The new term may have just begun, but Edwards School of Business is already busy preparing for the annual JDC West competition, taking place from Jan. 15–17.

The competition, which aims to foster development of valuable skills in its competitors, will take place at the University of Saskatchewan this year. Top business students from across Western Canada will be coming together to test their skills in a variety of different categories.

This year, the Edwards JDC West team is lead by co-captains Michael Gonari and Jordana Knoblauch, both fourth-year commerce students at the U of S. Gonari speaks to the kind of experience that students can expect from the competition.

“[JDC West] challenges them to use their critical thinking skills and applying real knowledge outside of the classroom to solve business scenarios and present to judges,” Gonari said.

JDC West finds its origins in the Quebec business competition Jeux de Commerce. In 2006, the format was adapted for the unique environment of Western Canada and has been held annually ever since. Hosting duties rotate between a number of western Canadian universities.

The competition is comprised of four different categories: academic case challenges, debate, sport and social challenges. Over the course of the weekend, each team will compete against the other schools with the event culminating in an awards gala.

Over 600 students from 12 different schools will soon gather in Saskatoon to take part in the annual competition. With a team of 50 students, 2016 has already been a successful year for JDC West at the U of S.

“We’ve put together a really great team this year. We have the highest recruitment numbers this year. The number of people that actually applied this year was record breaking — we had really good marketing,” Knoblauch said.

Preparation for the competition begins early in the year, with JDC West students putting in several hours of their time per week.

“Roughly once a week, [academic case] students will get together and simulate what the competition would look like. They’ll … solve a business case for three hours, and then they’ll present to their coaches for the same amount of time as they would at the competition, which is 20 minutes, followed by a five-minute question period,” Gonari said.

The social, debate and sports teams each have their own unique preparation methods, with the sports team showing particular dedication to their competition.

“They actually all joined the Campus Rec dodgeball league, so they all played on Saturday afternoons as well as getting up at 6 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesday and going to the PAC to practice ringette for an hour and a half,” Knoblauch said.

JDC West also requires participants to go beyond their university and give back to their local communities.

“This year for charity we’ve raised close to $10,000 for Habitat for Humanity in a single day — we raised that in our top charity event. We’ve actually done, as a team, over a thousand hours of community service from September to January, which I thought was pretty good for a group of 50 students who are all full-time students,” Knoblauch said.

For both Gonari and Knoblauch, the benefits of JDC West extend far beyond the opportunity to win a competition.

“My favorite part of the team is definitely the bonding aspect that happens with the other people that are part of the team. I’ve met my best friends in commerce through this team and I’ve formed lifelong friendships that I will never ever have regrets about,” Knoblauch said.

Gonari hopes that students benefit from JDC West as much as he has.

“I want students to come out with a solid group of friends that they consider very close to them because of all that time spent together,” Gonari said. “I want them to come out feeling like it was the best experience of their university career and that so much value was added as a result of it.”