By the end of the quarter, her team had competed in — and won — the Driehaus Cup. Mariel walked away with a newfound sense of confidence.

“The Driehaus Cup gave me more confidence to be a better business professional,” she says. “It taught me a lot about what it means to be a leader.”

Her team pitched Glucose Guard: a wearable glucose monitor that would alert users with vibrations, rather than the loud, disruptive alerts used in most monitors.

The original idea came from firsthand experience. A team member with Type 1 Diabetes knew that many with the condition hesitated to use glucose monitors in professional settings because alerts were so disruptive.

The pitch went through several iterations. Crowdsourced feedback confirmed the widespread need for a product with less disruptive alerts. Feedback from classmates led the team to make their product more accessible to low-income users.

A lesson in leadership

For Mariel, the process was a lesson in leadership.

“As a team, we came from diverse backgrounds,” she reflects. “Everybody’s ideas added a lot to the overall success of what we were doing.”

This experience, in turn, changed how Mariel understands leadership.

Before competing, “leadership meant reaching the goal no matter what,” she says.

Working with her team showed her that “leadership is much more about fostering a group environment where everybody feels empowered to share their ideas and where everybody feels like their ideas will be heard.”

From onstage to behind the camera