Success in the Cowboy Province

This past Wednesday marked the end of the ACE Canada National Exposition, a three day event that showcased the community impact of over 50 Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) colleges and universities across Canada.

This was the second time in four years that the National Exposition, took place in Calgary, a testament to the emerging importance of Alberta in the Canadian landscape.

The top CEO and industry leaders had selected the top five University and College’s (in no particular order). They were as follows:

• St. Lawrence College
• St. Mary’s University
• Okanagan College
• Ryerson University
• Memorial University

There were some incredible projects on display during the top 5 presentations and it was an extremely close race between all the teams. No one in the auditorium wanted to be a judge that day. Regardless, a winner had to be selected.

The celebration of excellence produced the following results:

The National Champion is Memorial University
The National Runner Up is Ryerson University

Although these results are shy of the goal the organization set for itself this year, it’s impossible to not be proud and honored by the title of second best SIFE School in this great nation. The ways in which our team improved the quality of life and standard of living of those living our community only pales in comparison to the ways in which our team’s lives have improved as a result.

The team that flew to Calgary consisted of some of the greatest leaders in our organization. However, it was the work they’ve done throughout the year and past years that placed them in the position to learn from the experiences in Calgary.

As outgoing President this will be the final time Tracy Leparulo will be presenting for SIFE Ryerson. Tracy joined the organization less than four years ago, seeing it grow from the other school from Toronto to one of the powerhouses of SIFE and ACE. We will greatly miss Tracy, her leadership, vision and work ethic.

Over the span of the three day event, SIFE Ryerson also picked up a number of other awards, recognizing our success and achievement.

SIFE Ryerson competed in two of three topic competitions resulting in a first place finish in both and the titles of:

2012 TD SIFE Entrepreneurship National Champions
2012 Capital One SIFE Financial Literacy Champions

The 2012 Scotiabank SIFE Go Green Challenge National Champion was awarded to St. Lawrence College.

Likewise, this was the first time the team competed in the Campbell’s Let’s Can Hunger Challenge on the national level being named Long Lasting Relief National Champions, which was a subtopic of the overall Competition.

The overall winner was Okanagan College which was granted the title of Campbell’s Let’s Can Hunger National Champion

With the competition over, it’s back to reality for the team. This year our team directly improved 5,629 individuals and helped 304 businesses with a team of 194 members. Next year will be even better and it all starts right now.

Written by Piotr Makuch | @pmakuch