News Article

Ten teams participated in the International Business Case Competition at College of the North Atlantic’s (CNA) campus in the Middle East State of Qatar March 23-25. CNA’s Team Excelsior out of the college’s Prince Philip Drive campus in St. John’s took second place honors, losing out to Stenden University of Qatar.
 
Mary Vaughan, dean of Business and Information Technology for CNA, said students participating in the Business Case competition pushed themselves to new limits in their learning.
 
“I am extremely proud of our students as they represented our province and college with incredible skills and knowledge in the area of business at the CNA-Qatar Case competition,” said Vaughan. “They rose to the challenge while working under intense pressure with strong competitors.”
 
Business Case competitions provide CNA’s learners with the unique opportunity to showcase their technical knowledge and provide analysis of a business problem in a team-based approach. The 10 teams taking part in the Qatar competition spent three-days analyzing business cases and making presentations to panels of judges from the business community in Qatar.
 
CNA students in Newfoundland took part in a provincial competition in December 2011. While the college originally intended to send just one team, funds became available to send two teams, one from Prince Philip Drive campus and one from the college’s Office of Distributed Learning, to the international conference.
 
“This experience provided them with exposure to another culture, another business environment and enabled them to further develop their business and networking skills,” continued Vaughan. “Congratulations to both the Distributed Learning and Prince Philip Drive teams!”
 
“Whenever our students and faculty have the opportunity to be involved in tremendous learning events, such as this, it provides them with experiences they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,” added Gerard Morris, campus administrator at Prince Philip Drive campus.
 
The students agree.
 
“It completely made our educational experience. For a lot of us coming back from there it definitely opened our minds and our eyes to all of the different options that are available as we graduate from this program,” said Katrina O'Keefe of Ferryland.
 
 “It was a completely positive experience all the way around. We only lost by one point. I know it’s better than any team from this campus has done over there in years past, so we’re quite proud of our accomplishment as a team. It’s great to have personal achievements but when you accomplish something as a team that makes it that much better.”
 
“To be honest, it completely exceeded my expectations,” added Terri Reid of Conception Bay South.  “Meeting people in the competition made me realize we all are the same – yes we have cultural differences, but coming from a business perspective, we all have the same values. We were there to win, to meet people and experience each others’ different cultures. I’m graduating next month and it made me realize there are so many more options for me – I don’t have to stay in Newfoundland or in Canada. There are so many places that I can go for work.”
 
The student Business Case competitions are an annual highlight for the School of Business and Information Technology. Paul Dunne, the faculty advisor for Team Excelsior said the competition at the international level was very close.
 
“The students did exceptionally well and I really don’t think that we could have had a better team to participate,” said Dunne. “They were well articulated, had great communication skills and had great analytical skills. They showed those skills in their presentations and that was reflected in their score. The team that won had 10 points and we had nine points. It was very, very close but the judges had to make a decision.”
 
Katrina credits the amazing support they received at Prince Philip Drive as the key to their success.  
 
“Mary and Gerard have bent over backwards to make sure those students who seek it out, get the best educational experience that they can get. I think we all owe a lot of our success to Gerard, Paul and Mary,” she said.
 
Team Excelsior was comprised of Terri Reid of Conception Bay South, Charles Bendall of British Columbia, Beth-Ann Sweetapple of Conception Bay South, Chris Clarke of Botwood, Katrina O'Keefe of Ferryland, and Faculty Advisor Paul Dunne. Each team member took home an iPad 2 as their prize.
 
Also attending the conference were team members of R.J.T. Consulting who are all enrolled in business programs offered via the college's Office of Distributed Learning. The team consisted of Accounting student Jacinta Fitzgerald of South River, Marketing student Trevor Rideout of Grand Falls-Windsor, and Human Resources student Rebecca Anderson of St. John's.
 
 
-30-
 
Media Contact:

Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Assistant
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca