Eight teams named semi-finalists for NRF Foundation’s 2018 Student Challenge

The NRF Foundation today announced eight teams as semi-finalists for the 2018 Student Challenge, a business case competition for NRF Student Association members to demonstrate their creativity and business acumen to retail executives, sponsored by KPMG. The finalists will attend the NRF Foundation GALA in New York City, where the top team will be announced January 14. “The purpose of the Student Challenge is to bring classroom learnings into a real-life business scenario, and this year’s concept delivered on that mission,” NRF Foundation Executive Director Ellen Davis said. “We look forward to seeing this year’s finalists thrive as they use this experience combined with their incredible creativity and educational backgrounds to make a difference in the retail industry upon graduation.” The Foundation has partnered with STORY – a New York City retailer that takes the point of view of a magazine, changes its selection like a gallery and sells things like a store – and KPMG for the fifth year of the competition. Each team, composed of two to four students, was required to select one of three sponsors – 3M, Staples, or CVS – and then develop a 25-page written pitch and a 90-second pitch video to convince STORY CEO and founder Rachel Shechtman on why and how their proposal should come to life. Each proposal was created to provide an experience for the customer through selected merchandise, marketing approach, social media campaigns and carefully selected events. Executives from over 20 retail companies will participate in two rounds of judging. Judges will have access to a team’s pitch presentation and video and will score them against the determined criteria. In the second round, judges will take part in a teleconference with teams and ask questions about the pitch presentation and select the top three teams. In the final round, the final three teams will present live to a panel of retail executives in New York City. The top three teams will receive $5,000 for each participating student. The second-place team will receive $2,500 for each student, while the third-place team will receive $1,500 for each student. The following teams along with their sponsors have been named semi-finalists. To learn more, click here. Columbia College Chicago Chicago/3M

Allison Coppedge Sara Diaz de Villegas Nathan Procell Columbia College Chicago Chicago/Staples Ashley Cairns Blake Fortin Kendall McDermott Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Los Angeles/CVS Natasha Azurdia Njeri Joseph Tiffany Tran Whitney Sutherland Florida State University Tallahassee, Fla./3M Jennifer Groce Alyese Shaffer Alyssa Menendez Iowa State University Ames, Iowa/Staples Jennifer Junker Katie Dukes Meredith College Raleigh, N.C./3M Patricia Kalevas Allison High University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia/3M Kelsey Serraneau Walter Little Anita Mo University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, Wis./3M Megan Lund Danielle Weber Elizabeth Wanzer Victoria Rustad