Lazaridis students place fourth in the first ever APEC International Student Summit

July 7, 2021

The Lazaridis School was well-represented by three students at the inaugural International Student Summit in June. Amerie Desouza, Minting He, and Wanlin He earned joint third place but were relegated to fourth after a tie-breaker at the international competition, hosted virtually by the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Study Centre.

The event featured more than 40 teams of undergraduate students representing APEC member countries. Teams had one month to research and provide analysis on a public policy measure in one of the APEC economies, present it to the panel of judges from around the Asia-Pacific region, and answer questions about their chosen policy. The Lazaridis team was the only Canadian team in the competition and chose to present on the effects of the non-resident speculation tax (NRST) on the real estate market in Toronto.

Desouza notes of their experience, “Overall, we had a great experience and learned a lot! Especially about economic significance versus statistical significance. It also exposed us to learn about different policies around the world as well as what students in other countries are working on. Plus, we grew in friendship during the competition, which was a lovely bonus.”

Minting He adds, “As an economics student, I've been trying to connect the knowledge I learned in school to the working world, so when the economics department advertised the competition, I decided to take part. The process of picking a topic for this competition was the most memorable part of the experience for me and we came up with several interesting public policies that we wanted to work on.”

In the end, the team decided to work on the effect of Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) in Toronto because it’s a relatively new tax in Canada and there have been few reports written about it.

“On the presentation day, each team demonstrated different public policies,” says Minting He. “It was very interesting to learn about different policies from around the world. In the Q & A session, the judges asked some questions that I never thought about before and I will keep them in mind in my future academic study.”

Wanlin He notes that the competition forced the team to look beyond their course material for insights. “In the financial mathematics program, we pay more attention to the math and less on the application of that knowledge, so the competition made us connect what we have learned with real-world conditions.”

This competition is another example of Lazaridis School students stepping up and getting noticed on the world stage and showing our international competitors the Laurier culture centred around experiential learning has a place in all fields of study.

Desouza has just graduated with an honours degree in economics, Minting He is in her third year of honours economics and accounting, and Wanlin He is in the honours financial mathematics program.

The Lazaridis School is incredibly proud of all three competitors and congratulates them on their strong showing at the inaugural APEC International Student Summit.