Scots wins inaugural Social Enterprise Competition

Scots wins inaugural Wellington Social Enterprise Competition

A team of five Year 12 International Baccalaureate students took out first prize at the inaugural Wellington P3 Social Enterprise Competition. The purpose of the competition is to empower youth to recognise and solve problems they identify in their local community and is aligned to the current eight United Nations Millennium Development goals.

The UN goal the Scots team decided to address focuses on reducing child mortality by targeting teenage suicide rates in the Wellington region. Although the judging panel agreed that the concept wasn’t directly tied to this particular Millennium development goal because the criteria for ‘child mortality’ is 5yrs and under, they thought their idea so fantastic and important to New Zealand, that they made an exception.

The Scots concept plans to address teenage suicide by setting up a moderated online forum where teenagers can post day to day issues and have feedback from their own peers within the Wellington region. The brand name they have developed for the online platform is ‘Babble – an online teenage forum’.

Competition manager Mattea McClean says the College should be very proud of the students. ‘We were very impressed with the Scots team. Their concept was well formulated and is one we can really see making a difference in the community. They have qualified to represent the Wellington region at next weekend’s National Finals Conference in Auckland. We wish them the very best of luck.’

Ms Vaishally Gandhi, Business Studies teacher at Scots, is delighted with the result and says the boys have put in a lot of hours outside of the school day. ‘Our team put together the Babble forum concept as part of the IB Diploma’s Business and Management (BAM) course which focuses on the key components of setting up and running a successful enterprise. The course has supported them with their finance and marketing planning, but to be honest they have put in the majority of time outside of class hours. Their dedication has been amazing’.

The students will fly to Auckland for the finals on Saturday 17 August.

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