NRF Foundation just announced the 25 semi-finalists for the Next Generation Scholarship and CARS student Barent Getzoff is one of them! Barent is a Junior in the Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Department with a concentration in Retail and Consumer Studies. Full-time Junior and Senior students at NRF University Member schools with a 3.0 GPA or above are eligible to apply for this scholarship. For this competition, students had to submit an essay, personal brand video, two letters of recommendation, his resume, headshot, and school transcripts. In this next stage as a semi-finalist, Barent and his fellow competitors will be required to complete a company-specific project and interview with an assigned retailer. This year, NRF Foundation teamed up with Gap Inc. for the second round of this competition.
Students will be required to create a unique case study that features Hill City, the company’s menswear brand. Hill City is a men’s performance clothing brand that focuses on achieving high quality as well as style. According to an article by NRF Foundation, Gap Inc. and NRF Foundation worked closely together to build this study around a current, relevant topic that would be mutually beneficial for the students and the Hill City brand. The semi-finalists will research the brand, existing strategies for customer acquisition and customer experiences and engagement. Then, each student is required to present recommendations for the proposed growth strategy for Hill City over the next five years based on their findings. These semi-finalists will have the opportunity to work directly with executives from Gap Inc., to learn more about the brand and gain insight about the business.
Student’s performance on this case study determines who will enter the next round of the Next Generation Scholarship, where five semi-finalists will be selected. In this next round, students will conduct in-person interviews with the NRF Foundation Board of Directors. The top recipient, awarded $25,000 to go toward their education, will be announced at the NRF Foundation Gala held in New York on January 12, 2020. Keep up the great work Barent!
