deloitte case study competition

Lindner students compete at Deloitte case competition national final

Students hone problem-solving skills in simulated tax industry challenge.

Four students from the University of Cincinnati competed at the national final of the Deloitte FanTAXtic case competition, which familiarizes undergraduates with experiences and challenges that can arise in the tax industry.

Carl H. Lindner College of Business students Jimmy Armbruster, BBA ’26, Vincent Piccolantonio, BBA ’26, Isaac Renderos, BBA ’25, and Lauren Vinson, BBA ’25, represented Lindner and UC as they traveled to Deloitte University in Westlake, Texas, to compete against 15 other finalists.

Nearly 50 colleges and universities competed in regional competitions around the country, which laddered up to the national final in Texas. Each competing team was assigned a fictional business, “Premier PickleBall.” The UC team provided recommendations for how Premier PickleBall should be formed in their regional competition. For the national final, they analyzed the tax and non-tax considerations of opening a new location and integrating a new business partner.

I've made a ton of connections outside of Lindner, which helps prepare me for my future career. I also have a lot more real-world experience.

Lauren Vinson, Lindner College of Business student

Armbruster, Piccolantonio, Renderos and Vinson delivered their analysis and recommendations over two in-person presentations to a pair of Deloitte employees posing as the “clients,” i.e. the owners of Premier PickleBall.

“My favorite part of these competitions has always been getting the performance and technical results, and it was great to get feedback in a situation like this,” Renderos said.

According to the students’ faculty adviser, Jason Bangert , PhD, assistant professor of accounting , the Deloitte FanTAXtic competition offers students a test-drive in life as a tax professional and the opportunity to sharpen their “problem solving, time management and communication skills.”

Left to right: Armbruster, Renderos, Vinson, Piccolantonio and faculty advisor Jason Bangert, PhD, assistant professor of accounting.

“I’m grateful that our students had the opportunity to participate in Deloitte’s FanTAXtic case competition and for Deloitte’s continued commitment to our students in this way.”

Vinson noted that the competition made her feel more connected to Bangert, her classmates and Lindner’s accounting department .

“I've made a ton of connections outside of Lindner, which helps prepare me for my future career. I also have a lot more real-world experience.”

Big 4 Night

Students interested in meeting Deloitte, EY, PwC and KPMG should attend Big 4 Night, slated for February 6 at Lindner Hall. Co-op, internship and networking opportunities are available, and students can also discuss work expectations and accounting field culture with firm representatives. Contact Accounting Manager of Unit Operations Toshia Watkins with questions.

Featured image: Lindner students (left to right) Jimmy Armbruster, Vincent Piccolantonio, Lauren Vinson and Isaac Renderos with the Deloitte employees (first from left, first from right) who served as the “clients” during students’ presentation at the Deloitte FanTAXtic case competition national final. Photos provided.

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University of Maryland Honors College

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IBH team wins third place at Deloitte’s National Undergraduate Case Competition

Congratulations to IBH students Ocarina Lin, Angela Luo, Krushi Shah and Jiayi Wang on coming in third place at Deloitte’s National Undergraduate Case Competition in Westlake, Texas, last month! The team was eligible to compete in the national competition after winning first place at UMD’s Deloitte Case Competition in February. The national competition took place at Deloitte University on March 16-18, featuring sixteen of the top teams from universities around the country.

Lin, Luo, Shah and Wang are members of the first cohort of the Honors College’s new living-learning program, Interdisciplinary Business Honors (IBH). Coming from majors in computer science, finance, information systems, and operations management and business analytics, none of them had participated in a consulting case competition before. They found out about the opportunity through IBH’s connections to the Smith School of Business.

“We thought it looked cool, so we decided to apply,” said Wang. “We didn’t know what to expect and everything progressed very quickly. It was an awesome and memorable experience!”

The UMD competition was run by Deloitte representatives, employees and recruiters, and teams had to apply to participate. Each team had 24 hours to review a business-related case and provide a solution to the judges, including a slide deck to support their work. Their team was mentored by Leila Bouhussein, a supply chain and network operations analyst with Deloitte.

“Our team was given the challenge to advise a local grocery store on how to digitize their stores, like self-checkout and digital inventory solutions, to keep up with technology but not lose their personal touch and community ties,” said Shah. “It actually worked out perfectly because we had just been talking about Amazon’s digitization of the market in our Future of Work class last semester.”

All IBH students are required to take HBUS100: The Future of Work, which considers the future of business and work from a multidisciplinary perspective. Taught by IBH’s current faculty director, Professor Joe Bailey, the class discusses the effects of technology, AI, automation and other social and environmental justice demands on the workforce. Because of this preparation, they already had such issues on their minds and were able to provide a winning solution to the judging panel.

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Pamplin students bring home national championship at Deloitte competition

April 24, 2023

Virginia Tech has cause for celebration, as a group of students from the Pamplin College of Business brought home the national championship in the recent Deloitte National Undergraduate Case Competition. The students, Mateo Eral, Caroline Krezel, Neal Shah, and Bowen Zhang, each of whom is a member of the Delta Epsilon chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon, a professional business fraternity at Virginia Tech, bested 15 other universities from across the nation at the competition, held at Deloitte University in Westlake, Texas.

After placing first out of nine teams at the local competition, the team received an all-expense covered invitation to represent Virginia Tech at Deloitte University. Moving forward on to the national leg of the competition meant a harder case prompt and a much tighter time crunch. On the day of the competition, the 16 competing schools were divided into four different rooms to present. The Virginia Tech team faced off against teams from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, Boston College, and the Atlanta University Consortium.

“We were thrilled to learn that we had placed first in our room and that we would have the opportunity to compete on the big stage in front of Deloitte partners, principles, and managing directors (PPMDs),” said Krezel, a first-year student majoring in both Corporate Finance and Management Consulting and Analytics. Joining Virginia Tech as finalists were teams from Cornell University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Notre Dame.

“We are so proud to share that we finished in first place overall and brought home Virginia Tech’s first-ever Deloitte NUCC National Championship,” Krezel added.

What is the Deloitte Undergraduate Case Competition?

The Deloitte Undergraduate Case Competition is a competitive business case competition that gives undergraduate students an opportunity to showcase their business acumen, critical thinking, and presentation skills. It provides real-world experience for students to develop practical solutions to complex business challenges while receiving feedback from highly experienced professionals in the industry. The competition is initially offered on a local level, with the winning team from each school offered an invitation to compete at the national level.

How do you think participating in events like this will help you in your future career?

Krezel: I gained a lot of valuable experience through competing in this case competition. From figuring out solutions that would differentiate ourselves from the other competitors to ultimately providing unique but effective ideas to the client to the networking opportunities with Deloitte consultants, this was a one-of-a-kind opportunity. I learned about consulting and working under a time crunch and received genuine testimonies from consultants about both the great parts and the difficult aspects of their job. I came out of this experience feeling more confident about myself in a professional setting and I gained clarity about where I’d like to take my career in the future.

Neal Shah, a first-year Business Information Technology major: Having the opportunity to compete at Deloitte University on such an in-depth and hands-on project was a unique and rewarding experience. This type of exposure to the multitude of necessary skills you need as a consultant was so eye opening and broadened my outlook on where my career might take me. I think I learned the most from networking – getting to have honest and detailed conversations with Deloitte consultants and PPMDs provided so much insight into what consulting in the “real world” looks like.

Bowen Zhang, a first-year student majoring in FinTech and Big Data Analytics: My number one takeaway from this experience was learning how to work together as a team by maximizing each of our strengths and bringing them together in a cohesive manner. I learned how valuable it is to have four differing perspectives integrate to create the best product. I am sure the teamwork skills I have developed through working together as a team for 20-plus hours will continue to impact my future ventures, both personally and professionally.

Mateo Eral, a first-year Finance major: One of the things I learned from this experience was that there are always two sides when it comes to consulting. It is important to have a good, information-packed slide deck but it is just as important to be able to present that slide deck to the audience in a manner that is both informative and easy to understand. I am so grateful to have been part of such a unique experience. Being able to live the life of a consultant and network with people who have been in the industry for years was a great opportunity.

Jeremy Norman

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Unc kenan-flagler team takes top honors at deloitte’s national case competition.

A team of first-year MBA students from UNC Kenan-Flagler won the 11th annual Deloitte MBA National Case Competition.

The UNC Kenan-Flagler team – Neal DeCroo , Anushree Godbole , Olivia Koziol and Shawn Reid , all Class of 2022 – won with a thorough analysis and innovative solution to the business problem. They earned a combined scholarship of $20,000 for their winning presentation and internship offers to work at Deloitte.

“It was an absolute privilege to work alongside my brilliant teammates and present our business case to the judges,” says Godbole. “Competing on a national stage was challenging as well as an incredible learning experience.”

The competition – virtual for the first time – was held Jan. 7-9, 2021. Sixteen teams developed strategic proposals and presentations to answer a business challenge posed by Banza. The consumer-packaged-goods company uses creative ways to challenge conventional wisdom around traditional dishes. It uses chickpeas to upgrade favorite comfort foods – pasta, macaroni and cheese, and pizza – typically made with wheat, corn or rice – and sometimes considered “guilty pleasures.”

The teams presented recommendations that answered the question: “What’s next for Banza: Where and how they should innovate?” to a panel of 21 judges of top company, industry and Deloitte leaders.

“We’re so proud of our students who beat out tough competition from other top schools,” says Linda Vo, associate director of career consulting at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

More than 1,000 students from leading MBA programs across the U.S. entered regional competitions; 64 advanced to the national finals. New York University Stern School of Business took second place, and the University of Michigan and the University of Texas followed in third and fourth place, respectively.

In addition to the winners, finalists included teams from Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Northwestern, University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, Chicago, Virginia and Vanderbilt.

“Case competitions gives students experience in solving unstructured problems, which will be a key part of their jobs, in a hands-on, competitive setting and demonstrate they can perform the job,” Vo says. “Employers get to engage with students in a different way than the interview process and witness their ability to be creative, collaborative, data driven, and adaptive. Our team winning this competition shows that they excel in all of these areas.”

“This is exciting for our students, our consulting faculty and the whole MBA program,” says Professor Alex Dickey (BSBA ’87), who is the MBA consulting concentration leader and STAR program faculty advisor. “I was lucky to have all four students in my Introduction to Consulting Skills and Frameworks course and watch them compete internally before they advanced to the nationals.”

Deloitte is a great partner for UNC Kenan-Flagler, Dickey says. “I am always impressed by the number of our alumni who work at Deloitte who support the case competition as coaches, judges or participate in the announcement/celebration of winners. It was great to see the screen full of our alumni at 5 p.m. on a Friday as the winners were announced for the UNC Kenan-Flagler round.”

“Deloitte Consulting has been, and continues to be, one of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s most important strategic partners across industries,” says Jarrett Brandon Early, associate director of MBA employer engagement and recruiting at UNC Kenan-Flagler. “Not only is Deloitte one of the leading hirers of our MBA talent, but they also go above and beyond in engaging with our students through early connection activities, information sessions, office hours, diversity panels and career treks. Most importantly, Deloitte dedicates significant time to helping prepare our students for careers across consultancies through case preparation and case-off judging. Our students’ success at this year’s National Case Competition is a testament to this partnership, illustrating the effectiveness of Deloitte’s engagement and the dedication of UNC Kenan-Flagler students to develop and showcase their skills for one of our most valued employers.”

The UNC Kenan-Flagler team and all other finalists should be extremely proud of their achievements, says Katie Dye, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Given the open-ended nature of the case presented by Banza to the teams, I am confident this year’s students will go on to make a significant impact in business as they showed a great deal of creativity and strategic insights in their responses.”

The Deloitte Foundation prepares the next generation of workforce leaders through a range of experiential learning opportunities, says Seán Morris, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and member of the Deloitte Foundation board of directors. “As a real-world extension of the classroom, the MBA National Case Competition enables students to apply keen insight and team skills to solve a complex business challenge. The exceptional talent each student brings to this annual competition and the ability to pivot to a virtual environment this year, continues to inspire.”

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• UMD Students Take Top Prize in National...

UMD Students Take Top Prize in National Deloitte Case Competition

Three engineering students in a four-person University of Maryland team won first place and a $4,000 prize in the national Deloitte Consulting Undergraduate Case Study Competition , held in Westlake, Texas, from March 9–11, 2017.

Among 17 universities represented in the competition, the UMD team was challenged to develop a practical solution for an online clothing retailer to establish brick-and-mortar operations. Team solutions had to adhere to Deloitte’s three-segment consulting method, which includes human capital, technology, and strategy and operations.

The event culminated with four finalist teams presenting onstage to an audience of more than 100 Deloitte employees and participating universities.

The UMD team included sophomores Conor Casey ( aerospace engineering ), Joshua Cocker ( mechanical engineering ), Brooke Nesselt (mechanical engineering), and Alexander Tran ( finance and information systems ). Clark School alumna Kimberly Berlic (B.S. ‘14, mechanical engineering), now a consultant with Deloitte, mentored the UMD team at the national competition.

“Kim told us that you have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable,” said Nesselt. “You have to be confident in your intelligence and your abilities. This encompassed our entire experience in the competition.”

The team also drew from lessons learned through the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) and Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) honors initiatives.

“We were the only team to have a wireframe prototype,” said Nesselt. “We learned how to do this in QUEST, and it is emphasized in EIP.”

But the biggest takeaway for the UMD team was the value of true teamwork. “A team isn’t necessarily a sum of the individuals but how they work together as a cohesive unit,” said Nesselt.

The event was the team’s second trip to the national competition after winning the local competition two years straight.

“We were up against the best business schools in the country,” said Casey. “We had to tell ourselves we can do this. We’ve been here before. It was a rewarding feeling once we did end up winning. It was a powerful learning experience.”

Published March 17, 2017

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Kelley School accounting students ecstatic about winning the Deloitte FanTAXtic National Case Study Competition

Posted on January 24, 2019 by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Many accountants still are determining how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 impacts clients. Advising clients on tax planning related to the new law was at the heart of a case adeptly handled last weekend by students in Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

The Kelley School team took top honors at the 18th Annual Deloitte FanTAXtic National Case Study Competition, defeating eight other business schools that sent student teams to the finals. In all, nearly 60 teams representing more than 40 colleges and universities participated in regional qualifier events at Deloitte offices throughout the country in early November.

This was the second year that Kelley has sent a team to the competition and the first time it competed in this national competition. Other national finalists included second-place finisher, the University of Illinois-Chicago; third-place team Syracuse University and Fordham University, the University of Nebraska, North Carolina State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Texas A&M University and the University of Utah.

“Our Kelley team was amazing,” said Sandra Owen, senior lecturer of accounting and the Kelley team’s faculty advisor. “Although only one of the students had even taken a tax class, they were able to research and understand the relevant tax law, including some challenging new tax provisions, apply it to their client’s situation, and explain their analysis and recommendations clearly and concisely to the client.

“I am so impressed with how well they performed, especially under the tight time constraints at the national competition, and how well they worked together as a team,” she added.

The finals were held Jan. 18-20 at Deloitte University , the firm’s campus for learning and leadership development in Westlake, Texas, just outside Dallas-Fort Worth.

“Kelley prepared me in every way for the competition,” said Katie Roebuck, a member of the winning team and a sophomore majoring in accounting and finance from Carmel, Indiana. “Kelley communications classes in particular helped our team perform well on the technical memo and presentation.

“Experience in classes with casework and teamwork allowed our team to dive right into the national cases. We didn’t need to waste time deciding what had to be done or what the cases were asking,” she added.

Another team member Lewis Cherry, a sophomore majoring in finance, accounting and international business, added, “In terms of how Kelley prepared us, I would say the difference between us and the other teams came down to our presentation skills.

“When putting together a case in just three hours, most teams were going to come up with imperfect numbers. I feel that our ability to put those numbers into a complete, yet easily understandable presentation separated us from the competition – skills Kelley taught us in classes such as C106,” added Cherry, who is from Libertyville, Illinois but originally from England.

Other members of the winning Kelley team were Araya Stahoviak, a senior majoring in accounting and finance from Michigan City, Indiana; Curtis Elliott, a junior majoring in finance and business analytics from Stevensville, Michigan; and Caroline Short, a sophomore majoring in information systems and operations management from Indianapolis. Deloitte awarded $2,000 in prize money to each student and another $10,000 to the school.

This year’s case incorporated tax reform planning and challenged students to determine whether a fictional company should continue as an S Corporation – which pass corporate income, losses, deductions, and credits through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes — or convert to a C Corporation – which is taxed separately from its owners.

“As an alumna of the Kelley School, I am so proud that the team won first place in this year’s FanTAXtic competition,” said Mary Boelke, partner, Deloitte Tax LLP and managing partner of the Indianapolis office. “This competition introduces students to the possibilities of a tax career early in their college experience while helping them understand that tax is a consultative blend of law, research and accounting. I was fortunate to discover tax as a potential profession during my junior year at IU, and that led me to a very rewarding tax career at Deloitte.”

Owen said the Deloitte FanTAXtic case competition was a valuable experience for the students.

“The business case developed by Deloitte for the competition includes real client tax and business issues, which helps the students further develop their research, analytical, and communication skills,” she said. “They are also inspired by the Deloitte professionals with whom they work throughout the program, both at the regional and national competitions. We really appreciate the opportunity to participate in the case competition.”

Steve Kimble , chairman and CEO, Deloitte Tax LLP, agreed. “These students are truly getting a real-world experience that introduces them to the possibilities of a career in tax, and they have the opportunity to showcase their technical proficiency and bold ideas to deliver outstanding solutions,” he said.

Kelley’s win was noticed by the accounting profession and national media, including coverage by Accounting Today and Inside Indiana Business .

Sponsored by Deloitte Tax LLP and supported by the Deloitte Foundation, FanTAXtic has engaged nearly 6,000 students since its inception in 2002. Deloitte has been a strategic corporate partner of the Kelley School for many years.

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The Fordham Ram

Students Win Deloitte National Case Study Competition

Sarah Huffman , News Editor | January 29, 2020

Five Fordham students won the Deliotte FanTAXic competition. (Courtesy of Benjamin Haney)

Five Fordham students made up the winning team at the 19th annual Deloitte FanTAXtic national case study competition on Jan. 17 and 18 at Deloitte University in Dallas, Texas.

The students competed against nine other universities from around the country in this national competition. Each of the nine universities that competed won the Deloitte FanTAXtic competition in their respective regions.

The competition required students to present the best analysis on a complex, issue-driven business tax case. This year’s case challenged students to analyze the impact of using debt versus equity to expand operations for a startup venture, according to a press release Deloitte put out.

Steve Kimble, chairman and CEO of Deloitte Tax LLP, congratulated all of the students that participated for their technical proficiency, teamwork and innovative thinking in the press release.

“These students are truly getting a real-world experience that provides the opportunity to build their skills and be exposed to the types of challenges that will face them as they prepare for the tax profession of tomorrow,” said Kimble.

Vickie Carr, partner at Deloitte Tax LLP and Deloitte Foundation board member, said the FanTAXtic competition shows students what a career in the tax industry is like.

“Aligning with our mission to help prepare the next generation of talent, the competition connects the academic experience to real-world business scenarios enabling students to use a variety of technical and soft skills to deliver a solution to the case,” Carr said. “I am continually impressed by the caliber of students participating in this competition.”

Meghan Keough, GSB ’20, was one of the students who competed at the competition. She said she has been interested in taxes since she took an introductory class her junior year.

She will be starting full-time in PwC’s Core Assurance practice in a few months and has been looking for opportunities to learn more about taxes before focusing on audit work.

“Because I liked the intro tax class so much, I decided to take Professor Veliotis’ advanced class,” said Keough. “While I was in it, he mentioned that he was looking for another senior for the regional competition. I sent him my resumé and he placed me on a team.”

Benjamin Haney, GSB ’22, got involved in the competition after receiving an email last spring inviting students to apply for the competition.

“I applied despite not having a particularly strong interest in accounting; it just seemed like a unique experience,” Haney said. “It ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve made. It led to me developing a love for accounting and deciding to pursue it as a career.”

Keough said the competition had two parts that each built off of the presentation that the team gave at the regional competition last semester.

The night of Friday, Jan. 17, they were given two hours to prepare a tax research memo and supporting calculations based off of a new scenario.

“The scenario was that one of the owners of the fictional company that we had previously consulted for had inherited a stake in a new business, and we had to consider both tax and non-tax considerations to recommend whether or not he should take over managing the business,” said Keough.

The next morning, they were given a new scenario and asked to create a 10 minute presentation to be judged by Deloitte tax professionals.

“This time, the scenario was that the company from Regionals was looking to expand its operations, and we needed to recommend whether it should take on debt or equity to finance the expansion,” she said.

Keough said the team only had a few hours to prep for each challenge, but ended up having a lot of free time to meet other students and professionals in the tax field. Haney said the competition fostered his passion for accounting.

“The experience was absolutely incredible. Deloitte University was a remarkable campus and an amazing place to stay and explore,” he said.

Keough said she loved the experience, but the time constraints made it stressful.

She said it was interesting to work on a case that was a realistic representation of what a tax professional does because most class projects do not go into the same level of detail.

“We had to work very quickly, so it was tough to delegate the work on the spot (especially the first night when we didn’t really know what to expect), but the time passed so fast that we only had to focus on the cases for a few hours total,” said Keough.

Keough said the free time they had throughout the weekend involved a bunch of great events and that Deloitte University, the training center where the competition was held, was really cool.

Keough said this is the first time that a team from Fordham has placed at Nationals and that she was so proud of the team.

“I think the reason we were able to do so was because we worked so well together,” Keough said. “Since we had to work so quickly, we didn’t have much time to decide how to split up the work, but I was really impressed by the way that everyone stepped up to take on different parts of the projects so that we could get everything done. I’m so grateful to have had this experience, and I would recommend the competition to anyone interested in accounting.”

Haney said a lot of people encouraged them to be proud just for winning the region and not to stress too much about the national competition.

“But everyone on our team had the goal of winning. We were honored to represent Fordham well and bring back the championship,” said Haney.

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Barney Students Make Top 3 In The Future of Insurance Case Study Competition Sponsored By Deloitte

Congratulations to Barney School of Business students, Girik Nagpal (President) and Sarah Gada (Diversity & Inclusion Officer) for making the Top 3 in   The Future of Insurance Case Study Competition   presented by the Global Insurance Symposium in partnership with Gamma Iota Sigma (GIS).

The Competition, sponsored by Deloitte, analyzes what the insurance industry will look like in 2030 and beyond. The purpose of the competition is to encourage students in Gamma Iota Sigma chapters across the United States to showcase their talents and earn the opportunity to network with peers and industry leaders at the Global Insurance Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, April 19-21, 2022. Girik and Sarah will be representing the University of Hartford by travelling to Des Moines to present their case to a live audience, competing for a rank within the top 3 chosen teams.

Team members include:

Sarah Gada ’23 , a Finance major with a Risk Management and Insurance minor.

Girik Nagpal   ’21, M' 23 , a Graduate student currently pursuing an MBA (Accounting Concentration) & MSBA. Girik completed his BSBA with a double major in Accounting and Risk Management & Insurance.

“Technology is rapidly changing the insurance ecosystem and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalization for insurers,” explains  Professor Ken Goldstein , a Clinical Instructor of Risk Management and Insurance at Barney. “Sarah and Girik timely reinforced this dynamic by examining how the increased use of technology creates a variety of benefits to customers, including personalized pricing, timely loss control and mitigation services, and more.” 

“Girik and Sarah have taken significant leadership roles in Gamma Iota Sigma and have welcomed the opportunity to immerse themselves in experiential learning,” suggests   Professor John Thomson , Assistant Dean of Career Ready Programs at Barney. “They are honored for the opportunity to compete in the next stage of the Future of Insurance Case Study Competition.” We are very proud of them!”

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UMD Students Take Top Prize in National Deloitte Case Competition

Three engineering students in a four-person University of Maryland team won first place and a $4,000 prize in the national Deloitte Consulting Undergraduate Case Study Competition , held in Westlake, Texas, from March 9–11, 2017.

Among 17 universities represented in the competition, the UMD team was challenged to develop a practical solution for an online clothing retailer to establish brick-and-mortar operations. Team solutions had to adhere to Deloitte’s three-segment consulting method, which includes human capital, technology, and strategy and operations.

The event culminated with four finalist teams presenting onstage to an audience of more than 100 Deloitte employees and participating universities.

The UMD team included sophomores Conor Casey ( aerospace engineering ), Joshua Cocker ( mechanical engineering ), Brooke Nesselt (mechanical engineering), and Alexander Tran ( finance and information systems ). Clark School alumna Kimberly Berlic (B.S. ‘14, mechanical engineering), now a consultant with Deloitte, mentored the UMD team at the national competition.

“Kim told us that you have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable,” said Nesselt. “You have to be confident in your intelligence and your abilities. This encompassed our entire experience in the competition.”

The team also drew from lessons learned through the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) and Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) honors initiatives.

“We were the only team to have a wireframe prototype,” said Nesselt. “We learned how to do this in QUEST, and it is emphasized in EIP.”

But the biggest takeaway for the UMD team was the value of true teamwork. “A team isn’t necessarily a sum of the individuals but how they work together as a cohesive unit,” said Nesselt.

The event was the team’s second trip to the national competition after winning the local competition two years straight.

“We were up against the best business schools in the country,” said Casey. “We had to tell ourselves we can do this. We’ve been here before. It was a rewarding feeling once we did end up winning. It was a powerful learning experience.”

Published March 17, 2017

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