National Retail Foundation
Jessica Landzberg, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named the top recipient of its "2016 Ray Greenly Scholarship" by the NRF Foundation. Landzberg, the top finalist of five, was awarded the $25,000 scholarship at Shop.org’s Retail’s Digital Summit in Dallas. She will receive her bachelor’s in Finance, Accounting and Marketing this May 2017.
The NRF Foundation’s 2016 Ray Greenly’s recipients are:
- Jessica Landzberg, Finance, Accounting and Marketing, Washington University in St. Louis ($25,000)
- Ce’Erica Roland Ferguson, Fashion Marketing and Management, Savannah College of Art and Design – Atlanta ($10,000)
- Ada Lio, Master of Business Administration, University of Pennsylvania ($10,000)
- Giannina Ong, English and Classics, Santa Clara University ($10,000)
- Kaley Suero, Economics, University of Pennsylvania ($10,000)
Each applicant was required to go through two phases of the application process. Phase 1 required each student to submit an innovation essay, along with a two-minute personal brand video and their transcripts.
For Phase 2, the NRF Foundation developed case studies with HSN, Nordstrom and REI. Executives from these companies hosted information sessions with the students assigned to their company’s in order to answer questions and provide additional information related to the case study. Applicants were not required to be in a retail program or major to apply, but were encouraged to explain how their major relates to digital retail.
More than 75 retail executives were involved in selecting the semi-finalists based on the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated in their applications. A panel of retail executive judges convened at Retail’s Digital Summit to interview the semi-finalists and determine who would receive the four $10,000 scholarships and the top $25,000 scholarship.
The scholarship was established to honor former Shop.org VP Ray Greenly, who died of cancer in 2005. The program provides financial aid to students studying in fields such as engineering, computer science, marketing, business, e-commerce and economics.
“The NRF Foundation created this scholarship to showcase the importance of the digital retail field,” says Ellen Davis, the NRF Foundation's executive director. “We are impressed by the caliber of our finalists this year. They truly stood out as talented, driven and passionate students who are going to do amazing things for the digital retail industry.”