The competition was heating up at the annual Global Bilingual Sales Competition. For the first time in history, 14 universities made it to the semi-finals to face-off in-person at FIU Business in March of 2025.
Sponsored by HubSpot, the event brought together 60 students from universities and organizations looking to secure the first-place prize of $1,500 in scholarships for bilingual winners and $1,000 in scholarships for the winners in the English and Spanish tracks. The competition also featured an internal ‘FIU Local’ track for students who competed for up to $500 in scholarships.
“This is the only competition where all the participants will be competing in English and Spanish,” said Nicolo Alaimo, co-director of the Global Sales Lab at FIU Business. “Why do we do that? Well, Spanish is the second language all over the United States and we have a South American continent right next to us, where there are 300 million people speaking Spanish as well.”
The ‘FIU Local’ speed selling championship awards and $200 in scholarship funds were awarded to Mshawi Ikner, Sabrina, Caetano, Julia Santos Nunes, Zhanea Hendry and Monica Mata.
The winner of the ‘FIU Local’ English track was Emily Jensen, who earned a $500 scholarship, and securing the top prize for the Spanish track was Kevin Rua Gomez who also won $500.
Spanish (left to right): Chrissy Damasco, senior recruiter, HubSpot, with FIU Local Spanish track winners Luciana Polo , Erkki Arpia, Kevin Rua Gomez and Nicolo Alaimo, co-director, Golbal Sales Lab at FIU Business
The schools that made it to the semi-finals included Florida International University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Central Mississippi, Arizona State University, Miami-Dade College, the University of Texas at Arlington, Florida State University, the University of Wisconsin Whitewater, California State University Chico, Georgia State University, Ball State University, the University of New Mexico, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Peru and Universidad Cardenal Herrera in Spain.
Marketing senior Victor Morel, competing in the bilingual track for FIU Business, said the competition provides many advantages for students.
“If you're looking to grow, to make connections and for job opportunities, this is the competition to sign up for,” said Morel, who is currently an intern with UKG, one of the sponsors judging the competition. Morel added he received an offer for a full-time role which begins after graduation.
The pipeline of landing job offers and internships after competing in the sales competition has been a long-standing benefit, for both the students and the judges.
Kelsey Sheaffer (BBA ‘24), business development representative at HubSpot, was a buyer for this year’s sales competition. She was also a former competitor and was able to get her foot in the door thanks to the relationships she made with the judges as a student.
“HubSpot and I were talking for almost a year and a half, two years, and then I continued that relationship and got the job,” said Sheaffer. She credits the investment the professors make into the program as one of the key ingredients to student success.
“Our professors always said it, but be comfortable with the uncomfortable,” said Shaeffer. “The worst that's going to happen is you didn't do it, you didn't meet these people, you didn't make these connections. No one's going judge you for doing the competition, everyone's just blown away with the fact that you did it.”