CAMBRIAN COLLEGE
Cambrian College students power through snowstorm to earn recognition at Central Canada entrepreneurship challenge

Determination, resilience, and innovation were on full display as students on Enactus Team Cambrian College overcame extreme travel disruptions to deliver award-winning results on a national stage.

Enactus Canada is a charity that encourages post-secondary students to use innovation and entrepreneurship to solve problems facing society today. Every year, it hosts a series of competitions across Canada.

Enactus Team Cambrian placed second in its category at the recent Central Canada Regional Exposition, in the Canadian Tire Environmental Sustainability Challenge. The team pitched a way to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete by using mining byproduct (slag) as a key component, replacing cement. Pictured are team members (left to right): Gulab Singh, Megan Giroux, Nicholas Arkuh, Nica-Shae Wilson, Munachiso Ezenwa, and Emily Harrison. Enactus is an organization that encourages entrepreneurship among post-secondary students.

For the first time in its history, Enactus Team Cambrian competed in two major impact challenges at last week's Central Canada Regional Exposition in Toronto: the Canadian Tire Environmental Sustainability Challenge and the Innovation and Impact Challenge.

Facing a significant snowstorm in Sudbury, team members missed the opening day of the competition - including the opening ceremonies - and were forced to travel to Toronto on the same day as their presentations. Despite the setback, the delivered strong, confident presentations for both of their projects: Terronova and Art Beyond Borders.

Their efforts paid off.

Enactus Team Cambrian earned Runner-Up in League A in the Canadian Tire Environmental Sustainability Challenge for their project, Terronova, an initiative focused on reducing emissions in the construction industry.

In the Terranova initiative, regionally sourced cement alternatives from mining byproducts are used to make concrete. By partially replacing traditional cement - the most carbon-intensive component in concrete - the project significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions without requiring changes to current construction practices.

"I'm incredibly proud of our Enactus Cambrian students," says Jenna Guse, Program Coordinator for years one and two in Cambrian's Bachelor of Business Administration (HBBA and GBBA) programs. "Despite being a small team, Enactus Cambrian brought tremendous heart and determination. Their commitment to developing two impactful projects this year was outstanding, and seeing their work recognized at the Regional Exposition was very rewarding."

Enactus Team Cambrian competed against 29 other colleges and universities from Central Canada and was one of only two colleges to earn a top-three finish in its league.

"We put a lot of effort into building out projects that benefitted our community, and that effort was rewarded at Regionals," says Enactus Team Cambrian president Nicholas Arkuh of Ghana, a student in Cambrian's Honours Bachelor of Business Administration program. "It has inspired us to build even more."

Events and opportunities like Enactus Canada align with Cambrian's Strategic Plan by forging  strategic regional and global partnerships that fuel recruitment, unlock learner success, and accelerate innovation and productivity.