Senior Dylan Lischau helped his team win first place in its division at the Global Family Enterprise Case Competition in January at the University of Vermont.

The competition, meant for those who plan to own family businesses, puts together students from different universities and allows them a few hours to solve a challenge.

Lischau and his team — made up of students from the Netherlands, Vermont, Canada, Florida and Michigan — evaluated Valley Carriers, a family company experiencing division between the second and third generations.

"Family businesses are vital to the economy," says Lischau, an integrative studies major specializing in entrepreneurship, music and German.

"More than 70 percent of businesses in the world are family owned, but only about 30 percent are successful beyond the first generation. We offered alternatives to continue growth that could be beneficial to the company."