Kellogg students put their skills to the test in a variety of case competitions this year, besting other top business schools in national and international venues. Some highlights from contests thus far:

• Students from the Kellogg School's Part-Time Program earned top honors and a $5,000 prize at the Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition in January. Part-Time students Michael Senical, Varun Goyal, David Chameli and Guillermo Amezcua (pictured above, left to right) topped 11 other teams from schools around the world, including Harvard, the London Business School and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. A team of second-year Kellogg students took the $1,500 second prize; the team included Jeff Bird, Jerry Chan, Ritesh Parekh and Mike Watts.

• Second-year Kellogg students took the $10,000 top prize at the Target Channel Reinvention Case Competition in February, developing a growth plan for the retailer's video game market. Sarah Clabby, Edward Lin, Shaina Morphew and Daniel Stern, all '10, comprised the winning team.

• The Kellogg School tied with the University of Texas for first place in the Net Impact Challenge in November. Students Kate Jackson, David Morse and Keith Schuricht, all '11, presented a plan to increase recycling rates on campus by 50 percent.

In addition, Kellogg teams finished second in the following contests:

• The International MBA Case Competition at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain
• The regional Wal-Mart Better Living Business Plan Challenge (hosted at the James L. Allen Center)
• The Wharton MBA Buyout Case Competition
• The Education Innovation Case Competition (hosted on Kellogg's Chicago campus)
• The UNC Real Estate Development Challenge.