VICTORIA – The Northwest Aboriginal Canadian Entrepreneurs (NW-ACE) Program, a partnership between the Tribal Resources Investment Corporation (TRICORP), regional and provincial governments and the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, has been honoured with the 2016 Alan Blizzard Award from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE). Encouraging collaboration in teaching, the Alan Blizzard Award is a national award given out once every two years to a project that reflects significant collaboration in student learning or teaching.
NW-ACE is open to Aboriginal people, and involves a mixture of 6 weeks of face-to-face, in-class learning, delivered by Gustavson faculty, followed by 12 weeks of mentorship and coaching. The NW-ACE Program team was recognized at the STLHE Annual Conference, at Western University in London, Ontario on June 24, 2016.
“It is an honour to be recognized for what is truly a collaborative effort. We are proud that our partnership with TRICORP and others is helping to launch new businesses within BC and promoting Indigenous entrepreneurs,” says Saul Klein, Dean of the Gustavson School of Business.
Working together, the faculty at the Gustavson School of Business provides the training and mentorship, and TRICORP helps participants upon completion of the program to secure the funding necessary to bring their entrepreneurial projects to fruition. The program also involves close collaboration between the Gustavson School of Business and various First Nations communities in Northwestern British Columbia, as Gustavson professors travel to each community to deliver the curriculum. The Program has been steadily growing since it was established in 2013, with four additional programs launched within new northern BC communities this year.
STLHE is a national organization that aims to be the pre-eminent voice in Canada for enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. Through a number of ongoing initiatives, STLHE supports dissemination, awareness, and application of research through scholarly teaching and learning. Past Alan Blizzard Award winners include University of Toronto (2014) and McMaster University (2012).
