As the Impact Apprentice Competition draws near, our team is beginning to finalize the final 32 competitors. We are in our 2nd round of selections where candidates are submitting 1-2 minute videos on a variety of topics we provided to them.

We need YOUR help in spreading the word about the video competition (this will really help us build up a stronger brand for Impact) by sharing the news on your social media channels. You could also choose who should be selected to compete in the competition. All videos have been posted at www.impactapprentice.ca. Visit the website to view all the submitted videos and vote for your favorites. Encourage your friends and fellow Impact members to visit the website and vote as well. Check back frequently as we will be approving a lot more videos as the deadline approaches (July 11th). These votes will be taken into account when the applicants are selected for the final round of selections. Videos combine business and marketing with creativity, comedy and everything in between so vote now!

How to Vote:

1. Go to www.impactapprentice.ca
2. Use the options in the top left corner to “Login with Facebook” or create your own account using your email with the “Register” option and login through that.
3. Select the videos of your choosing and click on the “Vote for this Entry” button below the video.

You can vote for as many videos as you like so feel free to choose more than one! You can vote for each video once per day until midnight of July 11, 2010.

To celebrate the success of the year’s Microcredit competition and the amazing group of competitors,  Impact Microcredit’s amazing Media Partner, Globe Campus, published this incredible article on the 10 day challenge. The article features interviews with competitors, the President of the Impact Entrepreneurship Group and the chairperson for this year’s Microcredit competiton!

Congratulations to the Microcredit team and all the participants in this years competition! Check out the full article here.

The winners of Impact Microcredit 2010 have finally been announced! First and foremost, we would like to say how proud we are of each and every team that took part in the competition. They have completely blown us away. We received amazing final reports and witnessed some amazing business ideas thrive.

There are three teams that we would like to recognize as our grand prize winners in the competition:

Studentawards.com National Champion Award

Burnarby North Secondary – Burnaby North Secondary, British Columbia
Emily Chou, Elysia Gunn, Jory Wong

The team held a 10 day online art sale for emerging artists to sell their artwork, different forms of artwork including photography prints, custom art commissions, drawing, painting, and canvases. The team also held a Fill-A-Bag $10 Vintage sale in which customers could fill a bag with vintage item

College Pro National Scholarship Award

Lord Byng Secondary School – Vancouver, British Columbia
Tina Yuan, Carrie Cheung, Shingly Lee, Emily Lu, Vivian Cheung

The team transformed paper into intricately designed origami roses and also held a rose-themed arts nights.

Encounters with Canada Award

Steveston-London Secondary School – Richmond, British Columbia
Rachel Wong, Cherrie Lam, Annie Cheng, Jessica Yeung

The team sold generic pre-designed, design-your-own, and custom-made pin-back buttons. They also created a contest for students to design their own pins and awarded the individual whose pin designs sold the most.

We would also like to give recognition to some honorable mentions:

Moscrop Secondary – Burnaby, British Columbia
Jennifer Liu, Marina Tam, Asuka Takahashi, Karen Wu, Alice Li

Guelph Collegiate and Vocational Institute – Guelph, Ontario
Matthew McLeod, Vigne Sridharan, Hillary Conway, Clinton Chan

Windmere Secondary School – Vancouver, British Columbia
Chanel Ly, Alivia Ma, Jennifer Luo

We wish the best to all competitors in their future entrepreneurial endeavors! We also want to give thanks to our amazing sponsors consisting of our Title Sponsor of Studentawards Inc., our Supporting Partners of College Pro, Irfhan Rawji, Encounters with Canada, and our Media Partner of GlobeCampus.

As this year’s Impact Apprentice competition is nearing, we have created a Facebook group and event for anyone who is interested in participating to join!

Impact Apprentice  is a hands-on competition in which 48 of Canada’s top post-secondary level students will compete in various unique real-life business challenges allowing them to demonstrate their entrepreneurship strength by applying their leadership, teamwork, management and marketing abilities.

ANY university students (not entering university in September, 2010) can apply, including those who have graduated as of April, 2010.

No matter what program you are in or how old you are…Impact Apprentice can benefit YOU! Benefits vary from $10 000 worth of goods in prizes as well as internship opportunities with some of the top firms in North America.

The first round of applications are due on June 13th at midnight, so apply now!

Are you a high school student who has done great things to help protect the environment at your school or in your community? Would you like to learn more about the impact we are having on the planet in one of the world’s greatest classrooms? Apply by Sunday, June 6^th, 2010 for your chance to win a spot on an educational expedition to the Canadian Arctic this August, courtesy of Brita!

Brita is thrilled to announce the return of its Eco-Challenge Student Grant Program. They are looking for three of Canada’s most promising young environmentalists to send on a life-changing educational expedition to the Canadian Arctic with the award-winning organization Students on Ice this August.

If you are selected, you’ll join explorer Geoff Green and his team from the award-winning organization Students on Ice on an educational expedition to the Arctic. There, you’ll learn about climate change, environmental degradation, flora & fauna, glaciology, and much more with leading researchers, experts and scientists in one of the world’s greatest classrooms. You’ll experience nature in ways you may have only dreamed of, and you will learn to see the planet with new perspectives as you are introduced to Inuit culture, and make new connections with the natural world.

To apply, you’ll need to go to FilterForGood.ca and either submit a short essay of 500 – 1000 words, or a short 2 – 4 minute video explaining what you’re doing in your community to help protect the environment and why you should be the next student explorer in the Arctic! The deadline for submission is 11:59pm EST, on Sunday, June 6th, 2010. In order to qualify, you must be a student who will be attending high school as of September 2010. Don’t wait – get your application in today!

Click here to see videos from last year’s Eco-Challenge.

During the week of August 23rd, we will be hosting our 4th Annual Impact Apprentice Competition at Downtown Toronto. The candidates will be competing in 4 days of business challenges including: Marketing, Sales, Consulting, and Creativity. Past prizes include $10,000 worth of goods and services, as well as exclusive internship opportunities with some of the top North American companies.

Impact Apprentice have been recognized as Canada’s most prestigious and exclusive business competition. We are looking for the top 48 university students (both undergraduates and graduates) across the nation to compete. The registration process is private and only by nomination. Please submit the following information to the provided email address.

Your Information

• Name:
• School:

Nominee’s Information

• Full Name:
• School:
• Area of Study:
• Email:
• Phone Number:
• One or two sentences of why you are nominating them to be Impact’s Apprentice:

Once they have been accepted through the first round of nomination, we will then conduct the second and third round of selections (the candidates will also be able to access the Apprentice website). The deadline for nomination is APRIL 30TH, 2010.

All nominations should be sent to apprentice@impact.org.

Impact is excited to unveil a promotional video for Impact Microcredit 2010! The video shows a few of the people who are involved in the planning of Impact Microcredit, hailing from all different parts of the country, and provides a brief overview of the competition itself. We are excited to bring this national competition to high school students across the country!

If you are still trying to get some friends, students or classmates to join your team, or if you aren’t understanding what the competition is about, this video is a great resource to use. Check it out below or click here!

The Impact Entrepreneurship Group is excited to have an eight page spread in the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of the Canadian Student Magazine. Be sure to check out some of our success stories (including the likes of Kunal Gupta, founder of Impact and Polar Mobile,  and Kyle Vucko, co-founder of Indochino.com) and our 2010 initiatives (such as Microcredit 2010) in the issue! Read the electronic version here (the Impact spread starts on page 40): http://www.canadianstudentmagazine.com/!

A big thank you to our friends at the Canadian Student Magazine for giving us this opportunity!

Do you have an innovative start-up idea? Are you looking for your next big break? Well here is your chance!

Impact Entrepreneurship Group is proud to present the “Ontario’s Next Top Entrepreneur” competition at the Discovery 2010 conference and extend this amazing opportunity to Ontario’s most talented teams.

Present your idea in a short video, telling us why it could be the next big thing. The top five teams will move on to deliver their pitch at Ontario Centres of Excellence’s (OCE) Discovery 2010 conference. The winning team will be enrolled in OCE’s Centre for Commercialization of Research’s New Entrepreneur Program where they will be granted a non-recourse micro-loan of up to $18,000 ($6,000 per team member), have access to advisory services, and have the opportunity to network with key mentors and private investors.

For more details about the  ”Ontario’s Next Top Entrepreneur” pitch competition and the Dicovery 2o10 conference please visit http://www.ocediscovery.com/.

To apply for this amazing opportunity, click here.