Graduating accounting students put their professional skills and career readiness to the test at the inaugural Goodman Capstone Case Competition.

Spearheaded by Michelle Lau, Associate Professor of Accounting, and Kareen Brown, Professor of Accounting, the initiative was designed to give students the experience of working together with faculty and employers in a case setting.

“We designed this competition to push our final-year students to rise to the challenge of integrating the knowledge they’ve learned throughout their accounting studies,” Lau said. “It builds teamwork and presentation and networking skills that will help them as they take their next steps towards their CPA designation.”

Taylor Leibow CEO Nigel Jacobs gave participants advice on how to continuing working on their presentation skills during his keynote at the Capstone Case Competition.

The competition started Sept. 2 when students received case training and groups were assigned the case. They then had the week to prepare their presentations and competed in judging on Sept. 6. Divided into two groups for judging, the top group from each room moved on to present in front of all competitors in a final showdown.

The case, written by Goodman Professors of Accounting Barbara Sainty and Pascale Lapointe-Antunes, challenged students to evaluate the performance of a fictional zoo set in a not-for-profit environment and provide advice on strategic issues to external stakeholders.

Ten employers came to participate in the networking sessions, with a few also partaking in competition judging. Nigel Jacobs, CEO of Taylor Leibow, judged both sessions and gave a keynote over lunch that touched on his observations of the presentations and how the students could use their feedback to grow as well insights from his own career.

“The inaugural Capstone Case Competition is a great initiative,” Jacobs said. “Any time you can prepare for future challenges, it’s the way to go.”

The teams were competing for $1,000 grand prize and $500 runner up cheque, provided by CPA Ontario and Goodman’s CPA Centre for Public Policy and Innovation in Accounting. Team Capstoners — made up of Sahib Kaur, Kyle Leermakers, Adrian Panetta, Megan Poulin, Valerie Gonzaga and Cameron Trowbridge — won the inaugural title while the team Accumulated Depression — made up of Eric Griffith, Spencer Opdecam, Lucas Pietrangelo, Jack Snow, Stephanie Biczok and Cole Travers — finished second.

“My favourite part about this experience was being put in a real-world situation and getting to use all of the accounting skills from all of our separate classes and combining them into one case,” said Poulin. “Getting this real-world experience will be so helpful in our careers.”