The all girls team from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, beat four other competing teams to cop first place and the FirstCaribbean International Bank Challenge Trophy in the UWI/FirstCaribbean International Bank 2009 Case Analysis Competition, at UWI, Mona early June. This is the third consecutive win for Mona, the first time on home soil as previous competitions were held in Barbados 2007 and Trinidad 2008. Second was the team from UWI Cave Hill and third, UWI St. Augustine.
Two new teams participated in the competition – the University of Technology (UTECH), Jamaica and the University of Southern Caribbean, Trinidad.
The competition, a component of the Case Study Development Project, developed under agreement between FirstCaribbean and the UWI, is designed to develop case writing skills within the university and increase the available regional case studies for use by the study population.
The UWI Mona team, comprising Mehar Alam, Sherica Lewars, Tenneil Rashford and Tifain Taylor, also won the prize for “Most Original Case Analysis”. Taylor was voted “Best Overall Presenter” among all teams.
The Cave Hill team also won the prize for “Best Case Analysis” while “Team Spirit Prizes” awarded to one member of each team were won by Kevon Thomas, University of Southern Caribbean; Jason Allen, University of Technology; Donrick Slocombe, UWI Cave Hill; Mehar Alam, UWI Mona and Jiselle Alexander, UWI St. Augustine.
Judges in the competition were Debra Lopez, Director Wealth Management FirstCaribbean; Lancelot Leslie, Chief Financial Officer, FirstCaribbean; Dean Panton, Assistant Financial Controller, Jamaica Flour Mills; Yvonne Clarke, Group Chief Finance Officer, National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Allison Wynter, General Manager, Credit & Risk Management, NCB.
Hailing all the teams as “winners”, Clovis Metcalfe, Managing Director of FirstCaribbean International Bank (Jamaica) Limited told them “your presence here is indicative of the supreme confidence which your tutors have placed in you and the academic achievements you have displayed to be among today’s chosen.”
Stressing the need for public/private sector partnership, Metcalfe said that he attributed the success of the UWI/FCIB collaborative efforts to the fact that “we share a synergistic view that our organizations are duty-bound to better the lives of Caribbean people in everything we do.”
The University and FirstCaribbean, he told the competing teams, “have invested in you and your peers because, through you, we see all of the positives that will make our region an even better place to grow, live and work.”
Metcalfe said that FirstCaribbean was “extremely proud to have the privilege of working with the University in the planning of programmes and initiatives and, to see the tangible benefits of our relationship being reaped among students, faculty and our own staff.”
He said that just as the University’s mandate is to “unlock the potential” within students, FirstCaribbean’s “speaks to our long term commitment to our communities through our aspirational promise, “Get there together.”
Before the start of the competition, Mark Figueroa, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, UWI, noted that the University is putting greater emphasis on skills-based training and less on content-driven learning.
He said that competitions like the UWI/FirstCaribbean Case Analysis Competition “are very valuable as they make for life – long learning” and were being used to give students more opportunities to learn skills during their tertiary education.
“It’s no longer about swatting information and regurgitating it at exam time”, Figueroa told the teams as he urged them to learn all they could and share their knowledge with other students on their return to class.
He also encouraged the competing students to “take advantage of the networking opportunities” presented by the competition. He told them, “don’t spend all your time with only your team mates – make this a life-long, life-changing opportunity. Be generous to your competitors – make friends. If you see them doing something wrong, help if you can.”
In preparation for the competition, the teams were taken through presentation techniques in a workshop led by Suzanne King, Regional Training Manger for FirstCaribbean International Bank.
Caption: The University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona team (front row l-r) Jade Wright, Tenneil Rashford, Sherica Lewars, Tifain Taylor, Leslie Shirley, Mehar Alam, Horace Allen and Vanessa Hemans which won the UWI/FirstCaribbean 2009 Case Analysis Competition on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. With them are (2nd left back) Clovis Metcalfe, Managing Director, FirstCaribbean International Bank (Jamaica) Limited and (5th right back) Mark Figueroa, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, UWI.
About Mark Lee
Mark Lee has been a long-time journalist writing, editing and producing in print, radio television and new media.