First place from this year’s American Evaluation Association Student Evaluation Case Competition went to Evaluators Will, a team of three Michigan State University students. The students include Dayna Gallagher, a master’s student in program evaluation, Missy Catlow, a certificate student in program evaluation, and a doctoral student who is pursuing a graduate certificate in program evaluation, Kevin Yu.
This year, 17 teams participated in the nationwide competition, which offers a unique opportunity for students to gain hands-on experiences in program evaluation, which is the systematic process of gathering and analyzing data to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of a program, project, or policy.
Together as a team, they analyzed a real-world case from OK You, a nonprofit that engages youth and their supporters in using arts and wellness resources and practices to navigate emotions and stay self-connected. They were tasked with evaluating the 2025 OK Challenge, a national competition that has youth create art-based solutions for mental wellness, which are then judged and released as public resources.
After reviewing the case, the team worked to develop an innovative evaluation plan to learn about the youth’s motivations in engaging with the OK Challenge, how the youth experienced inner transformation, and the long-term impact of youth leadership within local communities.
“While I've worked on evaluations professionally, MSU's graduate program has provided me with the language, frameworks, and confidence to take on new challenges. Our evaluation design for OK You pulled from our professional experience and combined that with the new ideas and technical standards we've applied in our courses,” said Gallagher.
In their evaluation, the team proposed a participatory, mixed methods evaluation design that prioritizes youth leadership. The approach establishes a Youth Evaluation Team and uses narrative-driven methods alongside pulse surveys and existing data sources.
“Your detailed approach to evaluation questions, sub-questions, and indicators, along with grouping qualitative data collection methods, shows you've thought through every aspect of the program,” said one of the competition judges during evaluation. “Overall, your evaluation plan is comprehensive, innovative, and totally in sync with the organization's values. It'll definitely lead to a meaningful and impactful assessment of the program's success.”
Upon receiving the case materials, each team only had 8 hours to submit their final evaluation.
“At the end of the event, our team reflected on how the competition changed our perceptions of our own limitations—what would normally take weeks or months to complete, we accomplished in 8 hours,” said Gallagher. “It also helped us all let go of perfection for the sake of progress! Good evaluation design is as much an art as a science, and having opportunities to apply learnings to real-world scenarios has helped me define my own style. As an online student, this was a great opportunity to build relationships with other students and learn from each other!”
As winners of this competition, the team will go on to compete in the World Evaluation Case Competition. They will also be recognized at the American Evaluation Association (AEA) annual conference, which each member receiving a year of free AEA membership and complimentary annual conference registration.
“This is an amazing team of MSU students who were able to capture the essence of a responsive evaluation plan in an artistic and engaging way,” said Melanie Hwalek, competition coach and Program Evaluation faculty. “They are on their way to having successful program evaluation careers.”