Business competition pays dividends for Selkirk students: Almost $6,000 in prizes awarded
By Contributor
Selkirk’s Business Administration students squared off against one another at the college’s sixth annual Business Competition held at its Castlegar campus at the end of the term. First-year students competed for the best marketing campaign, while second-year students strove for best business case analysis. Working in teams, students prepared campaigns and business solutions ahead of time and gave 15 minute presentations to a panel of judges on the day of the event. Leaders from the local business community served as judges for the competition. Krys Klimuk, named Judge’s Choice for Top Student, values the business competition. “The annual competition has been the best experience for me at Selkirk. It gave me an opportunity to use everything I’ve learned throughout the school year in a single event.” Why exactly is the business competition such a worthwhile experience? “It’s a multi-functional, active learning tool that simulates real-life business situations,” explains Program Advisor for Business Administration, Tiffany Snauwaert. “The competition gives students some business experience in a controlled environment. They get a chance to voice to their ideas and solutions, learn interpersonal skills through working in teams, and practice presentation skills. Students gain a lot of confidence.” The Marketing Competition gave first-year students a taste of working on a live business project. They provided West Kootenay Habitat for Humanity with fundraising and awareness campaigns for a housing project about to start in Castlegar. Second-year students were faced with a challenging business case scenario: consulting on a handful of difficult problems at Roger’s Chocolates. Their business case presentation was followed up with a surprise problem affecting the company for which student teams had only 45 minutes to prepare a solution and present it to industry judges. Delighted winners took home almost $6,000 in cash, tuition credits and door prizes. All first-place team members received $125 in either cash (sponsored by KAST) or tuition credit. A dollar amount of $75 was awarded to all team members finishing in second place and each third-place winner collected $50 The event’s generous sponsors provided the prizes and judging expertise. Sponsors include: B.C. Human Resources Management Association, Certified General Accountants of BC, Certified Management Accountants of B.C., Columbia Basin Trust, Firebird Technologies, Institute of Chartered Accountants of B.C., KBS Radio, Kootenay Association for Science and Technology (KAST), Kootenay Savings Credit Union, Leo Perra Foundation, Okanagan College, Safeway, Selkirk College, Starbucks Coffee, Thompson Rivers University – Open Learning Division, University of Lethbridge, West Kootenay Habitat for Humanity and Yule Anderson Chartered Accountants. For the marketing campaign category (year one), Visionary Consultants placed first (Sydney Dilling, Brielle Hwalstad, and Kailyn Zanier), SRC won second place (Jonathan Chung, Evan Richtsfeld, and Jacob Swanson) and Prestige Worldwide received third place (Chelsea Brown, Travis Herlein, and Spenser Wong). In the best business case category (year two), Framework won the top spot (Krys Klimuk and Trenton Zoobkoff), Imprint placed second (Kris Kolesnikoff, Reg Goldsbury, and Leah Streichert) and third place went to Innovation Consultation (Misha Amos, Bayan Pourmokhtari, Amanda Hyslop, and Cyndel Miller). The Judges’ Choice Award, a category reserved for second year students only, named Krys Klimuk Top Student. Amanda Hyslop finished in second place. Selkirk College offers two-year diploma programs in accounting/finance, professional management and office management. For more information on the Business Administration program, please visit www.selkirk.ca/programs/ba or call 250.365.7292 ext. 268.
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