A small group of Richmond high school students have been working hard to organize a case competition for their peers across the district to test their business sense and learn from successful young entrepreneurs.
They’ll come together at Richmond Secondary on Saturday for the Elevate Case Competition, where students break into small groups and come up with a solution to a business problem to impress the judges in a short time limit.
“For those two hours … you’re focusing on nothing but the problem at hand. You’re just frantically trying to come up with a presentation or a solution … It really builds your critical thinking skills, which are really important for post-secondary education,” said Hasan Altaf, finance chair of the Richmond Student District Council Organization (RSDCO).
RSDCO is a sort of district-wide student council. It’s a new organization, formalized in September.
Altaf has worked on the event along with RSDCO’s students chair Joey Huang and conferences chair Kerrie Ye.
While student councils advocate and organize events within individual high schools, RSDCO works to create leadership opportunities for all students in the Richmond public school system.
“They’re interested in making a difference for other kids,” said David Partridge, an administrator with the district who deals with student leadership and guides the council.
He said the council aligns with the district's vision to allow students to learn and become leaders. RSDCO's events are entirely student organized. All Partridge does is “dot the Is and cross the Ts.”
For example, he supports them to use district spaces rent-free and proofreads communication the council sends to students.He said the events are entirely student organized. All he does is “dot the Is and cross the Ts.”
“[The students on council] figure out who they’re going to have involved, how promote it, people to be judges, how to get people to sponsor them. Like, provide free pizza. They do that.”
Delivering keynote speeches at the competition are professionals from around the Lower Mainland, including Richmond basketball player Gabe Lee, founder of Vitae Apparel Selene Dior and Sportchek manager Jeffrey Liu.
Judging students’ business solutions are other early-career business people and students studying business in university.
Altaf said reaching out and organizing everything was difficult at first, but rewarding to have the day come together.
The Grade 12 student at Steveston London secondary has tried his hand at several case competitions before.
He thought organizing a smaller-scale one open only to Richmond students could be more accessible and less intimidating for kids looking give them a try.
