'You will feel like you have a purpose'
Taking a break from an internship in North Carolina for McKinsey, a leading consulting firm, Longueuil native Valérie Larochelle reflects on how far she has come.
When the human resources student began her degree at Concordia four years ago, she spoke little English. Now she is providing business strategy in the South. Larochelle will come back to Canada to receive her degree in June.
“When I started at Concordia I couldn’t speak English. The moment that really transformed my university career was when a marketing teacher introduced me to case competitions,” says Larochelle. “When I look back, everything started with that teacher who told me to get involved outside the classroom.”
Case competitions have students work in teams to solve a business problem (say finding a new market for a flagging product or developing a promotional campaign), often based on a real-life scenario. In some competitions, students have a very limited time to develop their proposal or are expected to present to the company’s executives. It’s a high-stakes situation that can change the course of a student’s career.
After a year spent competing in local case competitions, Larochelle’s increasing ease with English allowed her to graduate to international events. She eventually competed in Texas and Hong Kong. Larochelle worked on behalf of her peers as well.
“I founded a student association last year. I was studying human resources and I discovered that no association represented students in that program; we fell under the Management Association,” says Larochelle. “Human resources is pretty different from management so we really felt the need to start an association of our own.”
“It took a large part of my university experience to sell the need for the association, to create it from nothing, to build the constitution and to decide on the executive positions,” says Larochelle, who served as the first president of the John Molson Human Resources Association.
Balancing her work in and outside of the classroom, Larochelle believes other students should become more involved in Concordia activities.
“You will feel like you have a purpose,” she says. “It was only through my involvement that I developed entrepreneurship, leadership and all of the skills you need to succeed.”
As for her future, Larochelle is debating whether to pursue an MBA or a master’s in public policy.