A 20-year-old SAIT student from Calgary has won the title of world champion.
Emily Daubert beat 115-thousand competitors from 54 countries to win the Microsoft Office Word Championship this year. It’s the first time a North American has won the event.
“Going in, I honestly did not think I could win. I knew I had the skills to win, but it was very hard going up against competitors from around the world” says Emily.
What makes Emily’s accomplishment even more impressive; she didn’t use the Microsoft programs on a regular basis until she began college.
Janine Violini, one of Emily’s instructors at SAIT, says she’s amazed at her skill.
“Her qualifying score on the exam was 100% in 11 minutes and 8 seconds. I have been teaching the course for 20 years and I got 96% in 50 minutes.”
It speaks well of SAIT’s Administrative Information Management program, especially since Canadians suffer from something called a “˜digital divide’.
“What digital divide actually is, is a lack of access to skills to use technology properly,” says Malcolm Knox from CCI Learning Solutions.
Microsoft began its certification program to help with the issue, which is offered at SAIT. Obviously, Emily caught on very quickly and SAIT hopes her success will encourage others to become more educated.
“We now have a lot of staff here at SAIT saying “˜I want to be certified, I want to be that good. Obviously students coming in are going to be saying “˜if she can do it, I can do it.’ We just hope that will spread across the country so Canada’s productivity can go up. I think she is going to be the inspiration for the whole country,” says Violini.
As for Emily, her world champion title has already piqued the interest of several companies; but one in particular she’d like to work with the most – Microsoft.
Emily is also the national Microsoft Excel champion. SAIT’s Administrative Information Management program is split 50-50 on teaching administrative technology and business theory.
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