University of Manitoba Student Wins Winnipeg Qualifiers for the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
Winnipeg, MB 11/20/2019 – The Winnipeg chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), the world’s leading peer-to-peer network of successful business leaders today announced Buhle Mwanza, a student of University of Manitoba as the champion of the Winnipeg Qualifying rounds of the Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards (GSEA).
GSEA is EO’s premier awards program for students who own or operate a business while attending college or university. The qualifier competition hosted by Winnipeg this year saw a record number of participants with eight student presenters. Student entrepreneurs competed against peers and were judged by prominent entrepreneur judges including Kate Holden, Chris Schmidt, Dan Stevens, Darryl Stewart as well as Winnipeg Free Press business columnist Martin Cash. Buhle now makes his way to the Canadian national qualifier being held on January 22, 2020 in Toronto, Canada.
Sharing his excitement about the win, Buhle said, "It was an amazing experience and such a fun day to be a part of. It's very inspiring to see the entrepreneurial spirit so vibrant here in Winnipeg. On behalf of the whole team, we are excited and honoured to be able to represent Winnipeg at the National competition in Toronto!"
EO member and GSEA competition judge Darryl Stewart says “The best thing for me about the GSEA awards is that the student entrepreneurs are mostly true entrepreneurs. They are still in school and already operating real businesses. This is how many business stories start; a driven young person ignoring the world and just starting, and then figuring it out. Most competitions focus on students writing plans and most of those plans never materialize and almost none of those students ever become entrepreneurs. GSEA contestants are the action oriented entrepreneurial leaders of the future they are not reading about generating sales, managing people and trying to balance a very busy lifestyle they are doing it! They inspire me and remind me where I came from. On top of that, their ideas and new business models help me understand where the world is headed. I look forward to being part of this competition every year.”
EO Winnipeg Chapter President, Eric Johannson, was excited about another successful GSEA event in Winnipeg saying, “We value the opportunity to support this great initiative and give a stage to the future entrepreneurs of our city. I am sure that all attendees were energized by the enthusiasm and optimism demonstrated by the presenters. We had two participants that returned after presenting last year and the growth demonstrated over the year was remarkable as they expand their business, learn from their mistakes, and create new opportunities. As Manitoba’s largest peer to peer networking organization focused on the entrepreneurial journey, EO hopes to see many of these young business people grow to join our organization in the future and wish all of them success in their businesses.”
Participants in the GSEA competition are college or university students and entrepreneurs that are primarily responsible for a business that has been operational for at least six consecutive months.
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Last year over 55 students from 55 countries participated in the GSEA. This year the stage has been set to receive over 2000 students who are competing in local and national rounds as winners make their way to the final in Toronto, Canada. For more updates on GSEA visit: http://gsea.org/
