Associate Dean Luke Greeley (far left) poses with the Essex County College team and John Olotewo, the team mentor (center, left)

Essex wins case competition for county college students

A team of students from Essex County College finished first in Rutgers Business School’s annual New Jersey County College Case Competition (NJC4).

The team – Khadijah Jalloh, Bryan Martinez, Sarah Newen, David Ortega and Adrian Ramirez Rivera – captured the top prize in competition that pitted them against teams from Hudson County Community College, Mercer County Community College, and Middlesex College. Mercer County Community College’s team won second place.

The competition requires students to present a detailed business plan for solving a real- world business problem, in this case making IKEA a more sustainable company, to a panel of judges. They were judged on their ideas, public speaking, the quality of the slides and the comprehensiveness of their plans.

“The opportunity to expose the students to this experiential aspect of learning has enormous value,” said Essex County College mentor John Olotewo.

Rutgers awards $1,000 and $500 scholarships to students on the two winning teams who decide to continue their college education at the business school.

- Susan Todd 

Essex County College student Bryan Martinez takes a photo of the team's first place award.
Bryan Martinez, an Essex County College student, takes a pic of his team's first place award.
Photo shows members of the Mercer County Community College and their mentors.
Mercer County Community College won second place. The team was made up of students, Aiden Castillo, Kyle Doherty, Brandon Huscha, Kavya Kapoor, Henrik Reyes and Sharon Vaides. The students pose above with mentors Amy Bauer-Sinicin and Rubana Syed.
Hudson County Community College students pose with their mentor Elana Winslow.
Hudson County Community College's team was the first to present and received kudos from the judges for their ideas. The team is shown here with mentor Elana Winslow. Students representing Hudson County Community College were: Mikaella Faye Acob, Garrielle Baldwin, Aadil Ishtiaq, Katerin Marquez.
Students from network with Eric Diamond, president of Greencastle Consulting.
Two members of the Middlesex College team network with one of the competition's judges, Eric Diamond, president of Greencastle Consulting. After the competition, Diamond said he was "really impressed" with the students who participated. "I would be handing out internships like candy," he said.
The judges included Rutgers alumni, faculty and other professionals.
Luke Greeley, associate dean at Rutgers Business School-Newark, (far left) and Shen Yeniyurt, vice dean, (far right) pose with the professionals who judged the teams, RBS alumnus Michael Pavlo, consultant Eric Diamond, RBS alumnus Edwin Amaya, RBS alumna Haley Carlsen, and Joseph Agresta, an RBS professor of professional practice in supply chain management.
The members of Essex County College's team pose with their first place award.
The Essex County College team hamming it up after being announced the first place winners. "I see a bunch of future consultants," one judge told students after they presented. The team received kudos for its research and its presentation. Bryan Martinez said it was students' first time participating in an academic competition.
Members of the Middlesex College team pose with their mentor and RBS-Newark Associate Dean Luke Greeley.
Students Karla Castillo Javier, Allison George, Lourdes Jimenez, Sindhu Murthy, Dhruv Sethi, Jason Tabet (not in order of appearance in photo) represented Middlesex College in the competition. The team was mentored by Charles O'Gorman. Judges praised the team for its sensitivity analysis, its field trip to an IKEA store and its idea for the retailer to partner with local artisans.

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