Two recent graduates of the Business Administration - Materials Management program of Conestoga College have won a national honour from the international professional association APICS - The Educational Society for Resource Management.
Gary Pelich of Brantford and Perian Snider of Kitchener, both of whom graduated from Conestoga in the spring of 2002, share a prize of $250 (US) for winning the APICS Region VIII level of the Donald W. Fogarty International Student Paper Competition. The competition, sponsored by the APICS Educational and Research Foundation, encourages the submission of original, timely and relevant research papers in the field of resource management of goods, services and processes integral to business and industrial operations.
The win by Pelich and Snider is significant for two reasons. First, this competition attracts almost exclusively university-level entrants. For example, the Region VIII second- and third-place papers came from University of Calgary students. Second, APICS Region VIII includes all of Canada, so the Conestoga entry was judged a national winner. The Pelich-Snider paper was researched, prepared and submitted while the two were still students at the College.
Currently, Perian Snider holds the position of buyer with Kitchener-based Schneider Foods. Gary Pelich is a logistics co-ordinator with Waterloo-based PWO Canada Inc. Both are studying towards degrees in business administration from Athabasca University, and Snider is also pursuing studies for the CPP (Certified Professional Purchaser) professional designation.
APICS is based in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization has more than 70,000 individual and corporate members in the United States and Canada, and is dedicated to professional awareness, development and education for resource managers in business, industry and the public sector.
Conestoga's Materials Management program has an APICS Affiliated Student Chapter (ASC). In fact, the Conestoga ASC is the largest in Canada and the second largest in North America, behind only the University of Texas at Austin.
Business Administration - Materials Management is a three-year, diploma-level
program, which also features an optional co-op education component. Students
gain the skills and knowledge required for careers in the highly specialized
and expanding fields of production and inventory control, purchasing,
traffic of goods and supplies, logistics and value analysis. The Materials
Management program emphasizes all five of the basic management functions:
planning, organization, staffing, co-ordination and control.
CONTACT: Tracey Lopers, 519-748-5220, ext. 3887, tlopers@conestogac.on.ca