UWinnipeg business students Jordy de Oliveira and Sophia Hershfield took home the JDC West Executive of the Year award. Supplied photo.
University of Winnipeg business students took top scores at JDC West, Western Canada’s largest business competition, including Executive of the Year, first place in debating, third place in operations management, and third place for overall participation.
“Our school coming home with four awards this year has been a huge moment for the team,” said Sophia Hershfield, co-caption of UWinnipeg’s JDC West team.
The three-day competition showcases the very best in academics, athletics, and debate from business students across Western Canada. It is a prestigious event where winning cases get the attention of business leaders, and open doors to future job possibilities.
“We have local sponsors, and our team networks with them one on one,” said Hershfield. “Many students have gone to work with sponsors after graduation.”
This year’s event, held at the University of Regina, brought together approximately 600 undergraduate delegates from 12 universities in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. A theme of Growing Forward challenged students to be innovative and cultivate a growth mindset.
UWinnipeg’s debate team took part in a playoff-style championship that required intense competition to stay in the race. In the final round, they debated the issue of Wexit, which won them top spot.
“They had an incredible showing in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, with great support from their teammates, who were watching and cheering on every round,” said Hershfield.
UWinnipeg’s Operations Management team received third place for what Hershfield says was a well thought out and well articulated presentation on wholesale health foods. She is very proud of UWinnipeg’s success this year, and thrilled to be recognized as Executive of the Year.
“Winning Executive of the Year is such a meaningful award for myself and for Jordy,” she said. “This year was full of hard work, but it was made so worthwhile because of our amazing delegates who all performed so well.”
A team of 46 UWinnipeg business students travelled to Regina to compete at the 2020 JDC West competition (photo supplied).
UWinnipeg’s team came home with the following awards:
- Executive of the Year Award
UWinnipeg’s 2020 team captains, Sophia Hershfield and Jordy de Oliveira, were recognized for their excellent leadership. - Debating (First place)
George Kettler, Jennifer-Ashley Hall, Khalil Qasem, and Sam Cohn were given 30 minutes to review proposals centred on topics relevant to current events in Canada’s business and political spheres before presenting their stance. The structure follows a parliamentary-style debate, where one team is Team Government and the other is Team Opposition. - Operations Management (Third place)
Brennan Jackson, Jared Kuik, and Zarif Alam had three hours to analyze a business case, and create a recommendation and implementation plan, which they had 20 minutes to present to a panel of industry judges. - Overall Participation (Third place)
Forty-six UWinnipeg business students competing in accounting, business strategy, business technology, entrepreneurship, finance, human resources, international business, marketing, not-for-profit, operations management, debate, athletics, and social.
Learn more about UWinnipeg’s JDC West team, made up of top students in UWinnipeg’s Faculty of Business and Economics.
