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Smith School students win third place at Wake Forest-Summit Case Challenge

Four-person team wins prize money, gains invaluable learning experience

By Chris Trevino

On March 7, 2011

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In early February a team of University of Maryland undergraduates from the Robert H. Smith School of Business took home third place at the 21^st annual Wake Forest Summit-Undergraduate Case Challenge. The competition, held Feb. 3, was attended by a handful of the most prestigious business schools in the country.

Maryland's team, made up of seniors Chris Coraggio (marketing, operations management and information systems) and Vidya Sathyamoorthy (finance and marketing), juniors Brett Cullen (finance and marketing) and Prannoy Nambiar (marketing and finance) gave the team a harmony of experience and fresh outlook. Coraggio and Sathyamoorthy were sophomores on the team that won first in the 2009 Case Challenge.

The competition began in November, when around 40 teams had a one week period to submit their write-ups for consideration. Six teams were then selected. The second round of the Case Challenge, which was sponsored by Nautica, gave teams 36 hours to come up with a solution to a problem dealing with the Nautica brand.

"Once the competition started, it was overall very stressful. Only when we solidified our ideas and completed more work did we got more and more excited to present," said Coraggio. After the 36 hour work period, teams then had 20 minutes to present their proposal to judges, followed by a 15 minute Q&A.

After 36 hours of work and little sleep, the challenge concluded at the Market Summit Gala, where representatives from top companies including BB&T and IBM attended. The Smith School team took third, behind prominent schools in University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Northeastern University School of Business Administration. They were also awarded a check for $1,000 dollars to be split among the four members and spend however they wish.

Cullen, one of the newcomers to the team, thought it was an "amazing experience," despite the pressure of the competition.

"I was basically running on academic adrenaline for 36+ hours to get that case done, and done well," Cullen said. However, it will not stop her from returning.

"It was something completely new to me, and I cannot wait to hopefully compete again next year."