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Given those kinds of demands, it becomes evident why the placing of Burtt’s team in its recent competition was all that much more remarkable. When one team member had to return home because of personal problems and another became ill with an ear infection – taking the teamdown to three members – the odds became overwhelming. “For a coach, it was just unbelievably stressful to keep this team focused,” Burtt recalls. “But when they won their first round and they were the top, ahead of everybody else, every university, we were floored.We never expected that.” Gina Grandy, an associate professor in the Commerce department at Sackville, New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University, says case competitions benefit both students and the school. Grandy, who has coached a number of winning teams, says participation gives students feedback from leaders in the business world, and allows them to link theory and practice. It also gives the schools a chance to showcase their best pupils.
“If students are winning first and second places at these competitions, then… that is a reflection of the quality of the program where they’re studying,” Grandy contends. “I think, in turn, that can be used in future positioning of programs.”
Burtt says competitions allow students to “strut their stuff and demonstrate their capability.” Schools gain a chance to measure themselves against the global community and learn how the material they’re teaching stands up outside the classroom. And, Burtt points out, businesses gain an opportunity to see what schools are teaching and whether they’re turning out graduates who will be capable of solving industry problems down the road. “All the way around the opportunity is tremendous,” Burtt says. “Everybody wins.”
