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by Christine Roulston
Can a business be financially viable and socially conscious at the same time?
Definitely, says Jenny Schoenberger, one of eight UVic student winners of the IDC Challenge, an annual competition held by the Innovation and Development Corporation (IDC), the university’s technology transfer office.
Schoenberger won $2,000 for her business proposal, Clean Slate, which provides a model for a resource centre that employs homeless people in exchange for food, counselling, detoxification, work experience and other services. The plan also involves the shelter seeking funding and resources from local business in exchange for sponsorship.
“There are so many benefits this would provide to the community,” says the fourth-year commerce student. “Homeless people would essentially run the centre and gain work experience at the same time. Business is always looking for ways to be socially responsible. Sponsorship would provide a chance to do that, while addressing a range of issues, such as helping to reduce loitering in front of businesses.”
While monetary gain is usually perceived as the driving force behind business, Schoenberger says most entrepreneurs are motivated by personal reasons. Her idea for Clean Slate came when a family member went through a difficult phase that could have resulted in him living on the street.
Schoenberger’s business plan was also inspired by a UVic course taught by Dr. Anna Maria Peredo that made her reflect on poverty in her own community. “I started out wanting to do work in Third World countries,” she says. “The course made me realize the business models applied to help poor countries can be applied here.”
Currently, Schoenberger is completing a co-op term at the Victoria Youth Empowerment Society, an organization that provides resources such as counselling, detoxification and rehab to at-risk youth and their families. “I’m learning a lot about the resources available in Victoria and gaining experience in the field,” she says.
As for her winning business plan, she says, “Right now, it’s a bit of a dream but I would love to see it eventually put into place.”
The IDC Challenge: Vancouver Island Student Business Plan Competition invites university and college students to compete for more than $23,000 in cash prizes and seed capital before a panel of entrepreneurs, business experts, and investors.
For more on IDC, visit http://web.uvic.ca/idc/
Other winning UVic proposals:
- Team Pages would enable amateur sports leagues and teams to quickly and intuitively create their own websites. Submitted by Mike Tan, Nikolas Laufer-Edel, faculty of business.
- Mesh View is a web-based 3-D visualization tool that would allow users to download images of 3-D body parts to preview tattoos on different areas of the body. Submitted by Pactrick Tuckey and Neil Burroughs, faculty of engineering and computer science.
- Blue Box Storage provides a model for a self-storage business that would allow customers to catalogue the items in storage and request specific stored items to be delivered by the company. Submitted by Derek Story, Adain Henry and Saare Adams, faculty of business.
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