Concordia Journal Home > Archives > September 13, 2007 issue >

In Brief 

Birth of Student Transition Centre

As part of the creation of the School of General Studies, the Centre for Mature Students has become part of the operations of the Centre for Continuing Education.

In what is now known as the Student Transition Centre, academic advisors are serving not only mature students but also independent and noncredit students, failed students and those considered at risk of failing.

The CMS office on the Sir George Williams Campus, previously located in the LB Building, is now on the first floor of the Faubourg Tower (FB), 1600 Ste Catherine St. W (corner Guy). The current CMS operation on the Loyola Campus is staffed on a part-time basis. For more information, please call 514-848-2424, ext. 3890.

Start a business, win a contest

Want to start a business? How about launching it with a free trip to Vancouver? Enterprize, a new committee of the business students association, CASA, wants to invite students in non-business programs — arts, the sciences, fine arts and engineering — to enter a business plan competition.

The second annual regional competition, sponsored by BDC, the Business Development Bank of Canada, takes place in January, and the prize is a trip to Vancouver to compete in the national competition. The national winners will get a cash prize to enable them to start their business.

“Last year it was mostly business students, but we realize that so many students across the faculties have entrepreneurial ambitions,” said third-year accounting major Alexandra Komourdjian, a member of Enterprize.

“In an era of big business, we are trying still to get students to realize the power of dreams and determination, and this competition is a really great place to start!”

Executive summary workshops, with free advice from experts, start this month. For more information, contact Alexandra Komourdjian at a_komour@jmsb.concordia.ca.

The ethics of style

Can a fashion statement be socially conscious? The theme of the first University of the Streets Café of the term attracted students, faculty, designers, artists and NDP leader Jack Layton, who was campaigning in the district.

The event, held in Mile End at the Arts Café on Aug. 27, kicked off what looks to be a full year for the program. Elizabeth Hunt, who has organized the Institute for Management and Community Development Summer Institutes over the last two years, has taken over the program and has 10 conversations scheduled before Thanksgiving weekend.

The launch discussion was moderated by Danny Laurenço whose boutique, Rien à Cacher, sells objects that are locally made, environmentally or socially conscious and chic, for a Plateau crowd. He was joined in leading the discussion by Liz Suarez Visbal-Ensink, who is involved in an international loan cooperative encouraging women involved in entrepreneurship in developing countries.

The conversation ranged from how to source environmentally responsible materials to how smaller producers can promote their creations in the face of better-known and better-resourced multinationals. The discussion continued at the modEthik ethical and fair-trade fashion show, held at the SAT on Sept. 7 and 8.

For more information on University of the Streets Café events, go to univcafe.org or log on to their Facebook group.