He has walked away with the top prize: a full-tuition scholarship to the Master's of Science in Management program at Nyenrode Business Universiteit in the Netherlands.
Working with teammates Kevin Cabori and Noelle Salter -- both of whom are also graduating this year -- Helm created a strategy for promoting a brand of sustainably produced eggs. The team's ultimate goal was to create a new product category in an existing market.
"I made a deal with Yuting Hu, the leader of one of the other two teams, that whoever won the competition would only buy this brand of eggs, once they got to the Netherlands," Helm recalled.
The University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business teamed up with Nyenrode Business Universiteit in the Netherlands to offer a case competition in which the winner is awarded a full-tuition scholarship to Nyenrode's Master of Science in Management program.
Business and accounting majors scheduled to graduate from Lundquist applied to lead teams. Each competitor recruited two fellow students and worked together to tackle a challenging, internationally-themed business case.
As the leader of the winning team, Helm received the Nyenrode scholarship and heads to the Netherlands to begin the program in August.
The competition's judges included André Nijhof, director of the Master's of Science in Management program at Nyenrode, and Albert van Servellen '67, MBA '70, an alumnus of both Nyenrode and the University of Oregon.
"Launching the case competition felt like stepping into a long standing tradition," said Nijhof. "In the past, more then two-hundred students studied both at the UO and Nyenrode. We want to revive that tradition by making this case competition an annual event."
For competition-winner Helm – who grew up in Grants Pass and has worked part-time in the college's Career Services office for the past two years – the summer is shaping up to be a busy one.
Helm graduates this June and heads to Nyenrode in August to begin his studies. In between those events is another significant milestone – Helm will marry his high-school sweetheart Kelsey Lamont, who is currently a psychology major at Oregon State University and will join him in the Netherlands.
- from UO's Lundquist College of Business