Isenberg Students Place Second in National Capital One Case Competition

A team of Isenberg School of Management students earned second place at the 2025 Capital One Business Case Competition, which was held virtually in April.

On top of winning second place out of over 150 teams from across the country, each of the students—Ryan Bonia, Elizabeth Elvin, Kellan McDermott, and Marharyta Nechytailo—also won $500.

Capital One asked teams to design a payment product to meet the evolving financial needs of young adults. To address the market opportunity, the team designed the Capital One Unity Card and Digital Banking Ecosystem, an integrated platform that would enable users to reduce student loan debt through rewards, save collaboratively, harness the potential of “buy now-and-pay later” and peer-to-peer payments, and build financial confidence with a personalized artificial intelligence-based financial assistant. The students presented their solution to a panel of Capital One Strategy executives and answered questions about the key challenges and opportunities associated with it.

“I feel grateful and invigorated to have worked with such a talented team and learned from the thoughtful feedback shared by Capital One,” said Elvin, a senior operations and information management major. “I’m excited to see how the ideas presented during the competition may shape the future of the industry.”

Nechytailo, a junior business economics major studying at UMass Amherst on exchange from the Kyiv School of Economics in Ukraine, said she felt proud and appreciative of the opportunity to participate “and earn second place in the elite national case competition.”

“Competing alongside the talented and skilled teammates and representing the University of Massachusetts Amherst on the national stage is truly motivating,” she said. “I am grateful to the Isenberg Undergraduate Consulting Group (IUCG) for equipping us with the skills that make us capable of making such experiences happen.”

The UMass Amherst students are members of the IUCG, which provides a venue for students to gain the academic and practical knowledge to pursue careers in management consulting while giving back to the local community in a meaningful way. From hosting corporate speakers and recruiters, to developing both the hard and soft skills necessary to succeed, the group aims to help its members get to ace interviews with top-tier firms.