TIAA Backpacks to Briefcases Immersion Case Competition - Presenting at a Career-Relate Conferences (Silver 5 points) - Class of 2028

Presenting at a Career-Relate Conferences (Silver 5 points)

This past June, I was selected as a TIAA Backpacks to Briefcases scholar through the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. 20 scholars were selected from over 800 DevCon scholars from two regions of HBCUs. As part of this program we were flown out to an immersion in Charlotte, North Carolina, and participated in a case competition where we had to solve a problem TIAA is facing and pitch our solution. This proposition excited me because I love problem solving and have extensive experience with pitch competitions, competing nationally and winning over $15,000 for doing so. Going into the case competition, I felt that I would be an asset to my team and we were a shoe-in to win. I came up with ideas the night before and led our team to edit and expand on them and create a presentation in less than two hours. The slide I was tasked to present explained our solution in detail, so it was crucial I delivered it well. 

I choked. 

When my time came, I stumbled over my words, and everything I had practiced suddenly left my mind as if it was never there. I looked between my notes, the slideshow, and my teammates for a lifeline, and while I never found all the words, I did find encouraging smiles and applause from my teammates and other teams in the midst of my mistakes. While I had to fight back tears in my disbelief afterward, I learned a valuable lesson. I was crying because I knew I could do better. My teammates, not knowing anything about my prior experience were proud of me regardless. This experience showed me that there are people who see you for who you are outside of your accomplishments and want to offer the same kind of encouragement and support they would if they knew. They reminded me to go easier on myself and understand that no matter how much prior experience I have, people make mistakes, and its okay to do so. These are the kind of people I want to surround myself with. 

Eden Wilson