CLAS Case Competition

During the 2019-2020 academic year, the Center for Career Development partnered with two employers to sponsor case competitions exclusively for College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) students. The goal of these case competitions were to provide an opportunity for CLAS students across majors to work together and showcase their unique skills to employers within the context of a real-world case.

Team Eligibility

  • Teams must be made up of 2-4 undergraduate students currently pursuing majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Team members must represent at least 2 different majors within the College or Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Teams must select one member to serve as the team captain who will be responsible for registering the team and submitting the team’s PowerPoint for their final presentation
  • All team members must be available to attend the Mandatory Case Competition Orientation and Final Presentations (see dates below)
  • By participating, all team members agree to have their names, class years, and majors posted on the Center for Career Development web page, blog, and social media pages
  • Note: Team spots are limited. Only the first 10 teams to register will be guaranteed a place in the competition.

Case Competition Format

A written case developed by our partner employer will be made available to all case competition participants at the Mandatory Case Competition Orientation. Teams will then have approximately one week to develop a plan to address all aspects of the case on their own and create a PowerPoint presentation of their plan. At the Final Presentations, each team will have 10 minutes to present their PowerPoint to a panel of judges, including representatives from our partner employer, and 5 minutes to answer questions from the judges, for a total of 15 minutes.

Judging

The panel of judges will score each presentation based on the following criteria:

  • Relevance – the degree to which the plan addressed all elements of the case
  • Practicality – the degree to which the plan could be implemented with reasonable resources
  • Creativity – the degree to which the team balanced ideas generated from research and original ideas
  • Inclusivity – the degree to which the plan takes into account all stakeholders who may be impacted

Each team will receive a final score based on input from all judges. First, second, and third place winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony, which concludes the Final Presentations.

Prizes

Prizes are determined by our partner employer and therefore vary by semester. They often include gift cards and company swag from our employer partner.

Questions?

Contact Lisa Famularo at lisa.famularo@uconn.edu

Past Events

  • Spring 2020 Case Competition

    In April 2020, five teams competed in the second installment of the CLAS Case Competition. Unlike the fall semester, the spring CLAS Case Competition was conducted virtually due to the unprecedented circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 13 students who participated represented 11 different majors within the College of Liberal Arts and Science

    Spring 2020 Employer Partner
    TJX is a global, off-price retailer delivering great value to its customers through the combination of “treasure hunt” shopping experience. Within the U.S. TJX operates TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Sierra, and Homesense as well as tjmaxx.com, marshalls.com, and sierra.com. In addition to their U.S. footprint, TJX also boasts more than 4,300 stores in nine countries, four e-commerce sites, and over 270,000 Associates worldwide.

    Case Summary
    Teams were tasked with assuming the roles of buyers and planners for TJX looking to drive sales related to “Back to College” merchandise. Teams were asked to evaluate products offered by TJX and their competitors and provide recommendations about new business opportunities to drive sales to various different customers

    Winning Team– Team Alexis Angelini

     

     

     

     

     

    Alexis Angelini, English/Communication ‘20
    Jennie Fetzer, Communication/Journalism ‘21
    View their presentation here.

     

     

    Second Place– Team Nicole Jain
    Nicole Jain, Psychology/Healthcare Management ‘20
    Srijani Challagundla, Biology ‘21
    Mia Langston, French ‘24
    Shaina Selvaraju, Biology ‘21

    Third Place– Team Liam Hamilton
    Liam Hamilton, Economics/Political Science ‘21
    Prabhas KC, Psychology ‘22

  • Fall 2019 Case Competition

    In October 2019, 11 teams competed in the first-ever CLAS Case Competition. The 33 students who participated represented 16 different majors within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

    Fall 2019 Employer Partner

    Cigna is a global health service company with 95 million customers around the world and more than 40,000 employees worldwide. We’re available for our customers 24/7 with an expansive network built to help them meet their health goals. We’re on a mission to improve the health, well-being, and peace of mind of those we serve.

    Case Summary

    Teams were tasked with assuming leadership roles at WellWatch, a health services company focused on increasing the overall health and well-being of its customers. WellWatch had recently observed a couple of negative trends in their customer service largely related to their mobile app. In light of these trends, WellWatch was seeking solutions to increase their net promoter score and regain their competitive advantage by increasing customer satisfaction, improving employee morale, and decreasing operating expenses. Teams were presented with 4 previously-researched solutions to choose from as well as the option to develop a solution of their own. They were also given access to some of WellWatch’s key financial, operational, customer, and personnel data to inform their decision-making.

    Winning Team – Team F

     

     

     

     

     

    Andrew Annabi, Biological Sciences ‘20
    William Gorman, Physiology & Neurobiology ‘21
    Ryan Kelly, Molecular & Cell Biology ‘20
    View their presentation here.

    Runner Up – Team J

    Liam Hamilton, Economics/Political Science ‘21
    Sean O’Hagan, Mathematics ‘21
    View their presentation here.

    Honorable Mention – Team A

    Ajshe Zulfi, Economics/Health Care Management ‘21
    Catherine Qiu, Molecular & Cell Biology/Mathematics-Statistics ‘21
    Michael Zhu, Molecular & Cell Biology/Economics ‘21
    View their presentation here.

    Honorable Mention – Team C

    Mingfei Ma, Statistics/Actuarial Science ‘20
    Yuhan Li, Statistics/Actuarial Science ‘20
    Peilin Jing, Actuarial Science ‘21
    Zishan Li, Statistics ‘20
    View their presentation here.