April 4, 2022

Sustainable business solutions were top priority at this year’s Alberta Deans of Business Case Competition, hosted by Medicine Hat College (MHC) on Mar. 10-12. Forty students from institutions across the province were given a business problem and worked in teams to develop a solution, which they presented for a panel of judges.

MHC partnered with Medicine Hat’s own renewable energy business, Terralta Inc., and students were tasked with developing solutions to improve operations, manage growth and foster relationships as the company expands. The company merged with Air-Tech in November 2020, to offer a wide range of services to their customers.

Marcus Campbell, co-owner of Terralta, states, “I initially didn’t realize how short the timeline was for the students. In just 48 hours, they were able to review the case, create solutions and put together a full-scale presentation. Kudos to the students for their diligent work.”

In addition to Campbell, sponsors and judges of the competition included Peter Chung (CPHR Alberta), Yvonne Barthel (CPA Canada) and Cara Yaworski (Servus Credit Union).

MHC is launching its first year of the Sustainable Innovation diploma in Fall 2022 and the partnership with Terralta reflects the program which helps students develop the skills needed to solve challenges that impact people, places and profits by looking at new and strategic ways of doing business.

“Overall, I really can’t say enough good things about this experience,” Campbell adds. “I am really quite honoured that Medicine Hat College thought of me and our company. We think highly of what goes on in our region and Medicine Hat College is a huge part of that. It was a wonderful experience and thank you to Medicine Hat College for making this happen.”

In addition to its focus on social sustainability and reconciliation, the competition honoured and acknowledged that it took place digitally on Treaty 7 and Treaty 4 territory with MHC’s Indigenous Support Specialist, David Restoule, recommending and presenting each participating team with an Indigenous team name related to Alberta and our region. Competitors from MHC were team Wapiti and included second-year accounting students, Alysha Kuntz, Holly Cavanagh and Carolynne Marr and second-year management student, Clayton Hoffman. The top three winners of the event this year were Athabasca University, team Nika, Northwestern Polytechnic, team Meewasin and Red Deer Polytechnic, team Sakaw.

To learn more about MHC’s sustainable innovation diploma, visit www.mhc.ab.ca, or connect with an academic advisor at info@mhc.ab.ca.