The Illuminated Experience

Hi everyone! My name is Huzaifa Dean, and I am a grade 11 student at Richmond Hill High School. On Saturday May 29, I had the opportunity to attend the National High School Business Conference. Here's my overall impression about the conference and Illuminate university, as well as everything I learned yesterday.

The first thing we learned was forensic accounting and how it works. Forensic accounting is the specialty practice area of accounting that investigates whether firms engage in financial reporting misconduct. At the conference, we learned about the importance of accounting. An example is how Mark Grenon (The speaker) said that he was responsible for deciphering all the discrepancies in a kingpin's bank account. This showed me that there are risks in accounting, since Mark said didn't use social media in order to not be tracked.

After that, we had a workshop about mental health and how important it is to exercise the different parts of our brain. I also understood how important it is to properly manage your internal emotions in order to live a healthy lifestyle.

Then, there was a Q&A session with four post-secondary panelists with great experience in the field of business. I found the information they shared to be extremely helpful, as they did not only give advice about business, but what to expect in post secondary education and just life skills in general. From how to manage your time wisely, to which programs to choose, a wide range of questions were answered by the people who I hoped to become one day.

Finally, we got to do the CPA challenge which was a case in which we had to find out who was responsible for missing funds in a company. This was quite a good experience as I had never done anything like it before. I got to learn what it's like to be a forensic accountant myself as well as look for clue in spreadsheets and the information provided in order to find the culprit. During this activity, we all received the chance to communicate with different high school students and put our heads together to solve this puzzle. This was one of the most interesting and informative activity I have ever had the opportunity to do throughout my three years of secondary school.

Overall, the whole experience was great and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I would definitely recommend it to all the people interested in business as well as the ones who have post secondary plans.

Huzaifa Dean

May 30, 2021