THUNDER BAY -- Enactus Lakehead competed in the Enactus Regional Competition in Toronto on March 7 and 8 against 38 other universities and colleges, placing second in the CWB Financial Education Challenge.
The second-place finish means they won $1,000 for the club as the regional runner-up in their league.
Enactus is a global non-profit organization where students, communities and business leaders utilize entrepreneurship to address economic, social, and environmental needs. Lakehead’s first entrepreneurship club was founded in 1981 and eventually became Enactus Lakehead.
Enactus Lakehead was only able to send three students to their first regional competition last year in Toronto and through hard work and fundraising were able to send six students this year.
This is the first time Lakehead has placed in the top three of this competition.
“I was stunned when our name was called, but looking back, our members deserved this,” said Madison Sameshima, President of Enactus Lakehead.
“The amount of hard work and dedication they have put into these projects makes me so proud to be a member of Enactus Lakehead.”
The CWB Financial Education Challenge empowers Enactus teams to identify, create and deliver projects that address the specific and unique financial education needs and opportunities in their communities with the aim of improving livelihoods.
Enactus Lakehead presented two projects:
- Making Cents!, which addresses the closing of brick-and-mortar banks in Northwestern Ontario by running online banking programming for elderly residents, and
- Getting Financially Lit!, which addresses knowledge gaps in budgeting and long-term savings for Indigenous youth who fly in from northern communities to attend Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, a private First Nations high school in Thunder Bay.
Enactus Lakehead will be working hard to prepare for the Enactus National Competition in Vancouver in May.
