More than a dozen Okanagan College students, including two from Salmon Arm, will compete in the national Enactus Canada exposition after winning first place in the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge and the Scotiabank EcoLiving Green Challenge and third place in the Capital One Financial Education Challenge at the western regional Enactus Canada exposition held in Calgary.
Salmon Arm students Kris Goralski and Tom Arrowsmith played key roles in the College’s big wins.
Goralski presented for the Financial Education team, which earned a bronze, and Arrowsmith was the lead on the Shuswap-Launch-a-Preneur project – one of the main projects the college team presented on.
For the second year in a row Okanagan College took home the biggest prizes: two golds, a bronze and $3,500 in cash prizes. On the road to the podium, the college outperformed competitors from UBC, SFU, Brandon University and the University of Alberta, among others.
The teams presented to a panel of independent judges on a number of community-based projects, all developed and organized by the Okanagan College student group.
“It is amazing to see the difference our team is making in the community, how meaningful and powerful of a connection we make with the people of our communities,” said Paven Sekhon, president of Enactus Okanagan College.
One of the winning projects was implemented in Salmon Arm.
Enactus Okanagan College created Shuswap-Launch-a-Preneur, which is a brand new program for entrepreneurs of all ages to launch their ventures in the community of Salmon Arm in partnership with Community Futures and the Economic Development Society.
“Every year, our students amaze us by demonstrating their drive to succeed and their desire to give something back,” said Nicole Almond, president of Enactus Canada. “The work being done in the Okanagan by our community of business, academic and student leaders is inspirational and gives you hope for the future.”
The first place finishes for Okanagan College will secure the teams a spot at the national competition where they will go up against regional winners from Central and Atlantic Canada.
The competition is in Toronto this May.
