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BIJ Partner – SMU Entrepreneurship Centre
By Amber Fryday | Photos contributed
One of Business is Jammin’s (BIJ) most frequent collaborators is the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre (SMUEC). Over the past 25 years, the centre has worked to enhance the community’s prosperity by helping business and student leaders reach their entrepreneurial potential. SMUEC is recognized regionally, nationally, and globally for its programs, and supports leaders through consulting, training, promoting entrepreneurship, and cultivating community connections. BIJ has developed a great relationship with SMUEC. Notably, the centre recently offered up auditorium space – free of charge – for BIJ to host its second, biennial youth summit. “They do a lot of amazing work at the Entrepreneurship Centre,” said youth summit organizer Vimbayi Handara. “So, by their allowing us just to be in their space, we cut a lot of costs and were able to support as many students as we had to because it has a really big auditorium. So that was really, really great.” The youth summit was not the first time Saint Mary’s has been generous with its space and time. In February, during a week-long program for Black History Month, the Entrepreneurship Centre together with BIJ brainstormed ways to promote financial literacy to the community and decided to collectively host a financial literacy week. “There isn’t a point where students learn how to manage their money per se. No one tells you what percentage of your salary should go towards saving; what should go towards spending time with friends, so we wanted to cover the fundamentals,” Handara says. Saint Mary’s University staff helped facilitate the event and had a hand in everything from hanging signage to helping with registration. Two staff members conducted workshops with students. One was about entrepreneurship while another featured how to perfect an ‘elevator pitch.’ “Thus far, we’ve had good attendance for the events we planned at Saint Mary’s. We want to bring the community together and that’s the partnership we wish to continue with them. Hopefully, some of these things, such as the Financial Literacy Week we planned could become something that’s annual and will always be held around Black History Month,” she says.
BIJ’s Vimbayi Handara with Adam Khamis of the SMUEC
