90 Students from across the island participated in the 4th Annual Junior Achievement Cyprus Bi-Communal Innovation Camp
On Friday, 17 November, the fourth Junior Achievement Cyprus Bi-communal Innovation Camp took place at the University of Nicosia.
The Innovation Camp aimed at encouraging young people to use their skills in enterprising and innovative ways, fostering their employability and entrepreneurial flair in the process.
The participants were made up of 90 Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot students, aged between 15 and 18, from private high schools from all over Cyprus, accompanied by their teachers. In groups of 5 persons, the students were asked to come up with an answer to a business challenge unveiled to them on the same day. The challenge required the students to suggest an innovative product, service or solution that they would develop if they were green entrepreneurs.
Students had only a few hours to learn to work as a team with other students they had not met before and to collectively shape their ideas, in order to propose an innovative solution that could be applied to the case of Cyprus. At the end of the day, all teams presented their solutions to a panel of experts. The presentations and jury questions that followed were in English. The winning team will take part in an international student programme next summer, while the second and third place winners received gift vouchers provided by Cyta.
The event was supported by the US Embassy in Nicosia.
JA Cyprus is supported by:
• Strategic Partner: AstroBank
• Partners: Cyta, MetLife and PwC Cyprus
• Supporters: University of Nicosia, MS Jacovides and AoN Hewitt
• Institutional Partner: Ministry of Education and Culture
The winners of the fourth Bi-Communal Innovation Camp are:
1st place: “C-Weed” – Growing seaweed in the Cypriot sea and exporting it to other countries thus encouraging the fish population and creating a non-polluting industry.
The team consisted of Adil Bey (The English School Nicosia), Nadim Fayssal (Heritage Private School), Ela Gaziasker (Levent College), Katerina Mesolongiti (GC School of Careers), and Daniel Todd (English School of Kyrenia).
2nd place: “Green Your Grill” – Creation of a solar powered grill that is environmentally friendly, safer and results in healthier cooked food.
The team consisted of Yagmur Adademir (Levent College), Stelia Hadjipanteli (American Academy Larnaca), Cansu Talya Orkun (Levent College), Adriana Pyrgou (TLC Private School), and Alp Orgun (English School of Kyrenia).
3rd place: “Positive Change Agency” – Advertising agency aimed at increasing donations to environmental companies and NGOs and encouraging positive advertisements about the environment and world issues.
The team consisted of Emmanuel Agapiou (The English School Nicosia), Ergul Andir (English School of Kyrenia), Sena Buyukel (Levent College), Christos Metaxas (Pascal English School), Jade Phillips (TLC Private School).
Well done to all the participants!
JA Cyprus (www.jacyprus.org) is a member of Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide, a global non-profit organization specialized in youth entrepreneurship education, that aims in equipping young people with entrepreneurial, financial literacy and work readiness skills.
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