Ever since I decided to double major in mechanical engineering and business last year, I have been looking into different opportunities to gain more experience in the business industry. Earlier this month, I was lucky to be one of the participants in the Simon Business School Early Leaders Case Competition. In the competition, I had the opportunity to work with undergraduate students from different schools and different backgrounds on a real business case and present our solutions to a panel of judges comprising business leaders, faculty, and past winners of the competition.
The competition kicked off on a Friday afternoon with an admissions review session by the Simon Business School admissions office and a student panel, at which several current students at Simon Business School shared their experience as a business school student. They also talked about how they made the decision to attend business school, which is definitely helpful to me as I am still deciding on what I want to do beyond college. Case distribution followed, and my teammates and I then spent the whole evening and the next day working on our presentation. We were asked to come up with marketing strategies for a new start-up with a unique business model—it was a challenging but fun task. I got to learn more about market analysis and different business models, and also honed my presentation skills; and I am very glad to have the chance to network with and learn from students from different schools. The event concluded with an award presentation dinner on Saturday, where everyone got to enjoy some good food after all the hard work.
This was definitely a great academic opportunity—I enjoyed every bit of it, and I definitely recommend it to everyone!