WI SHRM Student Conference & Case Competition Recap
On Saturday, April 6th, SHRM student members representing six collegiate teams from Wisconsin gathered at Moraine Park Technical College in Beaver Dam to participate in the 2024 Student Conference & Case Competition hosted by the Wisconsin State Council SHRM. This was an increase of student attendees from the year prior of eighteen, to twenty-five for this year’s event. Their goal was to win 1st Place for their institution as winning funds ranged from $500 - $1,000, by presenting a response to a business case based on a real-life human resources scenario, shared with them two weeks before the event, from SHRM national.
Before the competition, SHRM students and WI SHRM Volunteers Leaders enjoyed breakfast and an opening keynote from Jennifer L. Johnson, Esq. on "The Power of Doing Scary Things." Jennifer led us down her guided testimony of some of the experiences she had on her journey to attend law school. The vulnerability, humor, and relatable energy shared by Jennifer made for a grand transition to actively competing in the Case Competition portion of this event.
After Jennifer’s morning keynote, four SHRM-certified judges evaluated the prepared business case responses of six student teams, which ranged from two to six members. They provided written feedback and scored based on a rubric of criteria, on a rotation. A special thank you to some of WISHRM’s council leaders, that took on the task of judging. This includes: Connie L. Bitter, SHRM-CP, PHR, Jeff Palkowski, MHRM, SHRM-SCP, PHR, PMQ, Jay Stephany, SHRM-SCP, PHR, and Jen Jirsa, PHR, SHRM-SCP. The teams that competed included:
Team 1: UW Madison - Business Badgers
Team 2: UW Parkside - Benefits Bears
Team 3: UW Eau Claire - UWEC SHRM
Team 4: UW Whitewater - Warhawks in the Workplace
Team 5: UW Madison - SHR Center (Graduate)
Team 6: UW LaCrosse - UW LaCrosse
WI SHRM is proud to share that three of our six competing teams were new to the competition!
Following the Case Competition, guests enjoyed an Italian-themed lunch, followed by an afternoon keynote from Jessica Newton of Parallel Design & Coaching LLC on Authentic Leadership: How to Find Your Best Self. Jessica provided us with some of the science associated with why we are sometimes hindered from going for the gold in relation to our desires, and how we can reroute those habits to improve our leadership presence.
We ended the day with feedback from the judges on the competition. Our judges shared overall candid thoughts and some of the things they appreciated from seeing teams actively compete. We also received another plug for SHRM student members to consider volunteerism for the upcoming State Conference in October, in which, if you volunteer five hours of your time, you can be comped your registration fee. To following we had the formal announcement of our 1st - 3rd place winners, who would be awarded cash prizes. The following teams were this year’s winners for the 2024 Case Competition:
- UW Whitewater - Warhawks in the Workplace - $1,000
- UW Eau Claire - UWEC SHRM - $850
- UW La Crosse - UW La Crosse - $500
WI SHRM is proud to have hosted another Student Conference & Case Competition for our student members. A special thank you to all those who helped organize and prepare for this event, as well as all the WISHRM HR leaders who dedicated time, mentorship, and enthusiasm to our student attendees. It was a fantastic day to celebrating with both students, and HR leaders in Wisconsin as we continue to promote and engage the future workforce of HR into more experiences relevant to living this SHRM life!
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