The Corporate Challenge offers a hands-on opportunity for students to work with each other on a case study addressing emerging issues faced by a local business. Participants in the Corporate Challenge work in teams to create a plan to expand an existing business, gain hands-on business experience and other professional skills, collaborate with senior corporate leadership to solve a critical industry challenge, and receive a certificate of participation to build to students’ resume. Students also earned Experiential Education credit for participating. Dr. Amr Swid, Director of Experiential Education, organizes the Corporate Challenge. This year, he reached out to McGraw-Hill Education and brought them to NYIT. He also participated in case writing and judging, as well as the design and distribution of the awards.

This year, students worked with McGraw-Hill Education. McGraw-Hill is a global learning science company and one of the “big three” educational publishers that provides customized educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education.

Our first place winners of the 2017 Corporate Challenge are PritikaArun Thakkar, Harshwardhan Shekhawat, Jacob Roscoe, and Shivangi Patel with the assistance of Dr. Steven Shapiro.

Jacob Roscoe, a first year undergraduate student who participated in the Corporate Challenge for the first time, states, “The Corporate Challenge was a great experience to apply skills that I learned in the classroom directly to a practical, real-life situation. Although the challenge demanded long nights, hours of preparation and countless meetings, it was well worth it. Our success was made possible by the feedback and support of NYIT professors. After our semi-final presentation, we had some challenges to overcome as we knew that out of all the other teams, we were the most inexperienced and junior team. Each of us brought our own unique skills and talents to create something we were proud of. I can’t wait until next year to participate in the challenge and encourage my friends to do the same.”

Pritika Thakkar, another first year undergraduate student on the first place team, states, “I feel privileged and want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Swid and all of the professors who took extra effort in organizing the Corporate Challenge and bringing in an exceptionally renowned company like McGraw Hill to NYIT. I, being an undergraduate freshman, never thought that within four months of being a student at NYIT, I would be able to win first place in the Corporate Challenge 2017. I firmly believe that my team’s success could have never been possible without the help of Dr. Swid, who did his best to bring this company to the college. He has truly raised the bar of events at NYIT. I would like to thank NYIT for giving me this opportunity, and I look forward to participate in future Corporate Challenges.”

The winners of second place are Frances Glenny, Dina Ragab, Matej Selecky, and Kavin AnnugalaKarunakaran, with the assistance of Dr. Deborah Cohn.

A few of these winners also had positive things to say about their experience in the Corporate Challenge. Frances Glenny, a senior, states, ” This was my second year competing in the Corporate Challenge. Both times I have worked in cross-major teams benefiting from the unique strengths and viewpoints of each member. The case studies pushed us to apply the theoretical knowledge gained in our courses at NYIT, to think outside the box and to come up with a creative recommendation. The 2017 case on McGraw Hill was especially topical because it revolved around their approach to textbooks which is an issue we currently face as students. Working together we were able to create a presentation to pitch our recommendations to representatives from McGraw Hill. The level of competition this year was incredibly high with many teams making wonderful recommendations. We were honored to be awarded second place. Special thanks must go to our faculty advisor, Dr. Deborah Cohn, who mentored us through the Challenge and to Dr. Amr Swid and Dr. Purushottam Meena for putting together the Challenge. I look forward to participating in Corporate Challenge 2018!”Additionally, Dina Ragab, an M.B.A. student, states, “This year’s Corporate Challenge was truly an exciting and challenging experience. I believe that we were fortunate to have an industry giant like McGraw Hill Education to take interest in our challenge and spend time talking to us and listening to our recommendations, thanks to Dr. Swid for attracting McGraw-Hill and working together with Professor Meena to write a challenging case. It was definitely a unique opportunity and I am very happy I was part of it and the hard work my team and I put into the case, paid off.”

Faculty members from the School of Management also participated in the Corporate Challenge. Dr. Rajen Tibrewala and Dr. Abram Poczter participated in judging. Dr. Steven Shapiro, Dr. Deborah Cohn, Dr. Eleanor Schwartz, and Dr. Matthew Mecs were the advisors for the winning teams. Additionally, Dr. Diamando Afxentiou attended the final event and cheered on the teams.