Entrepreneurship Growing at Waterfront Campus
Posted on Friday, March 17th, 2017
It has been just over a year since the Waterfront Campus became the first regional college campus in Ontario to hire an entrepreneur-in-residence, and the move has clearly paid off. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and w
ell at the campus and has been producing great results.
Since Chris Doré came on board in January of 2016, several initiatives have been launched to create more opportunities for students and faculty to engage in entrepreneurship. For example, a new general education course focused on entrepreneurship was launched a few weeks ago and is getting great reviews from students. The interactive course teaches students the various steps needed to successfully launch their own business, and also introduces them to entrepreneurial terms such as start ups, venture capital, social enterprise and more.
Speaking of start ups, Startup Ottawa Valley was recently launched under the Startup Ca
nada umbrella. Startup Canada is a grassroots efforts to encourage and support more entrepreneurs nation wide. Within the Ottawa Valley, several champions have been identified who will create networking and mentoring opportunities for new entrepreneurs, who can also access all of the tools and resources available through Startup Canada such as grants, pitch events and professional development.
The first TedxPembroke event was held at the Waterfront Campus last fall and brought together 7 speakers who shared innovative ideas that were both inspiring and engaging. There is nothing more entrepreneurial than a Tedx event which purposefully uses the spoken word to start deeper conversations to spark cr
eative ideas. The College intends to offer more Tedx events in the future given that the first one sold out and was very well received by the community.
The true test of the college’s efforts is the success of its students and graduates to become entrepreneurs. Our confidence was given a great boost recently when first year Outdoor Adventure student, Brennan Lemieux, won first prize at the Wolves’ Den competition at Algonquin’s Ottawa Campus. Lemieux was the only competitor from the Waterfront Campus and took home $1,000 for his impressive presentation to the judges on 
his plans to launch a digital logbook for outdoor adventure leaders.
We know there will be more success stories in the future as we turn the Waterfront Campus into an entrepreneurial hub for our students, employees and the greater community. Exciting times indeed!
Posted by Jamie Bramburger, Manager of Community and Student Affairs
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