It was an excellent opportunity for nine Weyburn Comprehensive School (WCS) students, who recently competed at the 10th annual 2023 Saskatchewan Business Teacher's Association (SBTA) Case Competition and Teacher Conference at the University of Regina. 

Held May 4th and 5th at the Paul J. Hill School of Business, the students were all given the same finance problem or the same entrepreneurship problem in a case study.

Margot Arnold, Business Education Teacher at WCS, said the students then worked for three hours to deconstruct a case.

"What that means is they go through, they identify the problem, and then they look at what is the status quo and what would be the impact of not doing anything and come up with two different recommendations and then convince the judges that their decision criteria and their implementation plan is the best one for the client.  The top two teams in finance and the top two teams in entrepreneurship go up against the judges and then first and second are determined from there." 

Arnold said she had a team of three students in personal finance, George Hoffman, Dalton Molnar, and Nikola Erasmus, and they won first place.

"I had two teams in entrepreneurship, one team won second place, and that was the team of Maddie Gerry, Conner Kerr, and Wylie Kopec. Wylie Kopec had never competed before, whereas Conner Kerr and Maddie Gerry had once before."

Arnold shared that she was thrilled that the first and second place finishes came to WCS. "Overall, out of 30 teams, WCS, my three, were in the top five and first and second in each of their categories." 

As well, Arnold said that they have two other awards that WCS came home with; one is called the School Social Award. "Are you outgoing? Are you networking with other schools? Are you making new friends, that kind of a thing. WCS won fourth in that category out of 30. The piece de resistance, the number one, is the SBTA Business School of the Year came to WCS."

WCS Case CompFirst Place win in Personal Finance for team of three from WCS. From left to right: Dalton Molnar, Nikola Erasmus, George Hoffman, Gina Grandy, Dean of Hill School of Business at U of R. (Photo courtesy of Margot Arnold). 

Arnold said they have a big trophy to place in the WCS trophy case for the SBTA Business School of the Year win. "That was their goal this year, and they came home and succeeded. I'm so excited and proud of all of them."

"We stayed at the Atlas Hotel. Conexus Credit Union is a very huge sponsor because the field of business education is so important, and the U of R and the U of S, and MNP, Myers, Norris, Penny, and the Fraser Institute, those were our sponsors so that they can provide this opportunity to students at a very low price."

"In the afternoon, we had Conexus Cultivator come do a presentation for the students, as there were too many to actually go to the cultivator, but they came to us at the Atlas. Then we had a presentation from the entrepreneur owner of the Atlas and his entrepreneurial journey. Then we had smile cookies, one of our President's sister owns a Tim Hortons, so she brought smile cookies in so we could support that worthwhile cause."

They then changed for a fancy banquet, Arnold shared, and in the Atlas hotel, they had a very lovely dinner with the Chief Financial Officer of 7shifts, Allison McMillan, who was their keynote speaker and delivered an amazing message for the students. 

"The next morning we had greetings from the universities with the Deans, and Dustin Duncan [Minister of Education] came to give greetings on behalf of the government and then the students were presented their case studies and they went off to prepare their presentations. A very busy two days, but an excellent opportunity for the students."

WCS Case CompSecond Place win in Entrepreneurship for team of three from WCS. From left to right: Wylie Kopec, Conner Kerr, Maddie Gerry, Gina Grandy, Dean of Hill School of Business at U of R (Photo courtesy of Margot Arnold).