With a high and rising success rate, Algonquin College’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship was awarded the Startup Canada Regional Entrepreneur Support Award earlier this year.
The award came at no surprise, considering the amount of accomplishments this centre has seen. Just in the last year, over 2,000 students and staff have accessed the centre to participate in events, meet with clients, and launch business ideas.
The award represents businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs from all over Ontario and the ceremony was attended by innovators from all over Canada.
The centre, known as IgniteAC, was recognized for its work in entrepreneurship, innovation, support and engagement during the fourth annual Startup Canada awards, which took place in Ottawa.
“The centre is fairly new and has done a lot in a short period of time,” said Chris Doré, the entrepreneur in residence, who works within IgniteAC.
“We look to support people’s big ideas,” said Doré. “We’ve helped a lot of students progress their dreams.”
Along with encouraging the importance of an entrepreneurship culture, the award also celebrates the effort and work in supporting the entrepreneurship advancement in Canada.
“We support our innovators and entrepreneurs in a variety of different ways,” said Leanna Verrucci, the entrepreneurship manager. “Through all these initiatives we are contributing to the efforts of the Startup Canada goal of supporting the entrepreneurship community.”
The initiatives vary from providing work space, partnerships, mentorships and more. These are few of the reasons Verrucci believes IgniteAC is being awarded.
In the future, both Doré and Verrucci hope the centre can help more students grow their businesses “It would be nice to see more students engaged and realize they can dream big,” said Doré