Lajeunesse team members Marko Rosa, Luka Malbasic, Xavier DaCruz, and Kanan Gosine celebrate their win with Don Gilles Ntore of the Odette Accounting Society. Missing: Lajeunesse student Judah Davis.
More than 200 Grade 11 and 12 students in accounting and business courses from the Windsor and Essex County region came together to participate in the inaugural Odette Accounting Case Competition from Nov. 29 to Dec. 8.
Don Jones, Odette accounting area chair and faculty member, says “This was an opportunity to both interact on a personal level with potential future students and to raise student awareness of the learning and developmental opportunities that the Odette School of Business offers to make them career ready in professional accounting.”
Starting in their classrooms, students were introduced to an accounting case written by Odette Accounting Society co-presidents and accounting students Emily Davis and Grace Mardegan, with supervision by professor Peter Savoni. A panel of Odette faculty, alumni, corporate partners, and MBA-PAS students judged the competition in each school, selecting the winners to attend the final conference Dec. 8 in the Odette Building.
The co-presidents say their team was glad for the opportunity to introduce the diverse pathways within accounting to high school students: “With the support of our entire Odette Accounting Society team and the contributions from our Odette faculty members and alumni, we were able to provide high school students with valuable insights into real-world applications of accounting.”
The conference included interactive activities, panel discussions, and keynote speaker Marie Campagna, former vice-president of finance at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, discussing how accounting helped her to achieve her career goals.
“It was invigorating to see these high school students engaged and eager to learn more about accounting,” says Odette School of Business interim dean Ashish Mahajan. “We hope to see them again soon, this time as Odette students.”
An awards ceremony recognized the top group from each class and the overall winning group from E.J. Lajeunesse High School. Marko Rosa, Xavier DaCruz, Kanan Gosine, Luka Malbasic, and Judah Davis of the winning team each received a $1,000 scholarship to the Odette School of Business.
—Sienna Ducharme