by Alexandria Zamora, BBA candidate, 2017

During reading week, I had the opportunity to represent Schulich for the first time at the John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition (JMUCC), alongside Artem Sushko, Sarah Borairi, and Daniel Gary. This competition was hosted by the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal. The largest competition of its kind, the week-long, multi-round case competition brings together undergraduate student teams from business schools around the world to demonstrate their strategic thinking with a mix of challenging cases and social events.

I have competed in quite a few case competitions throughout my time at Schulich, but I must admit that this was the most challenging and rewarding competition that I have experienced. Throughout the week, we completed three separate three-hour cases and one 24-hour case. For the shorter cases, we had three hours to prepare a 20 minute presentation for the executives of the company that sponsored each case. Although it was challenging, our team was able to take the feedback from the judges and apply it the very next day. From case to case, we felt ourselves improving with every day.

The 24-hour case was by far the most challenging, but it was so rewarding to hear that our judges loved our presentation. Being able to talk to these companies about how they are tackling their current business problems really brought the experience full circle.

The Schulich JMUCC team with coach Jane-Michele Clark
Throughout this competition, I had the opportunity to meet some amazing students from across the globe. With students from 24 competing schools, we made friends with people from as far away as University of New South Wales in Australia, and as close as JMSB in Montreal. These are people we plan to keep in touch with into the future.

“Although it was challenging, our team was able to take the feedback from the judges and apply it the very next day. From case to case, we felt ourselves improving with every day.”

We would not have been able to perform so successfully  or learn so much without our amazing faculty advisor, Jane-Michele Clark. She helped us through every late-night strategy session, and gave us amazing feedback throughout the week that accelerated our improvement. Her coaching was so integral to our success as a team.

For those of you who are considering trying out for JMUCC next year, my word of advice is to take the time to really track your progress from the day you try out to the day of your final presentation. I learned so much in such a short amount of time, and made amazing friends along the way. JMUCC was the perfect way to end my undergraduate career!