Earlier today, Impact launched its newest initiative, I Am My Ambition (IAMA).  IAMA is an online awareness video campaign, in which various leaders and entrepreneurs talk about their experiences and journeys to success.  Thus far, our IAMA team has interviewed 19 entrepreneurs and successful leaders, including Justin Trudeau (Member of Parliament), Andy Nulman (Past CEO of Just for Laughs and CEO of Airborne Mobile), and Jeff Adams (Paralympics Champion and CEO of Marvel Wheelchairs.)

IAMA’s website is launching a new video and interview every Wednesday, so be sure to visit the site often!  While you’re there, don’t forget to read the IAMA blog, which is filled with interesting tales of achieving success and overcoming challenges by leaders and entrepreneurs whose ambitions have guided them.

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.

Impact is excited for be featured in The Mark News this week, in an article about “Youth-Driven Innovation in Canada“. In light of the federal government’s recent budget  plans “to create the economy of tomorrow”, the article reflects on the critical role youth play in the shaping of Canada’s economic future. The Impact Entrepreneurship Group has been highlighted as a catalyst aimed at instilling and cultivating “a spirit of entrepreneurship among high school, college, and university students.”

View the entire article here.

Many thanks to our supporters at The Mark News and Public Policy Forum (PPX) for helping us unlock entrepreneurial potential!

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.