Four students from Missouri S&T earned the “Most Innovative Solution” award at the Tenaska Business Challenge, a multi-university competition hosted at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln Feb. 25-27. 

The competition challenges teams to develop solutions to real-world industry problems. S&T’s team consisted of four environmental science students: senior Zach Beers; first-year students Grace Sheahan and Anistyn Stennett; and sophomore Kya Merriman. The team won $500.

“While I am glowing with pride, their interdisciplinary education really put them at an advantage, so this is a win for many departments,” says Dr. Robin Verble, environmental science program director and professor of biological sciences. 

During the competition, teams were tasked with developing a strategy for a fictional community called “Commonwealth City.” In the scenario, the city had recently experienced a “1-in-50-year” winter storm that disrupted the natural gas supply and caused energy bills to spike dramatically, from an average of about $145 to nearly $1,000 before government assistance. Their mission was to create a fuel plan, a finance plan and a marketing plan.

Beers joined the team to represent S&T at the university’s first appearance at the large case competition.

“For other schools, this is practically a sport that several teams compete to have the chance to attend, so I was grateful for the opportunity to challenge myself and work with a group on a big stage like this one,” Beers says. 

Sheahan joined the team to expand her horizons. She says that in order to reach meaningful solutions to problems, people need to work in multidisciplinary ways.

“It was nice to be able to contribute something and to win ‘most innovative’ without having any significant business background,” Sheahan says.

Merriman said she wanted to strengthen her teamwork and presentation skills.

“That is something I will definitely be doing in my future job positions,” Merriman says. “My teammates were super supportive, and I learned so much from them.”

Stennett said it was important for their team to win “Most Innovative Solution” since they were competing against mostly business and finance students.

“It felt like we were invited to the competition because of the different background we could bring to the table, and it was rewarding to be recognized for our commitment to a different approach,” Stennett says.

The S&T team won “most innovative” because they came up with a solution that stood out amongst the competition. 

“We received several comments from judges that our finance plan was unique,” Sheahan says. “It felt really good to be a team composed of non-business majors.”

“To me it tells the story of the underdogs,” Merriman says. “Even though we didn’t have the same economics or business skills as the other teams, we were able to overcome that and create a good solution that stood out. We weren’t ‘strictly business’ and I think this gave us an upper hand.”