For the eighth time in nine years, the Canisius College chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization took home two Best Chapter Awards at the CEO National Conference and Competition. The Canisius team competed against CEO chapters from over 400 colleges and universities at the competition, which took place in Tampa, Fla., from Oct. 27-29.

The Canisius chapter received first place in the "Outstanding Entrepreneurial Networking Initiative" category, and was also awarded second place in the "Outstanding Campus E-Diffusion" category, which recognized the Canisius team for promoting entrepreneurship to non-business school students.

The Canisius CEO chapter was also selected as one of three top universities in the "Outstanding Chapter Fundraising" category.

Joseph Phillips '18, an entrepreneurship and finance major and president of the Canisius CEO chapter, helped lead the team to its wins, alongside Ji-Hee Kim, Ph.D, faculty advisor to the chapter and director of the college's entrepreneurship program. Nine Canisius students attended the conference, several of whom led panel discussions: Justin Tynon '19, Michael Panzarella '19, Andrew Boccio '18, Daniel Brodzik '19, Grant Woodworth '18, Luke Topolski '17, Terimunite Chandran '19, and Phillips. Kim served as chair for sessions on faculty development and building a comprehensive entrepreneurship education curriculum. She also moderated a panel session.

CEO is a global, non-profit organization, which offers students networking opportunities and serves as an information resource for prospective entrepreneurs. The chapter offers student members the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial leadership, professional communication skills, and teamwork skills, by creating, designing, planning, leading, organizing and implementing educational outreach projects.