News Article

After going head-to-head with larger colleges and universities at the Enactus Canada National Exposition in Toronto, Ontario, earlier this month, College of the North Atlantic’s Enactus teams came away with a number of awards from the annual business competition.
 
Each year the national exposition brings together student, academic and industry leaders from across the country to celebrate the achievements of Canada’s future leaders and entrepreneurs. Through rounds of live, presentation-based competition, students showcase how their community outreach projects and business ventures enable progress through entrepreneurial action.
 
“We highlighted some main points of our four successful projects, but the focus of our presentation was only on our main project called Economics for Success,” said Enactus Clarenville Team Captain, Alexandra Philips, whose team won three awards.
 
The team’s project educates high school students on the importance of financial education. It is designed to encourage students to consider how they can prepare to enter the work force and involves mapping career clusters, recognizing possible post-secondary destinations, learning to budget and developing strategies to achieve educational and career goals.
 
Phillips says going into the competition the team felt well prepared.
 
“I was nervous, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be because we didn’t have any tech issues like we had at regionals. We were pretty pumped up about it because we knew our script inside and out.”
 
That hard work was rewarded as the team received the 2016 National Spirt Award for their effort. This award is presented to teams that have demonstrated a great impact in their community while working within the Enactus judging criterion in each league.
 
“We are absolutely honoured to be given the Spirit Award,” said Philips. “We worked our butts off last year and again this year. To be able to walk away with the trophy this year feels incredible, especially since we were competing against large universities.”
 
Phillips was awarded the Enactus Gold Community Service Leadership Award, which recognizes hard working students for the time and effort they have invested in Enactus activities.
 
“The award is given to individuals who have over 1,000 volunteer hours and it feels great to be honoured this way because I know how much work I have put in. Being able to say I’m a gold Enactus member feels absolutely amazing.”
 
Yvette Mahaney of Clarenville attended the national competition for the first-time and says it was an amazing experience, especially when they won their final award for Most Improved Team.
 
“Oh wow!” Mahaney said from her hotel in Toronto. “We weren’t expecting it and when we found out, we were just over the moon. We couldn’t believe we won another award. The first award was awesome, but this was the icing on the cake with a cherry on top. It left all of us feeling like we have come quite a distance to receive that award.”
 
She can’t wait to attend next year.
 
“It’s a great opportunity. We got to sit in on some of the competing teams to watch how they presented. Now that I have a better understanding of how the other teams work and how they present, I can be better prepared next year in knowing what I want to contribute when we are getting things together.”
 
The Grand Falls-Winsor Enactus team also walked away with a Spirit Award for their division. The four-person team presented an overview on their six major projects which impacted a total of 124 individuals.
 
The team’s projects included, Matters of Monetary Stability, which equips singles moms with the tools necessary to achieve financial independence; Ready, Set Go, which teaches students age 10-18 the importance of financial literacy; Practical Living by Analyzing Numbers  is a budgeting project tailor-made for college students; Exceptionalities centres around inclusion between children with autism and their ability to contribute to the business world; Lionel Kelland House enhances the quality of life for individuals with progressive illness, death and bereavement; and Offering Options in Seven Weeks at the Hope Valley additions treatment centre covers topics such as resume building, preparing for a job interview, financial literacy, budgeting, social media, goal setting and how to meet those goals.
 
“It feels wonderful,” said Advisor Susanne Ivey of Enactus Grand Falls-Windsor on receiving the Spirit Award. “It validates what we’re doing here at the campus. It’s a wonderful feeling.”
 
In addition, both Ivey and Clarenville Enactus Advisor, Deidre Strowbridge received the John Dobson Enactus Fellows of the Year Award. This award recognizes those who made an outstanding contribution in the past academic year as a mentor and coach to student involved in the Enactus team on their campus.
 
“You feel honoured that someone recognizes what you’re doing above and beyond in the classroom because this is all volunteer work that we’re doing,” Ivey said. “It makes you feel special and it’s nice to be appreciated.”
 
But in the end, Ivey says it’s about giving back.
 
“It’s nice to know the students are giving back to the community. The projects they’re doing and the impact they have on so many people’s lives.”
 
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Media Contact:
 
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Specialist
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca