Annual youth entrepreneur camp featured pitches on “giving back”
- NC Raine | August 23, 2018
A theme quickly emerged from the 17 youth participating in the 10th annual Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneurship Camp (AYEC). The camp sets out to teach young minds the basics of turning an idea into a feasible business. And despite their projects and ideas being greatly varied, this group of young entrepreneurs shared a strong desire to use business models to make their communities a better place.
“A great deal of their pitches (for business ideas) included ways of giving back or protecting their communities,” said Larissa Wahpooseyan, camp coordinator at AYEC. “Some of their projects involved the environment, others finding ways to develop programs for youth or addictions. They see these issues and they're learning how to develop their own ideas on how to address these issues.”
The camp, which ran August 11-17th at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, enabled a group of Indigenous youth in grades 10-12, including recent graduates, to learn from experts about First Nations entrepreneurship. Practical lessons in business included marketing, cash flow projections, business plans, and networking. The young students also had the opportunity to go on field trips and design and shoot their own television commercial.
“The goal is to get these students motivated and inspired to continue their education,” said Wahpooseyan.
After presenting business models, the students formed four groups based on models receiving the most amount of votes.
The four entrepreneurial plans this year reflected the diversity of the students and their interests in the world: BIOPLASTIC was a business plan to create biodegradable plastic for straws, grocery bags and water bottles as a way to protect the environment. Keytar was a music product and service designed to address addictions by encouraging youth to develop a musical skill and “unlock your talent.” Indigenous Alliance Law Firm was a theoretical law firm based around land claims and environmental issues. And Res-Mix encouraged healthy eating by creating a trail mix from traditional Indigenous and organic food.
“We wanted to create something that was nutritious. And we wanted to create something based on traditions because that's something that's important to our culture,” said Jaden Yee.
Yee, 17, from Regina, was one of the young entrepreneurs behind Res-Mix. Yee said their business plan included marketing their product as healthy eating, and talking to communities about relevant health concerns, such as diabetes.
“You really learn how to work together as a team. There are a lot of things we learned like finances and business plans that would have been difficult to figure out on our own,” he said.
As the camp incorporated many elements of business and creativity, Yee said he was able to gain experience in areas he hopes to pursue in the future.
“Through the camp, I was able to meet some (professionals in the) media and people who are in those classes. I plan on joining the media in the next two years,” said Yee.
Like Yee, Wahpooseyan said that several of the students have an eye-opening experience at the camp.
“You see a huge change with some of these students by the end of the week,” said Wahpooseyan. “You really see how they learn to develop their entrepreneurial ideas. I even had some of the youth text me after the week, thanking me for this opportunity.”