Two teams of students from St. Clair College have come out on top at the Ontario Colleges Accounting Case Competition hosted at George Brown Polytechnic in Toronto, Ont.
St. Clair's Business Administration – Accounting program teams of Sandy Renaud, Navneet Kaur, and Greg Skaff scooped up the first-place prize and Jeremiah Jedrzejczak, Brent Rollo and Kaley Bergen came in a close second, ahead of George Brown and Humber Colleges.
"The competition was a very rewarding experience. Our team dedicated so much time in the weeks leading up to it, practicing cases and presenting and learning as much as possible," said Sandy Renaud, who is also the Accounting Association club president at St. Clair. "It was so cool to go to Toronto and test all our skills and knowledge and hard work against all the other talented students."
The competition required students – in teams of three – to solve a real-life case - that is, to make recommendations and select the best course of action.
Included in the case are exhibits, a synopsis of the organization and/or background history of the situation. The case is not presented to the student teams until the day of the competition.
Specifically, each student team has two hours to prepare their analysis for the case in isolation, 15 minutes to present their findings to the judging panel made up of local CPAs and business leaders, and five minutes for a question-and-answer round from the panel.
No coaches were present for this first round.
The top three teams from the first round proceeded to the second and final round, held in a large auditorium where all three teams presented the analysis of that same case again, but this time they were allowed to tweak their analysis, as they see fit.
"The cases themselves were so helpful to my learning experience, seeing various topics I'd learned from all different courses come together into a real-world context," Renaud said. "The competition was a lot of pressure, and I had to go out of my comfort zone, but now I feel so much more confident with problem-solving, working with a team, and presenting in front of people."
"I couldn't have gotten where I did without my professors. Every professor in my program is so knowledgeable and passionate and willing to share their experience to help us learn," she said. "They really want to see us succeed, not just in competitions, but also when we go out into the working world."
Jeremiah Jedrzejczak from St. Clair's second-place team shared a similar experience.
"It is truly an honour to represent St. Clair for the second time, and especially this year. It feels really good to be first and second place for the first time in St. Clair's history," he said. "It really shows how lucky we are at St. Clair to have such wonderful faculty."
"I know coming out of St. Clair I will be ready for the workplace," Jedrzejczak added.
After his experience as part of team St. Clair for back-to-back years, Jedrzejczak said he's thankful he chose to attend the college.
"A lot of students look at University immediately, but I think this competition shows that St. Clair is a great option. It is a very good program that provides a lot of the same knowledge and skills at a more manageable pace," he said. "I hope our result this year encourages more students to consider the program. As I and many other students move to the University after we graduate, we know we will be in a good position."
Prof. Richard Nadalini, who joined the team along with colleagues Prof. Mike Malkoun and Prof. Zak Shaw, said St. Clair has been competing in this competition for over a decade, with great success along the way.
"I am pleased with the rigour that this competition demands of all participating college teams. Students must prepare intensely as competition is fierce," Prof. Nadalini said. "Quantitative and qualitative analysis as well as presentation skills in the context of an accounting dilemma must be mastered – effectively, providing the students with a skill set for real life problem solving."
"Our two student teams achieved top results, and I am honoured to have been part of St. Clair College's success at this year's OCACC!"