For the 2022 NRF Foundation Student Challenge, teams of two to four students from NRF University Member schools competed in the business case competition for a chance to earn tuition scholarships and industry recognition.
The teams were tasked with acting as members of the Kohl’s product development team and had the opportunity to develop a new private label brand that embodies the meaning of diversity and promotes equity and inclusion through product assortment, marketing strategy and pricing. They have developed pitch presentations to hypothetically convince the Kohl’s leadership team of how their new brand embodies diversity and inclusion and why it will cater to new and existing customers.
Pitches were evaluated by a group of retail executive judges on their research and understanding, creativity and feasibility, visual effectiveness and structure and quality. Ten teams advanced to the semifinals, which included Q&A calls with a panel of new retail executive judges.
Three teams advanced to the final round, where they pitched to a third panel of judges.
The Scholarships
Each student on the top team will receive a $5,000 scholarship; students on the runner-up team will each receive a $2,500 scholarship, and third place team members will each receive a $1,500 scholarship. The top team will be named during the NRF Foundation Honors in New York City.
Top Team
K-Lynn Ward, Tooba Athar and Haley Shannon
Finalist Teams
Riley Thorpe, Rachel Baranowski, Rosa Terenzio and Ella Bondy
Ethan Partington, Ansley Young, Vanesa Paramo and Karolina Blachowska
