beard, finance and accounting major,
Union City; Seth Bishop, finance and accounting major, Adamsville; Refugio Palacios, finance major,
Dyersburg; Savannah Pham, business communication and information systems major, Halls; and
McKenzie Reagor, agricultural business major, Karnak, Illinois.
John Clark, interim chairholder for the Horace and Sara Dunagan Chair of Excellence in
Banking; Dr. Mark Farley, assistant professor of finance; and Dr. Lajuan Davis, professor of business
communication, were the team’s faculty advisers. Clark’s administrative support assistant, Traci
Crawford, also assisted team members as they prepared for the competition, and TriStar Bank, based in
Dickson, Tennessee, was the team’s community bank partner. The team advanced through three rounds of
judging by banking professionals and overcame a pool of 35 student teams representing 29 colleges and
universities. (more)
“This is a very important national competition for universities and students interested in
community banking,” Clark said. “This year was our fourth year to compete. We’ve done well in the
competition each year, with the best success until this year being third place in 2019. This is a significant
accomplishment by these five extraordinary students.”
“I am truly proud of our outstanding students and their faculty advisers Mr. John Clark, Dr. Mark
Farley and Dr. Lajuan Davis for such a monumental accomplishment,” said Dr. Ahmad Tootoonchi,
College of Business and Global Affairs dean. “Their partnership with the TriStar Bank and their case
study on ‘How Community Banks Have Responded to Major Forces that Impacted the Nation’ reflect
their commitment to the continuous improvement of the business community and the economic
development of the region.”
Each UT Martin team member will receive a $1,000 scholarship for the first-place finish. The
team will also be invited to present at the CSBS-Federal Reserve Community Banking-FDIC sponsored
Community Banking in the 21 st Century Research and Policy Conference and will have their work
published in the CSBS Journal of Community Bank Case Studies.
Teams representing the University of Arkansas and Southeastern Louisiana University placed
second and third respectively. These teams will receive $500 and $250 scholarships for their respective
finishes and have their works also published in the CSBS journal. The winning papers from UT Martin, Arkansas and Southeastern Louisiana are available online at www.csbs.org by selecting the competition
press release under “latest news.”
For more information on the 2021 Community Bank Case Study Competition, visit
www.csbs.org/bankcasestudy.