Graduate Students' Association recognizes student entrepreneurship with $10,000 top prize

The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), for a second year, is offering an award that celebrates entrepreneurial thinking under a new title. The Innovation, Development, and Entrepreneurship Award was known last year in its inaugural form as the Innovation Development Award.

Graduate student entrepreneurs who apply for the award have a chance to receive up to $10,000, and will present their project at a pitch contest later in the semester.

Enable, first-place winner last April, is a social enterprise that makes personalized matches between people with disabilities and support workers based on shared interests, scheduling needs, and experience.

“The money in combination with the mentorship and guidance from Innovate Calgary (now Calgary Technologies) positioned Enable towards greater success in 2017 and now through 2018,” says Suzanna Crawford, proprietor of Enable. “I was happy to gain more exposure with the university community as we are always looking for students to pair with young people with disabilities.”

She adds, “Through the mentorship, I was lucky to take part in boardroom discussions and roundtables with three business professionals through Innovate Calgary, gaining insights from these meetings over the course of 2017.”

Negar Mohammadi, GSA vice-president (academic), believes that the award has had a constructive impact on past winners' entrepreneurial efforts.

“A year has gone by since the GSA established this award and we’re extremely happy to see that the award has benefited the winners in many positive ways,” says Mohammadi. “The GSA is very excited to see how this award has grown and more importantly, how it can benefit the winning entries for this year.”

Jacob George, developer of Rehable, a portable robotic brace that helps with the rehabilitation of stroke patients, and one of the winners of the award last year, believes the mentorship component of the program has significance.

“They were the people who pushed us to figure out what the market really wants. Especially once you’re locked into an idea, it’s really hard to pull out and look at the bigger picture, so getting that mentorship, getting that advice was incredibly useful,” says George. “If someone is actually interested in pursuing their idea and pushing it forward, the mentorship piece is just as valuable — if not more valuable — than the cash prize.”

With the aim to support and develop innovation and entrepreneurial thinking among the University of Calgary’s graduate student body, the Innovation Development Award makes funds and local expertise available over an eight-month consultation, guidance, and collaborative process with Innovate Calgary.

“The money was also very helpful. We used it towards our prototyping and being able to connect with our market as well,” says George. “Lots of people want to create change, and I’m sure there will be way more applications this year.”