Sheldon Menezes, Vivek Raval (MS interns Summer 2008) and Curtis Gasser (Redmond native) were part of the winning Firenze team from Tuck last year. Having won the contest, they went on to start the Case Competition club at Tuck. As part of their charter running Firenze at Tuck falls right in the crosshairs of their club.

From what I have heard from various student leaders in many schools, the current economy is opening the eyes of many students. When the economy is in the toilet with a broken flush (howz that for a mental vision, you want worse? have a look at Wallstreet), many companies start cutting down on recruiting, which obviously reduces # of offers, and consequently adversely affect MBA salaries. Basic economics prevail as in a constant supply (of MBA talent) - if supply diminishes, competition goes UP!Needless to say, trying to find ways to differentiate oneself can be hard, especially for international students. Enter the case competition club and a new forum of differentiation surfaces.

Tuck this year will have 56 students participating at Firenze from its class size of 200+ making Firenze one of the BIGGEST events on campus, thanx to some great evangelism done by these guys. The students will be working on a case in the Biz Intelligence market space and Consulting. Way to mix to really tough problems in one.

Scott Finley, our videographer was on Tuck campus today filming the local scenary in snowing conditions (snow in Hanover is as rare as rain in Seattle).

Firenze starts all over these American campuses next wk.