Since I was young, I always visioned a direct path for my education and for my career. This was to complete my undergrad in the shortest amount of time possible, then do whatever I saw fit. This was the plan and I preferred it not to change, until I encountered a little thing called case competitions.
I discovered case competitions primarily through my older brother, an MBA at SFU, who had competed in a few cases of his own. However, I did not receive a first-hand experience until the business department at my high school approached me and several other keen business students on whether we would be interested in joining this new club. The passion for business that I always had in the back of my mind is what directed me to say, “Yes.” This decision shifted the way I saw my education and future career path.
Back in November 2014, SFU Beedie had partnered with my high school, North Surrey Secondary School, to show us their successes and strategies to help shape future case competitors that are not even graduated from high school yet. With the help of SFU, North Surrey Secondary started their own case competition club to introduce students to this opportunity early. This partnership allowed me to compete, spectate, and volunteer at numerous case competitions and related events.
One of the case competitions that I was able to partake in was SFU’s Case Camp 2015. It was an unimaginable experience! In one weekend, it allowed a small group of high schools students and first or second year Beedie students to attend an ethics class, be trained by the one and only Matt Martell, prepare a PowerPoint presentation and present it amongst a panel of judges from Beedie alumni to Beedie executives. Creating our presentation may have been draining, but in the end, the experience resulted was well worth the hours. After all, it’s not every day that a grade eleven kid gets the opportunity to compete against a group of elite university students.
Another success that came out of this partnership was North Surrey Secondary being able to host its own first annual case competition called the North Surrey Secondary School Invitational (NSSSI) Business Case Competition. We invited five other high school teams across the lower mainland to compete. As one of the competition organizers, I got a true feel of all the hard work and determination that comes along with hosting a case competition. It was refreshing being able to see the opposite side of things because it causes you to really appreciate all that organizers and volunteers will do to make sure that every tiny detail is met just so students can live the ultimate case competition experience.
I am pleased to say that North Surrey’s first year of having a business case competition club and hosting NSSSI were a complete success. We are looking forward to continuing the traditions and broadening an already well established high school case competition community.
Midha is entering her final year of high school while pursuing admissions into Beedie for the upcoming fall 2016 semester. She has been an actively engaged member at the Business Case Competition Club at her local high school. Midha strongly encourages all high schools around the lower mainland to partake in the exciting world of case competitions. She deeply values all that Beedie has shared and offered her. She will certainly be taking these valuable skills and the knowledge that she has obtained through her post-secondary journey.