Molson Coors Beverage Co. and longtime partner Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) are challenging 20 students from across the country to the second Innovation Challenge in Milwaukee. The introductory event kicked off on Wednesday in 3rd St. Market Hall.
TMCF is a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that represents nearly 300,000 students from publicly funded Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominately Black Institutions (PBIs). The nonprofit exclusively awards these institutions. TMCF is active in scholarships, capacity building, research initiatives and innovative programs from K-12 and to students in higher education.
The Innovation Challenge is one of several similar programs that TMCF facilitates throughout the year. This specific challenge tasks teams of four to devise a business solution to a prompt chosen by Molson Coors.
The kickoff event was held in the Top Golf Swing Suite in 3rd St. Market Hall on Wednesday evening. The students met each other for the first time that day.
Molson Coors, the age-old brewer and beverage manufacturer, has bases in Milwaukee and Chicago and has contributed $11 million to TMCF over their 35-year partnership.
The Innovation Challenge brings together 20 students from TMCF member schools spread throughout the country. This year's competition is the second iteration of the challenge. Operating with the same prompt, each team will be challenged to create a minimum viable product in three and a half days. The winning team will receive $25,000, but every team will earn reward money.
"It's a very intense process," said TMCF vice president of innovation and entrepreneurship Tamaria Kai Perry. "They're coming from different majors, 20 different students, representing different campuses ... first time meeting each other, first time seeing the city, first time seeing the prompt."
The competition began on Wednesday, Aug. 16, and will last through Saturday, Aug. 19. This year's prompt centers around innovation in the non-alcoholic beverage space. On the final day of the competition, the students will present their solutions to a panel of judges in seven-minute presentations.
"Some of them don't do public speaking, don't like speaking in front of groups, and yet, they're gonna get up and do that on Saturday," said Perry.
Judges will represent Molson Coors executives, business leaders and community nonprofit partners, according to the news release.
Molson Coors' diversity talent acquisition partner, Bella Fergus, noted that the Innovation Challenge is also a recruitment initiative. Each student, in applying for the challenge, affirmed their desire to work with Molson Coors. Positions span the gamut of Molson Coors' operations, from finance to IT to operations to product development.
From over a hundred applicants, TMCF narrowed the resume pool to about 50. From there, Molson Coors reviewed applicants, cross-referencing the professional interests of the students with the job availability throughout the company's departments.
According to Fergus, Molson Coors hired one student from last year's Innovation Challenge as a summer intern in the human resources department. To emphasize recruitment this year, Molson Coors will conduct one-on-one interviews with each student.
The intellectual diversity of the students is a key component of the program, Fergus and Perry explained. Each team member brings different strengths to the table. Innovation requires minds geared toward business, finance, technology and creativity. The constitution of each team is an example of the interdisciplinary nature of tomorrow's workforce.
The winners will likely be announced on Monday. Perry noted that she's expecting to see a varied array of pitches.
The original Innovation Challenge partnership agreement spanned three years. Both Molson Coors and TMCF have agreed to expand the agreement for another three-year term.
