The economics consulting student applied his business coursework in the competition organized by online retailer Chewy.
Jovani Mendez-Sandoval 鈥22 proposed the next big product for Chewy during the 2021 ChewyCase Competition for Students of Color.
The economic consulting major and his teammates from Washington University-St. Louis, Yale University, Rutgers University and the University of North Texas worked over five days to develop a proposal for the next big product or service for Chewy, an online retailer for pet parents.
Chewy placed 30 students across six teams based on complimentary skill sets.
On Jan. 13, teams presented to a panel of judges, who evaluated students on their ability to think big, operate at depth and put customers first.
鈥淎lthough we did not win the grand prize, I was able to hone聽my interpersonal communication and teamwork skills,鈥 Mendez-Sandoval said. 鈥淲e worked together virtually for various hours throughout聽those five days and used our strengths to craft our solution. We proposed an interactive marketing platform within the Chewy website that would build a strong pet community.”
Mendez-Sandoval noted his finance and accounting courses helped him interpret Chewy鈥檚 and its competitors鈥 financial statements while his industrial economics and management information systems courses helped him analyze trends provided by Chewy to create data visualizations in Excel.
鈥淭his case competition gave me experience working in a fast-paced and聽 ambiguous environment by being聽placed聽into a group of competitive students and mentors.鈥