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  • CYBF Announces YOU Innovate Canada Tournament National Champion

22nd November 2011

CYBF Announces YOU Innovate Canada Tournament National Champion

Canadian Youth Business FoundationThe Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) announced yesterday that four students from Brandon University in Manitoba – Stephanie Fung, Jeanette Hudon, Stephen Chychota and Kayvon Razzaghi – have been selected as the national champions of the YOU Innovate Canada tournament held in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Their team, The Grow Mug Project, was selected as the national champion from among the 13 regional champions. The team will receive a total cash award of $5,500, a trip to Liverpool, England to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, and the title of “Most Innovative Mind in Canada.”

The Grow Mug Project team used personalized recycled mugs to grow herbs and teach children about plants and healthy eating. The thirteen regional champions in the post-secondary and community categories across Canada were selected for their unique and creative ideas, sharing a total of $25,000 in cash awards generously provided Studentawards.com.

CYBF organized YOU Innovate Canada in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), November 14-20, 2011, to demonstrate that the spark of a great business idea comes from looking at things in different ways. The national tournament challenged Canadians, 16 years and older, to think like entrepreneurs by creating new value out of an ordinary everyday object: a coffee cup. Participants submitted videos to explain the value they created and champions were selected through online voting and expert regional and national judging panels.

“The YOU Innovate tournament encouraged Canadians to engage with, connect to and see the value of entrepreneurship in their everyday lives,” explains Vivian Prokop, chief executive officer, Canadian Youth Business Foundation. “The extraordinary creativity of the tournament champions is a true demonstration of the inspiring young minds who will soon be driving Canada’s future.”

Suzanne Tyson is the President of Studentawards Inc., lead sponsor for YOU Innovate Canada. “Being resourceful and having the ability to create value for someone else is critical no matter what field you work in,” she says. “We are pleased to work alongside CYBF to offer students and others the chance to think in a creative and innovative way through YOU Innovate Canada.”

Earlier in the week, the following regional champions from across Canada were announced in post-secondary and community categories

  • Alberta: Boja (Breana Baker, Adam Holloway, Josh Holloway, Olivia Bohdan) and Something Awesome (Kendra Wannamaker, Nicolette Bell, Kyler Marshel, Connor Dyck)
  • Atlantic: Party ‘Rock’ers (Toni Kearney, Maurice Lewis, Sarah Bromley, Dereck Gardiner) and Strivers (Brittany Bernard)
  • British Columbia: Titans (Natalie Lo, Grace Lam, Cynthia Deng) and Salamy Innovations (Salima Hirji, Amy Berard, Iman Shariff)
  • Manitoba: The Breakers (Injeong Yang, Mica Rosier, Catherine Le) and The Grow Mug Project (Stephanie Fung, Jeanette Hudon, Stephen Chychota, Kayvon Razzaghi)
  • Ontario: EL3MENT (Matthew Levstek, Nikita Fodtchouk, Paul Capparelli) and C.Bean (Vickie Vainionpaa)
  • Quebec: CLD de Sagunay (Langis Lavoie, Annie-Claude Laflamme, Annie Hudon, Sophie Bouchard) and Favel Innovation (Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf)
  • Saskatchewan: StopandThink (Kehan Fu, Surath Gomis, Josh Heinrichs)

CYBF launched YOU Innovate Canada with the support of founding partner, Mount Royal University, lead sponsor, Studentawards.com, ReviewRoom and the Government of Alberta and are grateful for their support.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 at 7:03 am and is filed under Awards, Business News, Events, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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