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Anna, Kyle, and Sabrina met in their first year of university as Associates in the ACE Consulting Group. Their collaboration started three years ago working on delivering consulting engagements to start-up clients, and later on leading the ACE team. The three of them worked well together, had a passion for strategy, and enjoyed the thrill of case competitions. After a successful run at the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) Strategy Case Competition, they decided to collaborate again at the International Collegiate Business Competition (I.C.B.C.) hosted by Queen’s University. 

In my first term, it has already given me many opportunities to meet industry professionals and attend a variety of workshops and events.

Once I attended UW, I was then offered the opportunity to join the Fellowship program. At first, I didn’t know what to expect, but today I can proudly say I have not regretted signing up for the program once.

Advice for grade 12 students who are nervous about starting university.

At first, I was scared of entering my first ever co-op because I had no real work-experience prior, however, the BETS program really came in clutch and helped me enter my first co-op placement extremely prepared.

Participating in the CFA Ethics Challenge has provided me with an amazing opportunity to learn about the CFA Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct and to apply these ethics standards to a real-life scenario. All the feedback from faculty and the time spent together as a team in preparing for the presentation led to our team winning the local competition of the CFA Ethics Challenge!

On February 18^th, three students representing the University of Waterloo’s School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) competed at the 2021 CFA Institute Research Challenge (IRC) Ontario Finals. Led by Faculty Advisor, Steve Balaban, student team members Brendan, Anna, Noah - all upper-year Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) students - competed against teams from Brock University, Carleton University, and York University and won first place!

Four lessons I learned competing at the CFA Institute Research Challenge.

In my past 4 years in AFM, terms such as environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have increased exponentially in importance and frequency when discussing any business. Given my past co-op work terms in finance, accounting, and most recently a not-for-profit organization (NPO), I was interested in how this renewed focus on sustainability would play out as we as a society continue to challenge the responsibilities and duties that a corporation should undertake.

In the first week of January 2021, we, Michael K., Roberto B., and Isaac D. competed at the 14^th annual Battle on Bay (BoB) case competition organized by the Ryerson University Finance Society (RUFS). The BoB is a three-day event where students from more than 10 schools across Canada work in teams of three to four members and compete by developing a stock pitch and completing a crisis case.