By Élise Fenwick

It was an unusually rainy morning in Vancouver, B.C., on Oct. 19. An atmospheric river blew down the coast, drenching a group of Thompson Rivers University (TRU) business students as they headed to the kick-off competition of the 2024 BC MBA Games.

“That first morning, everyone was soaking wet by the time we arrived,” recalls Jessie Bombardier, co-ordinator of Graduate Program Student Services and Advising with TRU’s Bob Gaglardi School of Business and Economics. “Despite this, our team went into the competition with high spirits and a good attitude.”

This was the overall tone of TRU’s BC MBA Games team; excited, enthusiastic and in it to win it.

“We had quite a few first-year students on the team,” says John McDonald, faculty coach for TRU’s team and a sessional instructor with TRU Gaglardi. “But what some members lacked in case experience was overcome by hard work, enthusiasm and perseverance.”

Time to train

Santhosh Kumar Mariyala, a TRU Master of Business Administration (MBA) student and one of the team’s co-captains, and his teammates spent hours preparing for the games. In fact, their rigorous weekly training began with the fall semester.

“Our approach was multifaceted,” Mariyala explains. “We strategically divided the team into three distinct groups according to the competition format, including academics, athletics and spirit.”

“This structured approach ensured we maximized our representation across all competition categories while working within the participant limit.”

Juggling the schedules of 24 students to co-ordinate practices proved to be one of the team’s biggest obstacles. However, they overcame the logistical challenge and worked diligently taking part in weekly case study analyses and discussions, intensive basketball practices, social media campaigns, fundraising initiatives and rehearsals for the all-team dance performance and street theatre production.

Bombardier attests to the months of hard work and dedication the team displayed leading up to the games.

“The athletic group met a minimum of three times per week over a two-month period,” Bombardier says. “They performed well because of how hard they trained and because they bonded well as a team.

The athletic team after their dodge ball victory at the Point Grey indoor gym.

Giving it their all

TRU’s athletic team shone at the games, securing second place in basketball and narrowly losing to their host — University Canada West (UCW) — by just one point. They ranked first in dodgeball where they reigned supreme over UCW, Simon Fraser University (SFU) and Vancouver Island University (VIU).

“We were confident in our athletic team’s potential,” Mariyala says. “And our athletic team emerged as the overall winner (in athletics).”

While the spirit and academic teams did not achieve the same results as the athletic team, McDonald says the experience was still incredibly insightful as it allowed students to put their learning into action while exploring the theme of the 2024 BC MBA Games: An Appetite for Sustainability.

“We provided educational opportunities to understand the complexities of the competition’s sustainability theme,” McDonald says. “We all came away with a genuine appreciation of food insecurity facing many people in B.C. and the world over.”

McDonald says the academic team’s entries in both the take-home and Pecha Kucha — a presentation format using 20 slides or images that are displayed for 20 seconds each — competition were strong and well presented.

“We selected business case studies highlighting issues to expand the students’ appreciation of this global challenge,” McDonald says. The sustainability theme urged business leaders to address food systems’ sustainability and rethink production, distribution, consumption and waste management, promoting ethical business models while fostering innovations for resilient and equitable food systems.

Sustaining the theme

The academic team with coach John McDonald during the Take Home Case and Pecha Kucha presentations.

The theme of sustainability was at the forefront of competitions, which included a fundraising challenge in support of the 2024 charity partner FarmFork CityFolk, B.C.’s oldest and largest food agriculture charity.

While final numbers weren’t officially released, TRU’s spirit team raised between $700 and $1,000 toward FarmFolk CityFolk according to Bombardier. Overall, teams from SFU, TRU, UCW and VIU raised $6,852 for the charity.

Another main part of the competition was the spirit team performance challenge, which required participants to create a 10- to 15-minute street theatre performance aimed at raising awareness about food security. TRU’s spirit team innovated a sustainability themed adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for their performance.

“In this version, Romeo and his father were portrayed as wealthy and wasteful, with little understanding of sustainable practices,” Mariyala explains. “Juliet and her father were depicted as a middle-class family well-versed in sustainability principles.”

Mariyala says “the experience of crafting and presenting this unique take on a classic story was truly remarkable and memorable for the team.”

A valuable experience

The street theatre play performance challenge featuring Tasmia Zaman Apsara as Juliet and Sakshay Kapur as Romeo.

Despite being proud of what they accomplished at the games, the teams still experienced a feeling of disappointment.

“That being said, the team was grateful for the experience,” Bombardier says. “Some (team members) said the games were the highlight of their time in Canada.”

For Mariyala, the experience was filled with joy and learning.

“I gained a wealth of knowledge, made valuable connections and much more,” he says.

The lessons Mariyala and his teammates gleaned from their first ever BC MBA Games are already proving valuable as they prepare for the 2025 national MBA Games being held Jan. 3 – 5 in Vancouver.

“We gained valuable insights from observing other universities,” Mariyala says. “We are taking a new approach to maximize our strengths and create a more cohesive team experience across all aspects of the competition.”

With training for the nationals already underway, McDonald is optimistic that the team’s experience at the BC MBA Games has allowed them to strategize better and improve for future competitions.

“With the experience from the provincial games under our belt and ever more discipline and practice, I feel we will be even stronger going into the national games,” McDonald says.

Team coach
John McDonald, sessional instructor, Bob Gaglardi School of Business and Economics

Team co-ordinator
Jessie Bombardier, co-ordinator of Graduate Program Student Services and Advising, Bob Gaglardi School of Business and Economics

Academics team

• Rikesh Mathew, team leader
• Richa Mathew
• Rochelle Dsouza
• Jesal Thakkar
• Anurag Semwal
• Pratibha Akashkumar Patel
• Sagar Poojari
• Malarvendan Tamilvanan

Athletics team

• Inderdeep Singh, team leader
• Angad Singh Saddal
• Chimazuru Akanwa
• Andrew Wanyoike Mbugua
• Bernard Alfred Grant
• Prerna Sapra
• Sophie Bibault
• Pragya Joshi
• Naman Bhardwaj

Spirit team

• Tasmia Zaman Apsara, team leader
• Arnav Mittal
• Chai Chin Chen
• Sakshay Kapur
• Garima Durayla
• Souvik Das, co-captain
• Santhosh Kumar Mariyala, co-captain