(CALGARY, AB) March 17, 2023: Students at the University of Alberta and University of British Columbia – Vancouver have been named 2023 TD Entrepreneurship Challenge Regional Champions by Canada’s largest experiential learning platform, Enactus Canada, and proud program supporter, TD Bank Group
SpeechDojo from the students at Enactus University of Alberta is a charity initiative that eliminates financial barriers faced by students to ensure that all students have access to the skills necessary to succeed in entrepreneurship. Their asynchronous online workshop and synchronous classroom series focuses on public speaking, presentation techniques, mock debates and job searching. SpeechDojo has exposed 808 students to entrepreneurship through their programming this year alone.
Enactus University of British Columbia – Vancouver students created Ennovate after noticing a lack of hands-on entrepreneurial learning amongst high school students. A program designed to empower these students, Ennovate allows students to create their own mini-social enterprise through three foundational pillars: ideation, creation, and competition. This past year, Ennovate has helped start 44 businesses, and exposed 1,000 people to entrepreneurship as a viable career path.
“Enactus students are the next-gen leaders of tomorrow.” says Allyson Hewitt, President of Enactus Canada. “Not only are they taking an entrepreneurial approach to address community issues, but they’re using social innovation to elevate Canadian entrepreneurs and it’s truly inspiring.”
The TD Entrepreneurship Challenge is a national competition empowering post-secondary students to deliver projects that teach entrepreneurial skills to aspiring and existing entrepreneurs. Since 2007, 21,699 Enactus students have dedicated over 1,000,000 hours to deliver more than 2,500 entrepreneurship projects that started 4,500 businesses while directly impacting the lives of over 23,000 entrepreneurs.
“I’d like to congratulate Enactus University of Alberta and Enactus University of British Columbia – Vancouver for being named Regional Champions of the 2023 TD Entrepreneurship Challenge,” says Kate Lally, Senior Manager, Social Impact. “As part of our corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment, we are proud to support Enactus Canada which is helping to shape the next generation of business leaders who are passionate about building a more inclusive and sustainable tomorrow using their entrepreneurial skills. Through their ventures, these students are helping address key issues experienced by many individuals and in turn helping open doors to new opportunities in communities across Canada.”
Student teams demonstrated the impact of their entrepreneurial projects to panels of business executives on March 17 in Calgary as part of the Enactus Canada Regional Exposition – Western Canada.
Both teams will now move on to the national level of competition taking place May 1-3, 2023 at the Enactus Canada National Exposition in Montreal.
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ABOUT ENACTUS CANADA: Enactus Canada, a national charity and the country’s largest post-secondary experiential learning platform, is shaping entrepreneurial leaders who are passionate about advancing the economic, social and environmental health of Canada. Guided by academic advisors and business experts, more than 3,000 post-secondary students led 188 community empowerment projects and business ventures last year in communities coast to coast, directly impacting over 30,000 lives.
As a global network of 33 countries, Enactus uses the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. For more information, visit enactus.ca.
Media Inquiries:
Jennifer Falzon
VP, Programs & Marketing
Enactus Canada
jen@enactus.ca | 416.315.2099
Enactus University of Alberta Celebrating at #EnactusRegionals Western Canada 2023!
Enactus University of British Columbia students celebrating at #EnactusRegionals Western Canada 2023