Submitted to the Castlegar News
Students in the Selkirk College business administration program put their learning to the test during the tenth annual business competition on the Castlegar campus.
Earlier this month, 35 second-year students put their knowledge, creativity, presentation skills and ability to work as a team on display for panels of local judges who in turn provided valuable feedback in their case studies.
Using three area businesses and organizations as their examples — the Castlegar Hospice Society, JJ’s Fashions and Columbia Networks —the student teams were tasked with formulating and defending their strategies. The students examined areas of fundraising, creating a business model and putting together an electronic commerce strategy.
“This was our tenth annual school of business competition and this year we switched our case competition model to one that was more collaborative between the student participants and our judges,” said business administration school chair Tiffany Snauwaert. “This gave an excellent opportunity for our students to receive more immediate feedback on their performance in a safe, learning environment.”
Management major Devon Fulton was on one of the three winning teams that came out on top after input from the judges. Fulton’s team put together a business plan for Castlegar Hospice that aimed at raising $3.5 million to build a new facility.
“It feels good to win,” said Fulton, who grew up in Trail. “As a team we put a lot of work into and we really worked well together. We did a lot of research and the judges recognized it.”
Joining Fulton on the winning DDSA team was Amber Arnold, Dawn-Marie English and Stefan Virtanen.
Team LMRM — Megan Forrest, Lisa Griko, Melissa McCready and Robert Verhelst — took home the win in the Columbia Networks case where they were tasked with coming up with a business model strategy for the locally-based company.
Team HLSS — Sam Billingsley, Stefan Gonzales, Lucas Hildebrand and Hailey McLean — performed the best in the JJ’s Fashions case where they formulated an e-commerce model strategy for the regional retailer.
The judges in this year’s competition included Dan Salekin (Columbia Networks), Ron Anderson (Yule Anderson Chartered Accountants), Suzanne Lehbauer (Castlegar Hospice), Stephen Harris (Selkirk College faculty), Tim O’Doherty (Columbia Basin Trust), Bree Seabrook (Columbia Power Corporation) and Wayne Kelly (EZ Rock).