MSA celebrates Canadian Association of Business Students’ Most Outstanding Business Student Association Award
Each year, the Canadian Association of Business Students (CABS) celebrates a business student association who has advanced their management and execution of operations. In 2023, the UBC Okanagan Management Student Association, from the Faculty of Management, was lauded at the CABS national award ceremony for the considerable strides that the association took in 2022/2023 to enhance their operations to better serve the students within the faculty and campus community.
2022/2023 MSA Executive at the CABS Award Ceremony in March, 2023
The Canadian Association of Business Students (CABS) is a not-for-profit organization that represents over 70,000 business students from 26 universities in Canada. In March, the outgoing MSA Executive Team attended the CABS annual Roundtable conference to receive the award.
Outgoing President Abby Newman, a third-year student in the Faculty of Management, says that the award is confirmation of the hard work of the executive team over the last year.
“Stepping into our roles, we realized there was no template on how to run the MSA,” says Newman of the experience taking the reins when the campus was just returning to in-person instruction. A challenge that Newman said the team welcomed as an opportunity to reframe its activities.
“The MSA executives reimagined events to ensure they were inclusive and welcoming for all students by trying to eliminate as many financial or physical barriers as possible.”
Throughout the year, the executive team enhanced its operations by revisiting its constitution and offering a wide variety of activities to enhance the student experience. Newman says that receiving the award was an acknowledgement of not just this year’s teamwork, but the hard work of MSA executive teams over the last 15 years.
“For 15 years, the MSA has been chasing this award with so many executive teams coming close to winning,” says Newman. “It was an honour to represent not only ourselves and our hard work but also every MSA President and Executive that came before us when we accepted this award.”
“This award opens the door to so many opportunities for the MSA,” says Newman who says she is ready to support the incoming MSA Executive team continuing the work to improve the MSA.
With the celebrated award, the 2023/2024 Executive team has a strong foundation to continue to build on its mission of, “creating experiences that inspire.”