Three student teams from Waterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems (SPHHS) beat out 26 other teams from across the country to claim the top spots at the Canadian Evaluation Society’s student case competition at last week’s annual conference in Toronto.
Waterloo teams, taught and coached by Professor Anita Myers from SPHHS, together with Mark Seasons with the Faculty of Environment, have won this competition in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2012. However, this marks the first time in history that all three finalist teams were from the same university. This year, Jennifer Yessis, now a scientist with the Propel Centre for Population Impact and herself a Waterloo grad and a member of the winning case competition team in 2000, assisted with coaching the teams.
Held annually, the competition helps students build skills in evaluating public policies and programs using real examples from public sector. This year, the teams had five hours to respond to a request for proposals issued by the City of Vancouver on how best to evaluate the Vancouver Bikeshare Program.
They then had 20 minutes to present before a live audience to a panel of judges who in turn awarded the contract to the winning team.
“You only have five hours, where a consulting firm in the real world would have weeks to respond,” said Sarah Sousa, a member of the Synergy Group.
The success of our students is a testament of the ability of the School of Public Health and Health Systems to train leaders of tomorrow. The competition is a great teaching tool, as well as way to showcase our students and connect them with the leaders in the field and potential employers.”
- Professor Anita Myers, Fellow of the Canadian Evaluation Society and member of the Credentialing Board
Nathan Honsberger, a member of the winning group, MTEvaluators, agrees: “It’s not only a a great way to further your knowledge of evaluation practices, but also to get your resume on file at major consulting firms and meet leaders in the field.”
Pictured above is the winning team, MTEvaluators: (l-r) Wendy Rowe (Vice President of CES), Jennifer Yessis (assistant coach), Beverly Hoekstra, Nathan Honsberger, Corrie Vincent, Anita Myers (head coach), and Bea Courtney (from Goss Gilroy Inc.).
Speaking of the experience Jasmin Bhawra, a member of the Evaluation in Motion team said, “The case competition was an amazing opportunity. A year ago I didn’t even know what evaluation was, and now it is something that I really hope to practice after completing my Master’s.”
The Canadian Evaluation Society is a non-profit, bilingual association dedicated to the advancement of evaluation theory and practice. The work of the society, including training and credentialing, highlights the increasing demand for results and accountability in public policy and programs across the country.