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UVic satellite builders in first
University of Victoria commerce grads Kim Cope, left, and Rebecca Koch have launched a startup business that teaches young kids the principles of entrepreneurship and charitable fundraising. The duo found guidance through UVic’s Innovation Centre for Entrepreneurs.
Team’s creation may well be spacebound
Edward Hill/News staff
Cultivating future success Promising business ideas are plentiful among University of Victoria students, grads
G
iving school kids $100 and a few lessons on entrepreneurship might seem like a risky business venture. But two University of Victoria commerce grads are proving it’s a concept that works. Their $5,000 investment in 50 B.C. schools has returned $55,000 in fundraising for Free the Children charity. “Now that’s being used to build six schools in Kenya,” said Rebecca Koch, the co-founder of Early Entrepreneurs with Kim Cope. “It’s schools helping Edward Hill build schools.” Reporting Koch and Cope have
integrated age-appropriate lessons on financial literacy, business savvy and global awareness into classrooms, which have used $100 in seed money to launch fundraisers. “Kids have no fear, kids will go wherever they want with an idea,” Cope said. “If we can teach kids how to start their own businesses, it will build skills and confidence for their future.” “It’s never too soon to develop the entrepreneurial mindset,” Koch said. “They don’t have any fear in the younger grades. Determination is key and younger kids are so creative and think of so many things.” To make it a business, the two women are seeking to partner with companies willing to donate expertise in exchange for better exposure in the community.
Cope and Koch developed Early Entrepreneurs with UVic’s Innovation Centre for Entrepreneurs (ICE) program, which matches bright ideas with an advisory team to help shape a business strategy. Previously open only to business students, ICE has been made available to any student, recent graduates, staff and faculty for non-profit and for-profit ventures. “There’s no shortage of excellent ideas at UVic,” said Reeta Tremblay, UVic vicepresident, academic. “UVic is expanding the program across all disciplines for students, staff and faculty to develop good ideas with business leaders.”
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UVic centre boosts startups, Page A6
A team of students from the University of Victoria are sitting pretty heading into next spring’s final round of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge. The members of the UVic club ECOSat recently placed first in the critical design review portion of the competition, in which seven university teams are competing. The UVic students, who have spent the last two-and-ahalf years designing and constructing a nanosatellite, have until spring 2014 to improve their creation’s design before the final review and environmental testing occur. Each university team had a goal to build a “3U” cube satellite – 10 centimetres by 10 cm by 33 cm and weighing about four kilograms. It would be large enough to house a payload of real experiments and wired to receive and transmit data, generate its own juice from solar panels and be tough enough to be punted from a rocket carrying a large satellite into orbit. The winning satellite will be launched into space after the final design review. kslavin@saanichnews.com
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