St. Albert sisters Brooke and Paige Thomson had their eyes opened to South American work and culture during a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico this summer.
“It was a way for us to see how a different culture acts in a business sense,” Brooke said. “I think we took a lot of good information back with us.”
The sisters were among four Canadian students selected by Junior Achievement Canada to attend Foro Internacional de Emprendedores (FIE), an international student conference hosted by Junior Achievement Mexico.
One of the workshops had the students form groups of four and market solutions to everyday problems faced by citizens of South America. The problems ranged from ironing clothes in a small living space to purifying water.
“My group was given the problem of finding clean water,” Paige said. “We came up with a basin that sits on your roof and collects rain water and filters it until it’s clean.”
Two years ago Paige and three of her classmates won a $4000 grant as part of the Empowering Self-Talk Initiative. Her group made a two-minute video encouraging students to think positively.
“One of the goals of this conference was to get students involved in creating solutions,” Paige said. “We were encouraged to innovate and be creative in our community.”
Paris Morin and Allison Bachand-Lapointe were the other Canadian students invited for the conference. Applicants had to pass a rigorous series of interviews to be considered for the trip.
The Junior Achievement official website refers to the organization as “the largest business education organization in Canada.”
The stated goal of Junior Achievement is to teach finances and develop business leadership skills in students.
