Community Engagement
- Category: Community Engagement
The Telfer School of Management’s undergraduate office is thrilled to announce the official launch of the Telfer Workshop Initiative! This initiative offers an overview of post-secondary education in management, as well as professional development training to students in grades 10 to 12, in secondary 4 and 5, and in cégep.
Offered free of charge during the school year (October – June), this initiative is organized in collaboration with our School’s dynamic professors, our current Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) students and alumni, our industry partners, and our Student Services Centre. The workshops have been designed to complement students’ curriculum, while allowing them to experience a taste of university studies.
We are convinced that these workshops offer an unparalleled opportunity for students to discover commerce, and for teachers to enrich their course content. If you are a teacher or guidance counselor and would like your class or school to participate in this innovative program, please contact
- Category: Community Engagement
A group of Telfer MHA students, participants in the University’s Centre for Global and Community Engagement, are putting their carpentry skills to the test. On Thursday, August 7, 2014, the student volunteers will install flooring in the community room at Lady Stanley Place, an OCH Lowertown community with 62 homes for about 100 residents.
The uOttawa’s Centre for Global and Community Engagement promotes and coordinates community initiatives implemented by groups of students and led by a student team leader. This is the second volunteer project between the Ottawa Community Housing and uOttawa.
Read an Article about this in LeDroit. (in French only)
- Category: Community Engagement
CASCO, a student charity organization at the Telfer School of Management, hosted the 8th Annual Moore Wrinn Financial Group Golf Tournament on Friday June 20. With a strong team effort made by the CASCO executives, they managed to raise $10,550 towards their cheque to present to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) at their 15th Annual Gala on December 1, 2014 at the Delta Hotel.
About CASCO
CASCO is a student-run charity organization at the University of Ottawa. Comprised mostly of students from the Telfer School of Management, the club strives to include as many students as possible from the university population – allowing them to apply business knowledge to raise both awareness and funds for charity causes and promote corporate social responsibility. Now entering its 15th year, CASCO has raised over $350,000 for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), helping to purchase new equipment and to provide assistance to families in need.
- Category: Community Engagement
In an initiative to engage with and give back to our community, the MHA student association volunteered at The Ottawa Race weekend on Sunday May 25.
Starting at 6:30 a.m., MHA students were helping fill hundreds of cups of Gatorade and water for the 7,000 marathon runners and spent the rest of the morning cheering on the race participants as they crossed the half-way point of the 42 km race.
Volunteering together was a great way to have fun as a class, build relationships and participate in our greater community. The Telfer MHA class will be volunteering again at the CHEO BBQ on June 14 (www.cheobbq.com).
- Category: Community Engagement
From March 9-14, 2014 Telfer BCom students will sleep outside to create awareness and raise funds for the homeless in communities across Canada. It is the fourth time that students of the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa will be taking part in 5 Days for the Homeless.
5 Days for the Homeless is a five-day charity campaign in which university students live "homeless" on campus to raise money and awareness for a local charity.
This year, the campaign will be held at 26 campuses across the country. To date, the national organization has raised over $1,212,000!
Show your support by stopping by Morisset Terrace March 9-15 and come say hi to our sleepers!
Below is a list of participants for 5 Days for the Homeless 2014:
- Aayush Shah
- Brianna Barry
- Brittany Blain-Wombolt
- Chloe Hutcherson
- Gina Chong
- Isabelle Leblanc
- Lama Kahiel
- Lawrence Quan
- Lukas Jeffery
- Natalina Tuy
- Stephanie Lorentz
- Category: Community Engagement
- Category: Community Engagement
Are you interested in getting involved in the community but don't know where to start? Come to the Volunteer Fair!
The Centre for Global and Community Engagement invites you to a Volunteer Fair on Tuesday October 29 from 10am to 3pm at the Jock Turcot University Centre (UCU). This is a one of a kind opportunity to meet around 30 organizations looking for volunteers in the National Capital Region, or abroad!
If you would like more information, contact Vanessa at 613-562-5945 or by email at
- Category: Community Engagement
From March 10-15, four Telfer BCom students, Ashley Rosa, Angelika Athanasoulias, Daniel Gauthier and Pierce Colley will sleep outside to create awareness and raise funds for the homeless in communities across Canada. In 2011, the campaign was held at 22 campuses across the country and broke records by raising over $220,000 nationwide and raised awareness for the issue of homelessness and youth at risk like never before.
- Category: Community Engagement
A little over seven years ago, students of Telfer’s Executive MBA (EMBA) program approached professor Guy Laflamme with the suggestion of working with charity organizations as part of their final team assignment. Since then, more than 50 charity and not-for-profit organizations have benefitted from the talent and dedication of uOttawa’s EMBA students. The success of this project has been a source of great pride for professor Laflamme, who has been working hard to educate students on the importance of corporate social responsibility in his Strategic Marketing Management course.
“I am trying to sensitize future business leaders about the importance of giving back to the community—making it part of business practices that are respectful of society and that recognize the role they play in the community,” says professor Laflamme. “An organization needs not only to achieve a maximum net profit, but should also be able to have a contribution towards sustainability and its people.”
Teams of students are asked to develop a marketing business plan for an organization of their choice. By working closely with the selected organizations, students are exposed to the challenges that charity and not-for-profit organizations face in terms of funding, awareness and resources. “It was the ideal way to learn about marketing—we learned the theoretical aspects in class and applied them in real-life practical situations,” says EMBA student Dr. Mamta Gautam, who worked with the organization ICAfrica. This local, not-for-profit non-governmental agency aims to provide microcredit loans and business coaching to entrepreneurs in Africa.
“The marketing plan that was provided to us by uOttawa highlighted areas of improvement that our organization should carry out, and one by one, we are working on improving those areas,” says Eugene Nzeribe, executive director of ICAfrica. “Our whole infrastructure has been re-organized in a more structured fashion. We have a strong board of directors whose individual talents are matched with tasks which are showing results in the quality of our fundraising activities and in terms of engagement response. It brought us in the direction that we needed to move forward.”
According to professor Laflamme, determining the value proposition is far more challenging in not-for-profit organizations than for, say … McDonald’s. Students are required to learn the do’s and don’ts of a consulting process while developing the courage to tell clients things they don’t always want to hear. “Students are at times faced with a dilemma of maintaining their intellectual integrity versus competing pressures from their clients. They need to be able to go in with a high degree of integrity and present what they feel is the right approach,” explains professor Laflamme.
However, despite challenges, the emotional connection students make with their organizations has them caring about the outcome. They truly want to see the organizations succeed. EMBA graduate Karen Kavanagh speaks of her experience working with the organization Operation Come Home: “I learned that it doesn’t take a lot of time or money to help others. It started as a project in school but ended up as a long-term friendship and dedication to be more connected with my community.”
Professor Laflamme’s EMBA students have helped several organizations across the nation’s capital including the Eastern Ontario Parkinson Society, the Ottawa Mission, the Canadian Film Institute and the Canadian Council for the Arts. “I am proud to nourish not only the brains but the heart and soul of our students and future business leaders,” says professor Laflamme.
Click here to read the original article in the Gazatte. [This link is no longer available]
- Category: Community Engagement
For their Consumer Behaviour class, around 50 students from the Telfer School of Management put together marketing strategies for the Festival franco-ontarien (FFO).
The students had to suggest a marketing communication strategy that would enable the festival to attract more people aged between 15-25 while retaining its current clientele.
Among the 11 student teams, three were selected to present their ideas in front of Sébastien Lorquet, President of FFO's board, Josée Vaillancourt, Secretary of the FFO board, Daniel Simoncic, FFO’s General Director and Nathalie Brunette, Communications Director of the FFO.
Congratulations to the winning team composed of:
Team 8 : Antoine Bégin, Julie Boucher, Vincent Labbé, Gabrielle Belhumeur et Alexandre Joubert.
The two finalist teams were composed of:
Team 7: Aymeric Anne Beard, Laurence Guimond, Laurent Rioux, Joëlle Thériault et Jade Thérien.
Team 4: Jennifer Nadia Capogreco, Isabelle Gagnon, Oubah Meraneh, Sonia Munezero, Gaël Narame.
The 38th edition of the Festival franco-ontarien will take place June 13, 14 and 15, 2013 at Major Park in Ottawa.
- Category: Community Engagement
On December 4, 2012, CASCO students took to the stage at the Delta Ottawa City Centre to raise a record breaking $45,080.61 for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). The theme of this year’s event was “Time Warp”, where all performances were focused around the 6 last decades.
In preparation for this event, CASCO students spend countless hours auditioning, choreographing, and organizing this annual gala show that focuses on the talents of Telfer School students, and raises money for CHEO as well as a CHEO family in need.
For the past 13 years, CASCO has been a major event for the Telfer School of Management that is entirely choreographed, organised and executed by like-minded Telfer School students. It is a spectacular show of talent and philanthropy that brings together over 500 people including prominent community leaders and ambassadors for CHEO. Among the attendees this year were Mayor Jim Watson, CHEO Foundation COO Kevin Keohane, CHEO Foundation President and CEO Fred Bartlett, Dean François Julien, Ottawa City Councillor Mathieu Fleury, Max Keeping and CASCO co-founders Alexandre St-Jean and Tuan Nguyen. This event is also an excellent networking opportunity for Telfer School students who will be graduating in the near future.
The Telfer School remains very proud of its CASCO students for the time and energy that they focus on this event ever year and the positive impact that they leave on our community.
- Category: Community Engagement
Jean-François Vincent-Rocan who is studying at the Telfer School of Management for the completion of his Graduate Diploma for Scientific Management and Leadership, as part of his PhD in Chemistry, entered the Walmart Green Student Challenge with another uOttawa student. Their innovative eco-friendly idea has enabled them to gain incredible support from the community and reach 3rd place in the contest.
However, the contest is not over and it is still possible to show support to the team by voting [This link is no longer available].
- Category: Community Engagement
What began as one Telfer student’s passion for skateboarding turned into a $1,000 fundraising reality for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Daniel Gauthier, a first year business student and avid skateboarder, teamed up with CASCO, to execute a skateboard demonstration and BBQ, held on October 11th. The demonstration was displayed in front of the new Faculty of Social Sciences building. Despite the chilly October breeze, crowds of students stopped by the event to enjoy some delicious BBQ, amazing music, and a group of talented young people showcasing their talent. Raffle tickets were also being sold and awesome prizes were being handed out, courtesy of Top of the World, HAVOC Skateshop, Antique, and The Temple Skateboard Co. The event proved to be successful, and will hopefully become an annual one!
Thank you to the following sponsors that made iSkate4CHEO possible: The Telfer School of Management, Aficionado, DocU Centre, Metro, GSAED, Long & McQuade, and Tannis. A special thank you to DJ Kee and our very own photographers: Michael Kim and Emily Direnzo.
- Category: Community Engagement
Three teams of students in Professor Garrick Apollon's ADM 3718 - Commerce international course worked on a term project aiming to convince Canadian companies to invest and to buy Haiti's fair-trade cocoa products to make chocolate and chocolate products. The students' challenge was organized according to the format of the television show, "The Apprentice." The students had to submit a written report and make an oral presentation to an evaluation committee. The committee members (on the picture) were Carlo Sévère, Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Haiti; Carl Apollon, President of the Groupe Intercal; Frantz Liautaud, Haiti's Ambassador to Canada; Ms. Carré, Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Haiti; Jennifer Williams, CEO, Camino; and Professor Garrick Apollon. Congratulations to the members of the challenge-winning team, which included students Asmaâ Alaoui, Soufiane Bakas, Julie Bédard, Chris Daccache, Reda Laalaj and Mehdi Rais!
As Professor Apollon explained, it is not common for students to be required to make a presentation before an ambassador and the CEO of a Canadian coop like Camino. "I was nervous for them and I am proud of their accomplishments and their work. I also want to express my deep appreciation to the judges, who generously gave more than half a workday to this Telfer School project," said Professor Apollon.
Inspired by his experience with Professor Adam Grant of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Professor Apollon decided to have his students work on a real project of a "social nature." Because the United States government recently announced that it will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Haiti through USAID for the development of Haiti's cocoa industry, it is realistic to think that the Telfer School students' project might have convinced Canadian businesses to invest in Haiti. The project also aimed to make Telfer School students aware of their power to change the world because all too often, people think that only charitable donations and humanitarian projects create lasting changes in developing countries like Haiti. However, the response is also in the promotion of responsible foreign investments and fair trade, and Telfer School students have the training to fulfil this mission.
- Category: Community Engagement
From March 11 to 16, five uOttawa students from the Telfer School of Management will take part in the second edition of Five Days for the Homeless to not only shed light on and experience the challenges faced by the homeless day in and day out, but also to raise funds for organizations that care for these individuals. Increasingly popular across North America, the event involves “living” on the University grounds under conditions that resemble those of the homeless.