How FHS students became champions of the 2022 World Evaluation Case Competition

By: Geron Malbas

A group of SFU health sciences students (Jenna Bentley, Blaga Ivanova, Reem Mustafa, Samer Rihani, Sadie Stephenson) won 1^st place for the 2022 World Evaluation Case Competition (WECC).

Team BLUEPRINT was invited to represent Canada in the WECC by previously placing 1^st in the Student Evaluation Case Competition. Unlike other case competitions that give information about cases on the day-of, the team was provided background information prior to competition day to prepare themselves using previous course content and resources.

They ultimately defended a case that evaluated a proposed project that may be used to strengthen local governments in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia.

“[The topic was a] very timely, important, and most unique to the world competition, a globally effecting social issue,” the team said. “The program we were to evaluate is called DOBRE (Decentralization Offering Better Results and Efficiency), which has been delivered from 2016-2022 to support Ukraine’s efforts to decentralize government following their Revolution of Dignity in 2014.”

The TEAM found that they got an edge on the competition due to their companionship. Having worked together on other case competitions, as well as being close companions outside of the competition helped them retain a collaborative and honest approach to their discussions.

“We believe being so close to one another was key to our collaboration and connection while working on all the cases,” they explained. “We made sure to check in on each other and help each other when needed. Ultimately, we trusted each other, and most of all, just tried to have fun with it.”

With this win, the team hopes it inspires more students to step out of their comfort zone, and try new things they would not usually explore.

“If we didn’t try, we wouldn’t have been able to explore our truest potential and harness the skills of not only evaluation, but also experience true collaboration and teamwork.”