Ags Sweep Fashion Scholarship Fund Competition Our Mays Business School Marketing majors win AGAIN in a nation-wide Fashion Retail Case Study Competition! Four of Dr. Sandi Lampo’s students won the prestigious 2012 YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund Case Study Competition. The winners are Alexa Adams, Rhen Eichhorn, Kailah Gonzalez and Chelsea Sauder. They each won $5,000, an internship in the fashion industry in New York City, and a trip to NYC to attend the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund Gala on January 10, 2012 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Competing against schools such as Harvard, Cornell, Wharton, FIT, Parsons and many more, our students completed individual case studies requiring each to create an online retail business, a competitive SWOT analysis, a profitability plan, a marketing plan and a customer retention strategy. Along with the written case study, these students also had to engage in personal interviews with a fashion executive from New York. According to Dr. Sandi Lampo, “This is a very challenging, intense but also rewarding project. These students committed 110% of themselves to this case study, conducting secondary research, mystery shopping, focus groups, personal interviews, and survey research with both industry executives and their chosen target markets. They had to effectively communicate all of their ideas and research in both written and verbal formats. They also had to explain and justify all of their business decisions to a fashion industry executive…I am so incredibly proud of these students and their work. They definitely exemplified the excellence of our TAMU Mays Business School students on a national platform.”
2010-2011 was the first year Texas A&M University was invited to participate in this prestigious inter-university case competition. Over a two year period (2010-2011 and 2011-2012), nine of our students have been awarded a total of $45,000 in YMA FSF scholarships. The Master of Ceremonies of this YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund Gala, Alina Cho of CNN, called this competition the “Super Bowl of Fashion Scholarships.” Dr. Lampo attended the ceremony with students at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Designer Jason Wu, Executive Editor of Women’s Wear Daily Bridget Foley, and Chief Merchandising Officer of Macy’s Inc. Jeff Gennette delivered remarks. Fashion icons such as Yigal Azrouel, Iris Apfel, Sophie Theallet, supermodel Karlie Kloss, and over 850 other top executives from the fashion industry’s elite attended the star-studded event. Participating companies such as Geoffrey Beene, Calvin Klein, Li & Fung, Fishman & Tobin Apparel, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Nordstrom, Perry Ellis International, Bloomingdale’s, Kenneth Cole, Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger are just a few of the companies that helped raise over $1.5 million at this 2012 Gala.
Dr. Sandi Lampo with scholarship winners Rhen Eichhorn, Chelsea Sauder, Alexa Adams, and Kailah Gonzalez.
Finally, Dr. Lampo and the four scholarship recipients from Texas A&M were pictured in the January 15, 2012 New York Times – Sunday Style section in a photo taken by the iconic Bill Cunningham!
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“Each university is limited to submitting five entries for the YMA FSF case competition. The fact that four of the five students were selected for the scholarship award speaks highly of the caliber of the students, as well as the dedication and commitment of Sandi Lampo who is the instructor for the Retailing Case Competition course,” says Dr. Rajan Varadarajan, Department Head of Marketing at the TAMU Mays Business School.