A delegation of 42 students from StFX’s Gerald Schwartz School of Business travelled to Ottawa in January to compete at the JDC Central (JDDC) business case competition, the largest undergraduate business school competition in central Canada, and came home with three awards.
The Schwartz School, the only university from Atlantic Canada to compete, finished first in the accounting discipline (team members include Sammy Johnson, Stuart White, and Neil Jennings), and secured a pair of third place finishes, in the human resources category (Shannon Oulette, William MacQuarrie, and Jonathan Hadwen) and in the all-star competition (Sean Keyes and Adnan Coban.)
Student co-captain Renee MacLeod, who led the team with co-captain Hunter Park, says it was incredible seeing the improvements StFX’s JDCC students made and how much they excelled throughout competition weekend.
“Being a small school compared to our competitors, and the only Atlantic Canadian school, we had more pressure to represent ourselves. I have no doubt in my mind that we made an impact that weekend with our high spirit and hard work effort,” she said.
“I was absolutely thrilled,” faculty advisor Professor Jane Fraser said on the results, announced at a gala awards night with over 500 people in attendance.
“It was really exciting to hear that Schwartz had three placements,” she said. “The whole team was really proud of our representation and performance.”
Prof. Fraser says it’s extremely important for students to gain this type of experience.
The competition gives students an opportunity to improve their presentation, time management and collaboration skills and build confidence in analyzing complex business situations, she says.
“In many cases, the panel of judges that students present to are related to the organization that they are analyzing (i.e., founders, employees) which makes it a more ‘real-world’ experience for our students. I am proud of our whole delegation for the work that they put into preparing for competition and how they represented the Schwartz School of Business and StFX University. It was such a memorable experience for our students.”
Even without any awards, Prof. Fraser says it’s a huge accomplishment just to attend, and to compete against larger schools, mostly from Ontario and Quebec, some of which have participation for the event built into their curriculum.
The StFX team also received acknowledgement from Gerry Schwartz, who was in touch with the Dean’s office, to express his congratulations on their accomplishments.
“That was exciting to get that acknowledgement,” Prof. Fraser said.
StFX students travelled by bus to the competition. The Schwartz School sent eight academic teams to the event, held Jan. 19-23, competing in accounting, finance, human resources, marketing, international business, business strategy, entrepreneurship, and digital strategy. Additionally, three other StFX teams participated in the sport, social and debate disciplines.
Professor Fraser says the competition was open to all Schwartz students from first year to fourth. Students applied to participate last spring and teams were formed over the summer with practices held throughout the fall.
Each team was in charge of their individual organization. Faculty volunteers helped provide feedback and support.
Prof. Fraser says co-captains Renee MacLeod and Hunter Park deserve much credit as they were instrumental in making this experience happen. They helped plan, organize, actively participated in recruiting sponsorships, and kept on top of team practices.
She says the team is very grateful to all supporters and sponsors who enabled their participation. They received funding from the Dean of Business’s office as well as local and regional business community sponsors, and StFX alumni, Chancellor John Peacock, and former Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honorable Brian Mulroney.
“We’re really thankful to all of our sponsors. It means a lot.”
