Throughout my university experience, I was exposed to a variety of learning environments from the classroom to co-op to the Student Venture Fund. In all these environments, I learned from my professors, faculty members, managers, and industry experts. At the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), I was given the opportunity to learn by leading.
Hi everyone! I’m a 1B student in the Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) program and I knew when I first started university that I wanted to get involved with an initiative that I was passionate about and made a real impact. After attending a lunch and learn event hosted by the UWaterloo Women in Finance (WIF) initiative, I realized I had found my match!
Lessons gained from competing on a national stage
Having participated in numerous entrepreneurship programs before university, the dynamics surrounding growing companies have always fascinated me. After getting involved with the University of Waterloo’s Student Venture Fund (SVF) during my second year in the Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) program, I combined my background in operations with a newly found interest: early-stage investing.
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.
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 18th, 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.
Question: How has being a Fellow and the extra connection you have with your Honouree helped you transition to an online learning environment successfully?
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.