Business Administration Let Anyone Tell You That 2018 Vanier College BDC Case Challenge Goes to Vanier College You Don’T Need It for Your Program
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Student Profile Advice to incoming students Get involved! Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid to make mistakes! Enjoy Cegep. Look at your long-term goals. It doesn’t all happen at once. Don’t be discouraged. It’s a 3-year program, you have time to discover new things. Do Secondary 4 and 5 high level maths! Don’t Business Administration let anyone tell you that 2018 Vanier College BDC Case Challenge goes to Vanier College you don’t need it for your program. Do it! It will keep usiness Administration at Vanier is Tops! come up with a plan that addresses the needs of your options open for Marketing and Accounting students win the problem under study. the future beyond your B Gold and Silver at National and Provincial Cegep program. Case Competitions What they got out of the Case Challenge experience “The Vanier BDC Case Challenge helped lay out Make a plan. While the rest of the room burst into cheers, they the foundation for my future. I enjoy doing this and Self educate. A lot of could hardly speak when they heard the words “And wouldn’t mind continuing doing it,” says Krystal. Prep- things aren’t learned the first place for the 2018 Vanier College BDC Case aration for the competition starts long before the con- in school. Challenge goes to Vanier College!” For Business Ad- test itself. All through the first semester of their third ministration – Marketing students, Isaiah Paul Cole, year, students in a marketing class study marketing Isabella Mirasola, Dylan Papineau and Krystal Milo, cases and prepare presentations on those cases and it was a dream come true - to win gold against 26 the solutions they propose. “Our teacher other teams from across Canada. Krystal in particular had been aiming for gold from the moment she first Choosing Vanier was great, volunteered at the Vanier College BDC Case Chal- How did this Fabulous-4 get to Vanier and to Market- lenge in her first year of cegep studies. ing? Isaiah who graduated from Riverdale High everything school applied to Vanier because he wanted to “My heart was racing and we all looked at each other pursue football and business. He started out in Anna, our as Peter our coach ran up to us with tears in his eyes,” Social Science with Mathematics, but a second says Dylan. semester class in macroeconomics caught his at- teacher, tention. He liked it so much he decided to switch said would A few months later, they had another victory, when into Business Administration – Marketing. the same Marketing team earned Second Place hon- happen, did. ours at the 2018 Dawson College Case Competition. Dylan claims he was just lucky. He didn’t really know Vanier and had not planned on attending So we were What is a case competition? cegep at all but rather thought of going straight In a case competition, participants are isolated in a into an American university. But he did apply and super well room and must analyze a never-seen before business was accepted into Marketing. “It was great,” Dylan problem in three hours, draw up a viable market- claims. “I was able to do an internship in France prepared.“ ing plan, and prepare a Power Point presentation with a real estate agent in Belfort and compete to give before a jury panel of experts from busi- with the Vanier BDC team!” ness, industry and education. Competitors need to be in top-notch shape if they are to maintain Isabella chose Vanier because it was convenient. a clear head and put their creativity to work to But she too was thrilled to do a 6-week internship in 10 France working on Fimu, a well-known music festival mentation for the company in question. They are Internships in Belfort. then given 20 minutes in which to present their case in France using a PowerPoint slide presentation before a panel As for Krystal, she always knew she wanted to study of industry judges and professional accountants. However, there was business and eventually open her own dance studio. barely time to rest on their While she visited other cegeps, they fell short. “I didn’t “Of what use is classroom-focused education if it laurels, because four days like their architecture or their environment. But Vanier cannot be applied?” says Anna Schiavi, Accounting after the competition, was super helpful and friendly, so it was my first choice! Teacher and Team coach. “Taking knowledge from team members flew off the classroom and applying it is the ultimate confi- for 6-week internships dence booster to any student. This is what preparing in France. Some went to What’s good about the Business and competing in the Dawson Case Competition of- Paris and Belfort as well fered to the Vanier Business Administration Account- Administration program? as other cities all over the “The connections and the real friends you make!” de- ing Case Team.” country where they do clares Isaiah. “The smaller size,” says Dylan. “It dilutes internships with some the crowd down to a tight-knit group who feel the With zero prior knowledge of how to put together of the biggest and best same way about the program as you and who share a case presentation for an annual report of a Cana- companies in France. It’s your life.” For Krystal it’s the life-long friends she feels dian company the team jumped in head- first. They another advantage of the she made in the program. For Isabella it’s the strong trained for 12-weeks with a minimum of 5 hours per Business Administration relationship with teachers with whom contact is easy week. Training is an extracurricular activity that takes Program. Every year, a for help and for discussing and planning the future. place outside of class time. In preparing for the case dozen Accounting and competition the Vanier Accounting team took on Marketing students head Isaiah adds, “Teachers are always trying to develop a task way out of their comfort zone. And the hard off for France in May to the program and improve the learning experience work and persistence paid off as the Vanier Account- do their final program of students. And because they all have a business ing team prepared and presented a university-grade internship abroad. background they relate their teaching to their own case before a panel of industry judges, a presentation experience.” Krystal says, “Teachers share their pas- that earned the team a 2nd place podium spot at the Without doubt, between sion about learning and about the subjects they Dawson Case Competition. case competitions and teach and it inspires students to be passionate about international experiences, learning. They see us as the next generation of mar- “Our teacher was great,” they all declare. “Everything these students are very keters and they want to make sure we are ready for Anna said would happen, did. So we were super well well prepared to enter the the real world.” prepared!“ business world or continue University plans their university studies. All four students are at Concordia University now. Isaiah is in the Marketing/Real Estate Co-op program; Isabella in International Business; Dylan in the Mar- keting Co-op with a minor in Digital Analysis – data intelligence; and Krystal is working on a Major in Mar- keting Degree. Hats off to the Vanier the Accounting Team – Silver winners in the Dawson Finance Case Competition The other stars of the Business Administration Pro- gram are the members of the Vanier Accounting Team: Victoria Palermo, Jonathan Paniccia, Krista Forget and Amgad Morgan from the Vanier Business Administration – Accounting program. They placed second at the 2018 Dawson College Case Competi- tion – a competition where the Vanier Accounting team has placed in the top three almost every year since it started. What is an Accounting Case Competition During the Finance competition, students have three hours to prepare a full business and financial analysis using financial ratios as well as industry benchmark ratios. Based on the results of this financial analysis the team must outline a plan of action and imple- 11.