Photo by Jeremy Emerson
STUDENT SUCCESSES
U of L Hosts JDC West 2008 For the past three years, U of L management students have had the opportunity to gain hands-on business experience – and bring home some trophies while they’re at it. Lethbridge was this year’s host of JDC West, which took place from Jan. 18 to Jan. 20, 2008. U of L students earned first place in both human resource management and the social competition, second place in entrepreneurship, and third place in both the taxation case and the international case. They also placed third in charity, raising just under $20,000 for the United Way of Canada. JDC West is the largest student-run business competition in Western Canada. Starting in Quebec as Jeux du Commerce (Commerce Games), it now brings more than 500 business
students from universities in Western Canada to compete each year in nine academic challenges, a parliamentary debate, a social challenge and a dodge-ball tournament. This competition promotes leadership, camaraderie and hands-on business experience.
schools tend to focus more on numbers. In addition to the numbers, there are so many other variables that you have to think of when you’re in an organization, and I think the U of L really provides that knowledge base and gives us a transferable skill set.”
“Sometimes the cases that students receive are real-world situations that companies are actually facing today,” explains U of L student Scott Gloge, this year’s U of L team captain. “It’s really a chance for students to come out of the classroom, look at a case, see what a company is doing and give some input as to how to solve their problem.”
Dr. Murray Lindsay, dean of the Faculty of Management, is very pleased with the performance of U of L students in this competition. “I have never been more proud to be associated with a student-run event in my 20-year career,” he says. “Not only were the academics at a high level, there was a wonderful display of sportsmanship, support and camaraderie among all the teams. The spirit can only be described as infectious.”
According to Gloge, U of L’s competitive advantage lies in the way our management classes are taught. “I think some of the other
IME Community Projects Raise Money for Charity
Global Incentive
The 2007/08 Integrated Management Experience (IME) classes undertook two community projects this year. The morning class organized a streethockey tournament named the ABC Cup. The tournament took place on April 5 with 24 teams competing. In conjunction with the tournament, the students also held a silent auction and raised $6,000. The IME afternoon class organized a music concert that took place on April 2 in
Michelle (Ha) Pham, a fourth-year management student, received a special recognition reward from her employer, the Westin Hotels and Resorts, and won a place on the company’s Global Incentive Trip to Thailand, April 14 to 19.
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the SU Ballrooms. The concert headliner was Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, a well-known local artist. More than 280 tickets were sold for the event. The concert raised $4,000. In total, this year’s IME classes raised $10,000 for St. John Ambulance Canada. Since its inception in 2000, IME students have raised more than $125,000 with all proceeds going to local non-profit groups in southern Alberta.