Four second-year students were recently announced as selected representatives of McIntire for the 2021 National Diversity Case Competition (NDCC), hosted by Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. The 10th annual edition of the event will be held virtually Jan. 15-16.
Team McIntire features four participants of the 2023 Commerce Cohort program: Kaylee Corvin (UVA ’23), Steven Jiang (UVA ’23), Rebecca Tilahun (UVA ’23), and Kaa-Lok Yap (UVA ’23).
For the last decade, the event has challenged more than 150 underrepresented minority business students each year to develop a specific strategy addressing a particular diversity issue.
All four pre-Comm students on the McIntire team have benefited from the academic mentorship, career preparation, and personal development fostered by the Commerce Cohort program, and bring their own leadership and volunteering experiences and skills from both on and off Grounds.
Corvin currently serves as a Financial Accessibility Committee member for UVA Student Council and as Outreach Coordinator for College Republicans at UVA. Jiang is the Asian Student Union Treasurer; Program Director for Madison House’s CASH program; and a Teaching Assistant volunteer with Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars (VISAS) program. Tilahun is also a volunteer at Madison House involved in the CASH program, a member of the Black Commerce Student Network, and part of the Financial Accessibility Committee with UVA Student Council. Yap is a member of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), is Captain of UVA’s League of Legends Esports team, and also serves as a volunteer with both the VISAS and CASH programs.
Fourth-year Commerce student Sydney Mathis (McIntire ’21) will be the team coach, while additional support will be provided by faculty adviser Associate Dean Rebecca Leonard.
This year’s Kelley School of Business event will welcome 42 teams to vie for $20,000 in cash prizes during the weekend-long virtual competition, which typically also includes featured workshops, talks by business professionals, and student networking sessions with the event’s corporate partners.
According to the NDCC, the founding principle of the event is the axiom “Diversity in business benefits us all.” The January competition provides a platform for “bringing together underrepresented minority business students from across the nation to showcase their talent and network with corporate recruiters,” thereby “increasing opportunities for minorities in business and foster more corporate diversity.”
