A group of young Grade 8 entrepreneurs from Humber Summit Middle School have stepped into the business world.
Their venture, Come Express Yourself – a personalized t-shirt design contest – has won them the Bank of Montreal (BMO) Enterprising Spirit Award at the 2011 The Learning Partnership’s Entrepreneurial Adventure BMO Financial Group National Student Innovation Awards in June.
The young Humber Summit entrepreneurs are Murtaz Riaz, Joyce Lau, Ranuya Satkunalingam, Thushana Loganathan, Ayushi Dhiman, Shivam Amin, and Shahzeen Riaz. Many thanks are due to the guidance and direction of teacher Damien Mendez.
Come Express Yourself is a personalized t-shirt design contest in which students created a design on a white crew neck t-shirt using coloured markers and neon tube paint. Given to students who are thinking outside of the box, the award challenges students to use unique ideas to create and deliver a product or service. Their work was showcased on June 2.
The funds raised were given to entrepreneurs in developing nations through Kiva. The goal of their venture was to raise awareness of the KIVA program which provides a mechanism to invest sums of between $25 and $1,000 in family-owned businesses.
The students learned how to carry out the various steps of a business venture from start to finish. They gained knowledge of marketing and promotion concepts, how to create compelling presentations, the use of money in developing an enterprise, and the economics of developing countries.
“The students collectively learned several things such as entrepreneurial spirit, vision, commitment, responsibilities, drive, believing in their ideas and finally how their learning adventure is related to and improves their overall learning skills,” says Mendez.
This is not a first for Humber Summit. At last year's BMO Showcase, students came away with the Judges Award for their Come Fly With Me kite design and flying venture.
Congratulations again young entrepreneurs!