On November 5, 19 HNMCS students in grades 9 through 12 competed with more than 1,500 students from private schools across Ontario in the DECA international case study competition. The event, which took place at Sinclair Secondary School in Whitby, focused on business knowledge, decision-making skills, communication skills, and individual and team events. Participants competed to earn limited spots to the DECA Ontario Provincial Competition.

All of our students performed exceptionally well, with Christina Schleifer ‘21, Fayble Shawera ‘21, and Pilar Bianchini ‘21 receiving awards for top oral presentation scores in their categories, and Corsen Parker ‘20 receiving top oral and written scores in her category.

Case-studies are increasingly being used as a major learning tool in post-secondary programs. This case-based competition had students apply their 21st century skills in such areas as business law and ethics, accounting, financial services, sports and entertainment marketing, hospitality and tourism, marketing, and human resources. After being presented with a business problem in their chosen area, students were given 10 or 30 minutes to prepare a solution and strategy for implementation. Immediately following this, the students met with a judge and pitched their ideas as if they were business experts. It was a great opportunity for students to apply the skills they are developing in class to real-world problems.

On December 1, the grades 7/8 robotics team took part in the Halton FIRST Lego League qualifying tournament at Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School. The theme for this year’s competition was Into Orbit and teams were charged with identifying and solving a social or physical problem facing astronauts in long-duration space exploration, developing communication skills through team building and completing missions by programming a Lego robot. Our girls performed really well and won the project award for best innovative solution beating out 21 other schools. Their project: developing and testing their own Thai spice paste to enhance the existing flavours/foods in space. The team—Sally Jeon ‘23, Gwen Billowits ‘23, Genevieve Hordij ‘23, Stella Lee ‘23, Mila Stefanovic ‘23, Lorelei On ‘23, Maria Dondas ‘23, Victoria Zhang ‘24 and Clarisse Carcao ‘24—was chosen to compete for a spot at the provincial innovation competition in the new year. Good luck girls!

Business Brunch, another innovative endeavour from our always-on-the-go HNMCS Robotics Team 7659, was established to link high school students to recent graduates from business programs at local universities to learn about different programs, studying abroad and campus life. The event took place in early December and was very well attended. Here’s what our students had to say about the experience:

Sophika’s Dmytryshyn: "Business Brunch was probably one of the most useful presentations I have ever attended. It was a relief to hear that what you choose to do in university isn't concrete. I loved receiving advice on how university is a journey and to understand the "why" to what you are pursuing"

Kaitlyn’s Van Eyk: “I really loved hearing people’s stories and how they got to where they are. I now have a general idea of what I want to be when I grow up with the help of the guests that came to this brunch.”