Graduate students from eleven business schools across the nation-including UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business-gathered at the school yesterday for a two-day competition to propose plans for a school district in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

The competition, which was coordinated by the Haas Leadership in Education Club, serves to show business students how to use their knowledge in the educational sector, said Meera Chary, a second-year Haas graduate student and the club's co-president.

The teams, two of which were from UC Berkeley, were instructed to act as consultants to Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas with the goal of improving the school district after the August 2005 hurricane.

"We realized this issue of New Orleans is huge, not only because of Hurricane Katrina but because even before then, the educational system was challenged," Chary said.

After the hurricane, the state legislature formed the Recovery School District by taking control of 109 underperforming New Orleans public schools, said Lourdes Moran, a judge for the competition who also sits on the Orleans Parish School Board.

The participating teams, from universities including UCLA to Boston College, could send at most four people to the competition. Two team members had to be graduate business students while the other students could have a different field of study, Chary said.

"I'm interested in hearing the business perspective and how the two can come together in new ways," said UC Berkeley team member Jessica Rigby, a second-year doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Education.

After reviewing the 30-page case description a week ago, the teams grappled with a problem given by the district and proposed solutions yesterday, said Hans Cole, a second-year Haas student and the vice-president of the Leadership in Education Club.

Yesterday's round of competitions will be judged today and the top teams will then be sent to a final round, judged by a nine-member panel.

In addition, the judges, one of whom is involved with the district, will be taking these proposals back to potentially incorporate the ideas into legislation, Chary said.

First prize is $3,000 cash and another $2,000 to a donor of the team's choice. Second prize is $1,500 cash and $1000 to a donor, she said.

UC Berkeley team member David Mannix, a first-year graduate student at Haas, said that, while case competitions are common for business school graduate students, this particular competition will have a significant impact.

"I feel like this is directly going to help the world instead of just making money," he said.

Tags: HAAS, NEW ORLEANS