Greenwood team wins third place at U of T's BE UNLIMITED Competition

The annual BE UNLIMITED competition hosted by U of T Scarborough offers a great opportunity for students to gain experience in a business case competition. The competition had upwards of 500 students who participated, equalling to approximately 80 teams of four to five students. Last year, seven students from Greenwood participated and one team won second place overall. 

This year, Greenwood more than doubled last year’s participation with 25 students from Grades 10 to 12 competing. Kobi Cheng ‘25, Mel Edgell ‘25, Alec Farah ‘25 and Danielle Tylman ‘25 formed the Fourward Thinkers and won third place at this year’s competition. The case this year involved preparing an analysis for a sushi restaurant chain, Yoshida Japanese Cuisine, to help them make business decisions. 

For those who have regularly participated in one of Greenwood’s twice-a-year case competitions, the BE UNLIMITED competition format was familiar terrain. “The format was practically identical to Greenwood’s, with the case reading, presentation making and presenting,” says Kobi ‘25. “Overall it was a pretty fun experience.”

Members of the Fourward Thinkers were quite surprised to learn that they won third place. “I had pretty low expectations going into the event as I've only taken one business course and have had little experience with case competitions,” Danielle ‘25 explains. “It was really stressful but really fun at the same time. It was an amazing experience and I would definitely be interested in competing in more case competitions.” 

“Going into this experience having only taken two business courses in my Greenwood career, I was a little nervous,” adds Mel. “But with only three hours to prepare our presentation, I had to get comfortable quickly. I was proud of our presentation and how we worked as a group.”

For the closing ‘ceremonies’, the organizer had the top two teams present in front of all the groups. This also served as a learning opportunity for all the students who attended. 

Mel ‘25 also found it enlightening to watch the top two groups. “It was cool to see the different things that other groups focused on,” she recalls. “For example, the second place team focused a lot on the finances and evaluating the business's worth, whereas the first place team focused a lot on marketing and more creative strategies. It was interesting to see the skills of students who are really engaged in business and plan to pursue it in their future.”

Greenwood teachers Jeff Preston and Rachel Greenstein supervised the teams and noted that several students mentioned that they really enjoyed the event and plan to return next year. 

Thank you all for representing Greenwood!