This past weekend at the Enactus Regional Exposition in Calgary, Alberta, the Enactus University of Saskatchewan team placed first in their league of the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge with their project: The Aboriginal Youth Idea Challenge (AYIC).

Dean Villeneuve and Preston Thomson, who are 4th and 2nd year students from the Edwards School of Business, presented the award-winning project to a panel of judges that were made up of some of Canada’s brightest business leaders. This is the second consecutive year that the team, headquartered in the Edwards School of Business, has placed first in the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge. This successful placement was particularly impressive considering that the Entrepreneurship Challenge consists of 18 of the top universities from across Western Canada. Dean and Preston will be representing the University of Saskatchewan and the Edwards School of Business from May 11th to 13th when the team travels to Toronto, Ontario to present AYIC at the Enactus National Exposition.

The Aboriginal Youth Idea Challenge is a program that offers aspiring Aboriginal Entrepreneurs six workshops to develop the skills to create a successful business plan. The winner and runner up are awarded a total of $10,000 in start-up or expansion capital provided by Potash Corp. The project also affords business students the opportunity to apply classroom knowledge and help Aboriginal Entrepreneurs turn their business ideas into reality.

The Enactus team also had five other Edwards students present in three categories:

• Brecklin Strilaeff and Karlie Shewchuk presented in the Capital One Financial Education Challenge on the project CentsABLE. The program partners with the Princess Shop to teach financial literacy to young women.
• Derek Skogen and Dustin Wagner presented in the Scotia Bank EcoLiving Green Challenge with the project Food For the Future, which looks to implement community gardens in Northern Saskatchewan to combat the issue of food security.
• Jared Koehl competed in the Student Entrepreneur National Competition with his residential and commercial painting business, Jared Koehl Enterprises.
• The presenting teams were supported by a tech team comprised of: Peter Siarkos, Derek Barr, Keenan Davreux, Patrick Blake and Czarina Catambing.

The Regional Exposition brought together student, academic and business leaders from across Western Canada to present on projects that specialize in improving the environmental, economic and social health of communities. Enactus University of Saskatchewan is a group of 36 entrepreneurial students from across the University.