Business & Technology Student Achievements

The Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology encourages its students to pursue external opportunities to showcase their talents. Our mission is to prepare students and contribute to their growth and success in their future careers in the fashion and business industry. By doing so, we give our students a platform to develop their skills and gain new and beneficial experiences.

Our students partake in various academic competitions and contests. These opportunities have given our students the chance to travel internationally and compete with students worldwide. Some of these academic events allow students to win scholarships, grants, awards, medals, and academic recognition.

School of Business and Technology students have achieved success in all of these competitions, challenges and invitational events:

• Wharton-Baker Invitational
• The World Retail Congress – Future of Retail Challenge
• The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund – Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Award
• Infor-FIT Fashion Design: ICONS Awards Contest
• Barney’s New York Foundations Summer College Intensive Program
• IFFTI Student Design Competition, Donghua University. Shangai, China
• The Bio-Design Challenge
• The New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC)

We are proud of all our students who participated in these events and represented the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology.

Student Competitions and Contests

The Wharton Baker Invitational 

The Wharton-Baker Invitational is an annual event co-coordinated by the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of Business and the Jay and Patty Baker School of Business at the Fashion Institute of Technology.  

Students spend an exciting day interacting and teaming up to learn beyond the classroom. Students spend the early part of the day gaining industry insights from Wharton School and FIT B&T faculty, then move on to learning unique case studies and problem solving industry challenges through the day. All student teams present their evaluations in front of their peers, and industry leaders, such as Wharton and FIT faculty, and Jay Baker. 

The Wharton-Baker Invitational is a one of a kind event that allows our students to have a true experience with students from other academic backgrounds. By interacting with one another, students gain communication and networking skills that are essential in their targeted careers.

The World Retail Congress - Future of Retail Challenge

The World Retail Congress – Future of Retail Challenge is an international competition that attracts various colleges and school internationally. The Baker School of Business and Technology is proud to be represented by our students, with FIT having won three years since participating in the Future of Retail Challenge. (13’, 14’ & 16’)

The World Retail Congress – Future of Retail Challenge is spearheaded by one of our B&T faculty, FBM Chairperson Robin Sackin Litwinsky. A collective of students that have participated in the Future of Retail Challenge are from our B&T majors (AMC, CFM, FBM, ITM & TDM).

The Future of Retail Challenge allows students to gain experience and be able to assess actual problems that may be of future use. Such examples of previous challenges include building business plan and proposals that correlate with today’s marketplace. Each year the World Retail Congress hosts the annual event in an international city, such as Madrid, Spain, Dubai, UAE or Paris, France, where the selected students present and are judged by the panel of industry and professional judges for their purposed solution for the Future of Retail Challenge.

 

The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund - Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Award

The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund - Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Award is awarded to four students who have been recognized for their achievements and presentation in the national case study competition.

FIT is one of the sixty member schools that is a part of this competition. A mix of colleges and universities that include both the top retail, design and fashion programs in the country and many of the most respected business school. FIT is proud to allow students to have the opportunity to network with senior executives and gain networking and skills through this experience.

FIT students have been prior and current recipients of the YMA-Geoffrey Beene Fashion Scholarship Fund.  Vivian Tai was a finalist and a winner for the 2017 $10,000 YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund – Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship. She is picture below with Mara Hutton, Executive VP, Geoffrey Beene Foundation and Tom Hutton, President  & CEO, Geoffrey Beene, LLC.

She was also featured on WWD.com and the MR Magazine.

SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence

The SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence is an annual ceremony that awards the SUNY’s outstanding students based on their excellence and achievements.

The Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence was created in 1997 to recognize students who have best demonstrated, and have been recognized for, the integration of academic excellence with accomplishments in the areas of leadership, athletics, community service, creative and performing arts, campus involvement, or career achievement.

Each year, SUNY campus presidents establish a selection committee, which reviews the accomplishments of exemplary students. Nominees are then forwarded to the Chancellor’s Office for a second round of review. Finalists are then recommended to the Chancellor to become recipients of the award.

The Bio-Design Challenge

The Biodesign Challenge, a program of Genspace, is a university competition that encourages college students to envision new ways to harness living systems and biotechnology for future applications. Its goals are threefold: to prepare young artists and designers to work with emerging biotech; to build collaborations between artists, designers, and biologists; and to engage the public with visions for the future applications of biotechnology.

Team #GROWAPAIR—comprising Danielle Esposito (left) and Dylon Shepelsky (center), both Textile Development and Marketing majors, and Arianna Wong (right), a Fashion Business Management major—was chosen by a panel of judges from among four FIT teams to compete against 22 universities from seven countries around the world.

Having won the internal FIT competition, Team #GROWAPAIR showcased its project at MoMA to an audience of 200 curators, artists, designers, and scientists. They competed for prizes, including the Glass Microbe, an artwork produced by U.K. artist Luke Jerram that symbolizes the intersection of art, design, and biology.

Infor-FIT Fashion Design: ICONS Award Contest

Infor and FIT have created the ultimate design contest exploring the real-world collaboration between fashion designers and business teams. FIT Fashion Design students submit their red-carpet ready creations to a panel of judges including fashion and retail creatives, and business leaders. Then, the FIT Fashion Business Management students will submit marketing plans to take the winning look from the design contest to the market.

The two winners chosen – who are students from FIT’s Schools of Art and Design and Business and Technology - will each receive a $5,000 award. The designer will have the opportunity to collaborate with a professional gown fabricator in New York and the opportunity to see his or her winning gown on the red carpet at the Harper's Bazaar ICONS event on September 8, during New York Fashion Week.

This year, FIT Fashion Design student Brandon Johnson is the winner of the Fashion Design portion of this contest. Brandon wowed the judges with his unique design and intricate take on his vision.

FIT Fashion Business Management student team RC.e was chosen as the winner for the marketing plan portion of the contest. The student team of Sonne Bajwa and Kathleen Frey, were present at the Harper’s BAZAAR ICONS event on September 8 2017, kicking off New York Fashion Week.

Friend of a Friend’s Olivia Perez with the winners of Infor/FIT Fashion Design ICONS Awards Brandon Johnson, Kathleen Frey, and Sonne Bajwa.

Also featured in the Harper’s Bazaar Website and our FIT newsletter.

Barneys New York Foundation’s Summer College Intensive Program

The Barneys New York Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Barneys New York, launched in 2016, its Summer College Intensive Program, as an initiative to support retail business education in the New York-metro area.

Students selected for this program are nominated by their School Deans or Department Chairs and are required to complete a four-week program of attending presentations, meeting with members of senior management, and collaborating with other members of the program to deliver a 360-degree strategy to the company’s CEO and other C-class executives.  All of the students in the program receive a small scholarship, are eligible for future internships and employment, and receive small perks throughout their time with Barneys New York.

Students from any of the Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology programs are eligible to apply through their Department Chair or the Office of the Dean. Applications are accepted shortly before Spring Break and the nominated student will attend the program during the first half of the summer. 

One of our B&T students was chosen to represent FIT alongside colleagues who represented Parsons, University of Pennsylvania, New York University (NYU), LIM, and Fordham University. 

IFFTI Student Design Competition, Donghua University, Shanghai, China

Donghua University will host a design competition entitled “Fusion” for the students of IFFTI (International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes) member institutions at the 2018 IFFTI Annual Conference. This competition will be held at College of Fashion and Design, Donghua University, Shanghai, China from April 9-13, 2018.

The theme – " Fashion Futures" – has been chosen to inspire all delegates of the conference to think about the future of fashion across different sectors such as education, industry, culture, etc. We look forward to the academic paper presentations that will address this theme and the stimulating discussion that it will create.

Donghua University is planning a number of activities and events for delegates to enjoy throughout the conference, including fashion shows, exhibitions, panel discussion, and visit of fashion company. We hope that all delegates will enjoy these events and take the opportunity to network and share information with one another.

The competition is open to both current students and those who have graduated for less than one year. 

The New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC)

The New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) is a venture creation and innovation competition that was established in 2010 to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship throughout New York’s colleges and universities.

The lead organizing institutions have grown the NYBPC from a small, regional competition into a statewide competition with some of the largest awards and prizes of any student business competition in the world. The NYBPC is the only leading collegiate business competition that is a regionally coordinated, collaborative statewide program representing over 75 colleges and universities, which sets it apart from all other competitions in the nation.

Two of the ventures developed by students in the Entrepreneurship Program have won honors in the finals of the 8th Annual New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC). Our Entrepreneurship students took home both a second place and an Esprit de Corps award, competing against 331 teams statewide, out of over 400 that applied, many after winning the competitions at their own colleges and universities.

Our FIT entrepreneurs also took first and second place in the services category of the New York City regional semifinals. Over 2,100 student teams from almost 75 public and private colleges across New York State have competed in this statewide competition since 2010.

Additonal Information

Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology
Office of the Dean, Business and Liberal Arts Center, Room B423
227 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001
(212) 217-4330
[email protected]