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

The 9th annual Advancing Candian Entreprenuership (ACE) central regional competition brings together all of the SIFE teams in the Ontario area to present their efforts in  three distinct categories: entrepreneurship, financial literacy and environmental sustainability.

Every year the regional competition has grown along with the exposure of ACE, the umbrella organization above all Canadian SIFE teams. This year more than 500+ attendees took part in the competition, 56 of them wearing the blue ties and shirts of SIFE Ryerson.

Our large presence wasn’t solely based on our growth as an organization at Ryerson University, where we have continued to take on more projects and more members to support them. SIFE Ryerson is at a crossroads. With 15 of our current 18 executives graduating, any future success will fall on the hands of the new members that joined us at regionals.

This year, the teams were structured in such a way to prepare for the future. With a roughly 50/ 50 split between old and new members, there was plenty of opportunity for the current exec team to see who was stepping up their game.

It is for this exact reason, that as an organization, we could not be any happier with the results of this year’s regional competition.

1st first place in the TD SIFE Entrepreneurship Challenge
1st place in the Capital One SIFE Financial Literacy Challenge
2nd place in the Scotiabank SIFE Go Green Challenge

Our members, new and old, did a fantastic job, but we would not have been able to achieve any of it without the diligent work of our president Tracy Leparulo, who won the 2012 HSBC Woman Leader of Tomorrow Award for Central Canada.

This is just the beginning. With the regional round behind us, we move on to the national competition where we’ll be competing for the right to represent Canada on the world stage. This year the national competition is taking place in Calgary from May 7th – 9th.

Between this time and then, there’s plenty of work that has to get done, but we couldn’t be anymore confident about the direction of this organization. I can already picture our new members trying to explain what we do on campus and exhaustingly replying “just come to regionals…”

Written by Piotr Makuch | @pmakuch

The purpose of the RU Green? Challenge is to create awareness of environmental sustainability, and to combine individual efforts in order to generate a substantial positive impact on the environment.

The initiative challenges high schools, universities and the global community to make small lifestyle changes to achieve extraordinary results.

The challenge awards points for environmentally sustainable actions, known as “Acts of Green”, such as taking public transit, recycling, and switching to more energy efficient appliances. Registerion is easy and free so get ready, get set, green!

Students from across Ontario competed in the [9th] annual ACE Central Canada competition in which Post-secondary business schools in Central Canada competed with each other in 3 categories: Entrepreneurship, Financial Literacy, and Green Initiatives.

Ryerson University received a placement in all 3 categories:

1st first place in the TD SIFE Entrepreneurship Challenge
1st place in the Capital One SIFE Financial Literacy Challenge
2nd place in the Scotiabank SIFE Go Green Challenge

TD SIFE Entrepreneurship Challenge was won with StartMeUp, a customizable program that assists entrepreneurs locally and globally to start and expand their businesses through education, resources and funding resulting in 10,264 impacted individuals, 163 jobs created and $667,907 finances provided.

Capital One SIFE Financial Literacy Challenge was won with $tart $mart, a program provides customizable financial literacy education to high school students, young mothers, homeless youth and others. This year 618 participants in 15 institutions were impacted through 54 seminars.

Scotiabank SIFE Go Green Challenge was won with the RU Green program. They ran a number of initiatives including establishing an accelerator program at Ryerson’s Centre for Urban Energy to commercialize research and innovations . As well as teach the importance of locally grown produce at Covenant House.

This was RU Green first positioning since that the challenge was established 3 years ago.

Encompassed in all three programs was SIFE Ryerson’s international effort in Dago, Kenya. The team taught finical literacy, established a micro financing program for entrepreneurs and installed a series of solar panels to provide light for an orphanage. All three endeavours are interwoven and as such are sustainable as the team returns to the village twice every year going forward.

SIFE Ryerson President – Tracy Leparulo also won 2012 HSBC Woman Leader of Tomorrow Award for Central Canada. Leparulo is leading a team of more than 174 students to deliver over 80 community projects, while partnering with 60 external organizations.

Ryerson University will be competing in 2012 ACE National Exposition taking place in Calgary on May 7th-9th in hopes of moving on to the 2012 World Cup.

Written by Iqra Ajaz

Earlier this year, Ryerson interior design student, Laura McQuarrie, succeeded in winning an opportunity to work with Canada’s biggest lifestyle brand, Debbie Travis Branding Inc. in Toronto.

For McQuarrie to win, she had to tell the beloved icon why she should receive the internship opportunity, include what she has to offer, and explain what she hopes to gain. To do so, she went to debbietravis.com to register and submit her essay.

Debbie must have liked what she read. It earned McQuarrie a one-month internship for Spring/Summer 2012. Her tasks, as an intern, will be to work on a number of Debbie Travis Branding projects. These projects include merchandising, online, TV and whatever other projects that may come her way.

McQuarrie is in her third year and working towards her BID, Interior Design. She is also a part-time Showroom Assistant for Yorkville-based Interior Designer Lois Macaulay (Allied ASID).

Debbie Travis Branding Inc. designs, develops and markets product for the global market place and oversees development and management for all Debbie Travis brand extensions. Debbie’s brand extends to television personality, bestselling author, and syndicated newspaper columnist, Home Collection designer and inspirational mentor.

Written by: Rebecka Calderwood | @persBECKtives

The Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy invites you to a conversation with Debbie Travis.

Debbie Travis’ innate talent for design coupled with her dry British wit has made her a beloved icon and international celebrity throughout North America and around the world.  As Canada’s biggest lifestyle brand, Debbie’s brand extends to television personality, bestselling author, syndicated newspaper columnist, Home Collection designer and inspirational mentor.

Hear how Debbie developed the 10 commandments of entrepreneurship that helped her go from leaving school at 16 to building a multi-million dollar empire in design, publishing, television and branding.

Learn how you can compete to win an internship working on an exciting new Debbie Travis branding project.

Admission is $5 plus service fee. Event begins at 7:00 p.m.
To reserve your seat please visit: http://debbietravis.eventbrite.com

WHEN:
Wednesday, October 5^th, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Ted Rogers School of Management
Entrance at 55 Dundas Street West
7^th Floor lecture hall, TRS 1-067

Our initial goal in Kenya was to establish a relationship with the organization here and assess the different needs of this community. However, since we have arrived we have found many ways to deliver some of our existing programs to the community members, in hopes that there will be a lasting impact.

After meeting the SIFE USIU team in Nairobi, we saw the need to offer a resource center to local business owners in the city. SIFE Ryerson is in talks with SIFE USIU to expand our StartMeUp program to their campus.

After interviewing many community leaders, we have seen the need to educate the locals on financial literacy. This coming week SIFE Ryerson plans to teach 4 $tart $mart money management seminars to 4 different local groups of Dago, Kenya.

After reviewing the proposals that the family have submitted to external aid networks, we have seen the need to help them create a marketing pitch. SIFE Ryerson is currently reviewing the proposals and creating standardized pitches for the family. We hope that this will help them receive more awareness and the support they need to continue making an impact on their community.

After hearing the stories of locals loosing their homes and lands to micro financing institutions that have hidden fees and high interest rates we saw the need to educate locals on how to manage their loans and create feasible businesses. With the management of the community leaders, SIFE Ryerson has created a program that will educate 5 local businesses on basic business concepts and offer a small micro finance loan. Using a similar process to StartMeUp, we hope to be able to educate these owners as well as give them the capital to implement their ideas. The interests on the loans will go directly to the Orphanage in Dago to help them further sustain themselves.

After seeing the Odoyo’s struggles to sustain the Village’s Orphanage, we found the need to come up with a creative way to create a source of income. SIFE Ryerson plans to implement a sewing project that will create jobs for local high school drop outs and bring a source of revenue not only to the orphanage but the village as a whole.

Our plans to help this community are not only short term but also long term. With one week left, we are working harder then ever to complete as much as we can on site.

Until next time, we only asks our families, friends and supporters to wish us the best of luck.

- The SIFE Ryerson Team in Kenya

At the halfway point of SIFE Ryerson’s trip to Kenya, we are starting to realize the truth in these academics words, how one size entrepreneurship does not fit all. In the past week we have witnessed, assessed, and interviewed various entrepreneurial ventures and we can agree upon one thing; Necessity vs. Opportunistic Entrepreneurship.

SIFE and StartMeUp Ryerson has plenty of practice giving value to Entrepreneurs in Toronto through our events, idea consultations, and resources. We had assumed because of our years of practice we could help entrepreneurs anywhere. However, we had never taken the time to notice that the majority of entrepreneurs in our process are educated, have regular jobs (that they are trying to get out of), and can easily find jobs if their venture crashes.

In Kenya, this is not the case, entrepreneurship is about survival.

Entrepreneurs in Kenya are doing what they can because it is their only means to escape poverty and make a living for them selves. Adding value to these ventures becomes a much more serious game. Here are a few we have met:

Kick it for Kenya – A youth soccer tournament that brings 13 nearby villages together to teach the public about general health and awareness of HIV Aids.

• Photo Sharing – We met three cousins, who grew up without any family or resources to fall back on. Instead of going to work as laborers in the farms for the rest of their days, they saved enough money to buy a camera, laptop, and printer. They saw Kick it for Kenya as an opportunity to sell pictures of the games and events right then and there to make a few extra shillings.

Rennan – The local market, it was here that we truly saw the power of necessity entrepreneurship.

• Local Women – There are one hundred women, each on separate mats selling vegetables their family have grown. All selling the same goods, each woman is just hoping they will walk away with a few Shillings in their pocket.
• Furniture Store – How do you ensure your giving value to your customers? How do you make sure that your customers are able to pay once you begin your project? All these questions seemed irrelevant. The owner markets his furniture by working outside. There are no display cases and no catalogs. Either way, he employs 5 people, all of which work 6 days a week and never run out of work.

Dago Dala Hera – A local orphanage that has had their funding cut off.

• The Odoyo Family – While running a small scale farm they also volunteer their time to build an orphanage to the children in the community. Now with their funding cut off, they are working to make this orphanage sustainable through raising Dairy Cows and Corn Crops.

Though we have spent only 6 days in Kenya, we have had the opportunity to meet entrepreneurs with different backgrounds, experiences, and futures. We are having difficulty truly determining what their needs are because each entrepreneur is so different from the next.

One thing is certain however, they are entrepreneurs not by choice, but by necessity.

We are still planning on meeting many more entrepreneurs with many more stories. Despite the challenges we have faced our team is still confident that we can make, not only survival but, a higher standard of living possible to all these entrepreneurs.

Stay tuned to hear how.

Immediately after breakfast the next day, we are given an orientation by Edwin Odoyo, the co-director of Dago Dala Hera Orphanage. We are brought around the farm and shown the orphanage that the Odoyo family help run. The girls at this orphanage are taken from vulnerable home settings, defined as homes without parents, with one parent or with an abusive setting. Edwin tells us the story of how he and the volunteers at the orphanage often have to track down girls that are sold away to marriages at a young age.

After lunch, we call a meeting with the Odoyo family and community members to learn more about the village and how our skill sets could offer value here. After a three hour consultation we compiled a large list of different projects that we could initiate in the village.

Some of initiatives include:

•   Teaching financial literacy to the village leaders
•   Setting up a computer cafe
•   Reviewing the Orphanage’s sustainability plan
•   Teaching basic proposal writing skills
•   Looking into organic farming & green houses
•   Creating a median between locals and micro finance institutions in Kenya
•   Creating an innovate project that will bring income for the orphanage

… and many more.

Touched by their efforts to offer a safe environment for the children in Dago, we begin seeking answers of how we can help this community and create sustainable solutions to their current problems.

We’ve been in Kenya less than 24 hours and it has been a non-stop ride from the minute we landed until now. Stepping out of the airport, the biggest culture shock was the driving system in Kenya. Pedestrians first, is not a concept known here. However, Nairobi is a highly industrialized city full of culture and warmth. Jambo, a word that means welcome, is effortlessly exchanged between the locals and us. Patrick, our in-country representative, quickly tells us to drop off our bags at our hotel so that he can take us to eat authentic Kenyan food. Whilst trying to take our seats, the waiters usher us to the kitchen to kindly show us their food selection. Patrick laughs at us, as we happily dine on beef stew and a traditional bread called Ugali. He makes sure we are full as he warns us about our upcoming full day.

Of course our days in Kenya start earlier than Toronto, so in no time we are up and ready to have a full day of excitement. We start our day off with what would be considered a short walk for Kenyans (and a camping hike for us) to Java , the restaurant where we had breakfast. It was an adventurous walk, where sidewalks here were mounds of rocks. We could see the bustling citizens forming their sewage system, and were walking inches beside speeding cars.

After a filling breakfast we took a drive to United States International University, where we were to meet the SIFE team. The drive was bumpy, and slow from the new developing infrastructure.

As the doors to United States International University (USIU) open, you see a beautiful campus. It’s an open campus with a lot of pathways leading to many different buildings, tall, short, big, small, new and old. As we explore the journey of each path, SIFE USIU finds us. They had a very warm welcome with their humble nature; they really made us feel part of the SIFE family. After hearing their stories, and understanding their culture and projects we realized that although were from different continents the underlying needs were more similar than we thought. We learned a lot about each others team, and ended off with great plans of collaboration…and of course a big group hug.

This is just the start of something new, as the SIFE USIU team quotes, “The sky is just the beginning”.

Last night, we were unloading our luggage’s, excited for what awaited us in Kenya. The city of Nairobi did not let us down. Within 24 hours, we have made new friends, indulged in Kenyan culture, found like-minded entrepreneurs, identified a need within the community and most importantly made lasting relationships that will hopefully create sustainable movements, from Canada to Kenya.

Next stop: Dago Dala Hera Children’s Orphanage, a 7 hour drive West of Nairobi. With limited Internet access, we hope to update you soon!