NHBC Opened My Eyes

Hi, my name is Selena Hussain and I am a grade 10 student at Garth Webb SS. I recently had the great opportunity to attend a business conference at NHBC and honestly, I went into this a bit scared since I didn’t know much about business or what to expect. If you feel hesitant like I was because of your lack of business knowledge, trust me, it's worth it. There was so much to take in and learn from this experience, and it's a lot more in depth than the courses you might take at school! It completely changed my mind about the opportunities in the business world. Our introduction into the conference was a keynote by Mark Grenon, which was especially interesting as it ”opened my eyes” to the other aspects of becoming a CPA. Contrary to my initial assumption that accounting was just crunching numbers, it went far deeper than that, to the point of solving mysteries and dealing with criminal cases. The speakers were very engaging and answered our questions with so much information. The panel on mental health and strategies to help control our emotions were great, and were especially reassuring as they were right before the case. The CPA workshop by Jodi Buckley was great for a sophomore like me who was more or less clueless on how to cater my next few years in highschool to build towards a future in business. We learned about the importance of soft skills and ways to improve them. I was introduced to the values and qualities of a leader, and how to embody them myself, which were really put to the test at the end of the conference. We were given a lot of advice on pursuing post-secondary education, we learned about forensics in CPA and the different branches into accounting. The case competition itself was such a great learning experience since it was a practical and realistic situation. The pressure from the time limit was great for testing your teamwork, collaboration, and organization. As it was my first time attemping something like this, I was really forced to analyze information in a different, more efficient way. The hands on experience at this conference was a different approach to education and learning, and it was amazing. Connecting with other people was another highlight. There are so many great networking opportunities, not only with adults, but with peers as well who are leaning towards a similar future as you. This is definitely a great event regardless of whether you want to pursue business or not, it may just change your mind!