Coffee cups and café culture feature in winning video

14 July 2024
Winners of the School Business Challenge St Augustines College members hold the winner's trophy in front of a CQUniversity Cairns bannerjpg
The winning team from St Augustine’s College – Alession Marras, Declan Cantamessa, Rohan Gaul and Thoman Dummel

By Priscilla Roberts

A Cairns secondary school has taken out CQUniversity’s hotly-contested School Business Challenge, charming judges with their creative café approach to the competition.

Complete with coffee cups and in a café setting, St Augustine’s College Team 2’s presentation wowed the judges and took out the coveted award ahead of runners-up Emmaus College from Rockhampton.

Four finalists – including a second team from St Augustine’s College and one from Bundaberg North High School – competed in the grand final where they were tasked with a challenging case study based on a café business and were required to submit their findings in a video format to judges.

The judging panel comprised representatives from competition sponsors Chartered Accountants, Australia & New Zealand, PVW Partners Accountants and Advisors and Grant Thornton.

The finalists were judged on three criteria: correct calculations; innovative and sustainable recommendations; and professional and easy-to-follow presentations.

CQUniversity’s Deputy Dean – Learning and Teaching for the School of Business and Law, Associate Professor Anthony Weber said the winners impressed the judges by presenting their findings in an actual café.

Emmaus College School Business Challenge runners stand in front of CQUniversity banners with one student being handed the shield from Professor Lee Di Milia
Runners-up from Emmaus College in Rockhampton Annelise Kinnear, Summer Starr Unwin, Finnegan Parr an Harry Brandt with CQUniversity’s Dean of the School of Business and Law Professor Lee Di Milia

“Feedback from the judges said that the decision to present in an actual café with actual coffee cups was innovative in itself,” Assoc Prof Weber explained.

“However, they were also praised by their use of graphics to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts.”

The School Business Challenge attracted record numbers this year with 162 students from 40 teams from 23 secondary schools from throughout Queensland competing in the initial round of the competition.

Quiz master Gerard Ilott said the competition tested a range of subject matter from the fields of accounting, business, legal studies and general knowledge, and allowed students to see how what they learn at school fed into the real world.

“This year’s grand final winners received ‘bragging rights’, along with a trophy, prize money and generous scholarships to study at CQUniversity.”

School Business Challenge 2024