A team of four graduate students from Indiana University Bloomington has been selected to take part in the fifth annual Haas Education Leadership Case Competition, taking place Friday and Saturday (Feb. 18-19) at the University of California-Berkeley.
IU team members are Caitlin Baird, a Master of Public Affairs student in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs; Rachel Krefetz, a Ph.D. student in SPEA; and Anne Christensen and Neha Kale, M.B.A. students in the Kelley School of Business.
IU students (from left) Neha Kale, Anne Christensen, Rachel Krefetz and Caitlin Baird prepare for this weekend's Haas Education Leadership Case Competition.
The case competition is designed to bring attention to a critical, real-time issue in education and provide an opportunity for talented and dedicated students to create potential solutions. Other teams are from University of California-Berkeley, London Business School, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, MIT, Stanford, University of Southern California and Yale.
"We're very proud and pleased that two SPEA students have been chosen to participate," said David Reingold, associate dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. "Caitlin and Rachel embody the qualities so necessary in today's leaders: the ability to find effective solutions to real problems. I'm sure they will represent Indiana University very well."
"Nonprofit, educational and governmental institutions need good management as much as any Fortune 500 company," said Philip T. Powell, chairman of the M.B.A. program at the Kelley School. "Anne and Neha will make Kelley proud, and their participation gives testament to the innovative curriculum we have built, including our Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship offered in partnership with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs."
The mission of the Education Leadership Case Competition is to have a positive impact on America's public schools by developing innovative solutions for today's education challenges and strong leaders for tomorrow's education reforms. The 2011 competition will focus on the Los Angeles Unified Schools District, the second-largest district in the nation. LAUSD is undergoing major initiatives and will be looking to case-competition participants for strategic recommendations to assist with these efforts.
Teams receive the details of the case a week ahead of time, develop their solution, and take it to Berkley to present the plan in front of judges. Prizes are $3,000 for the first-place team and $2 ,000 for the second-place team.
In 2010, the case competition focused on challenges and opportunities facing Pittsburgh Public Schools. A team from the Stanford Graduate School of Business took first place and a team from Harvard was second. For more information, see http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/education/ELCC/index .html.
