Local Post-secondary Students Participate In National Entrepreneurship Competition

May 13, 2008

St.John's, NL - Post-secondary students from Newfoundland and Labrador are in Toronto to test their business skills against students from across Canada at the Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) National Exposition.

Teams from Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) and the College of the North Atlantic (CNA) campuses in Grand Falls-Windsor, St. John’s and Stephenville are participating in the competition thanks in part to funding from the Government of Canada. A portion of the funding was used to send six Newfoundland and Labrador teams to the ACE Regional Exposition in Halifax in March. The MUN and Grand Falls-Windsor CNA teams beat other teams in the categories of entrepreneurship and financial literacy, earning the right to represent Eastern Canada at the national topic competition. All four Newfoundland and Labrador teams will participate in Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) competition, open to all ACE teams across Canada. The event is being held May 12-14.

The $57,833 in funding was announced today by the Honourable Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, on behalf of the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).

“Participating in events such as the ACE National Exposition gives students a unique and important opportunity to showcase their entrepreneurial skills in front of a national audience,” said Minister Hearn. "Our students are bright, determined and focused. I congratulate the teams who participated in the Atlantic Canada competition, and extend my best wishes to the teams who will be representing Newfoundland and Labrador at the national level in Toronto."

The national competition in Toronto brings together more than 500 youth from more than 50 universities and colleges across Canada to compete in categories such as financial literacy and entrepreneurship education. Youth from more than 15 Atlantic Canadian universities and colleges participated in the Halifax exposition. The MUN team, called ACE Memorial, won regional and national competitions in 2007 and went on to place second in the world at the international competition.

“We are extremely thankful to ACOA for all of their support,” said Haroon Iqbal, executive vice-president of ACE/SIFE Memorial. “The impact that we have had and continue to have through our outreach projects would not be possible without supporters such as ACOA, who has played a major role in our team's successes and achievements over the years."

“I would like to thank ACOA for allowing me and my fellow teammates this wonderful opportunity,” said Sarah Kelly, president of ACE Grand Falls-Windsor. “Without ACOA’s assistance we would not be able to deliver our programs and learn far more than any textbook could ever teach us.”

ACE Inc., a national organization for entrepreneurship training and education, advances Canadian entrepreneurship by organizing and motivating teams of university and college students to practice and teach others the principles and values of entrepreneurship. ACE creates partnerships between business and higher education to deliver programming that prepares university and college students to make a meaningful ontribution towards a better country, as entrepreneurs and business leaders. Students are given the opportunity to develop their leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through learning, practicing, and teaching the principals of entrepreneurship and market economics using real world business and economic issues in their own entrepreneurial ventures. ACOA is providing funding for this initiative through its Young Entrepreneur Development Initiative (YEDI), a $15.6 million initiative targeting the development of entrepreneurship and business skills among Atlantic Canada’s youth.