Gitksan youth win bronze award for business plan

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Three students from Hazelton Secondary School teamed up to compete in the national E-Spirit Business Plan Competition held in Halifax in May and sponsored by the Business Development Bank of Canada. Their project entitled Hiking Gitksan History Ltd. won the bronze award. The competition encourages Canada's Aboriginal youth to experience entrepreneurship through hands-on learning. Cecilia Morgan spoke for the team, which also includes Khymlhyn Yunkws and Anthony Vickers.

"Originally we wanted to offer guided interpretive hikes on our historic Gitksan trails, but we soon broadened it to include awareness of our culture as well," she said.

Modules on the Business Development Bank's Web site guided the students through the many steps of developing a business plan. Morgan said that the group also had "tons of help from the people in our community." A local banker assisted with financial details, and the school librarian helped in numerous ways, especially with the PowerPoint presentation needed to present the plan, she added.

"Brigitta Van Heek, counsellor at the school, was our sponsor and our mentor and we couldn't have done it without her," she said. "She recruited additional business people from the community to work with us, such as a local tourism operator who is familiar with setting up trade shows and other promotional activities."

The team split up the work. "Some of the modules were easily done, and I could complete them in a spare period during our school day. But others we had to work on together, being more complex and detailed. Anthony and Khymlhyn dedicated a lot of hours too," she said.

Hazleton, located in the northwest section of British Columbia, is surrounded by mountains and forests, and the Gitksan have called the area home for centuries. "The historical significance is a big part of our enterprise. The trails were used to transport trade goods from the coast to each of the First Nation villages in the area. The trails are also shared with wildlife, so they have been kept in pristine condition," she said.

Initially, the business plan said that Yunkws and Vickers would be doing the guiding, with Morgan in the office looking after reservations and other administrative duties. "Once the business gets up and running, we projected the need to hire others."

Morgan, at 18 years of age, is graduating from high school this month, and admits that she'd like to embark on post-secondary education in political sciences before settling down to put the business plan to work. "But it's something that all three of us would like to pursue at some point, as we all feel there is a need for such a venture and we feel we could make a living at it, while promoting and preserving our culture at the same time."

Brigitta Van Heek said the students worked well together, each enjoying a special area of interest and expertise. "Cecilia came up with some excellent ideas and was a great leader, while Khymlhyn worked hard on the marketing and on preparing the video. Anthony is great with computers and created an outstanding PowerPoint presentation. They complemented each other, and they were a great team."

Van Heek recognizes that the slogan of the project, Old Trails, New Adventures, is an indication of the very worthwhile activity the business proposal could become. "We have lots of tourists heading to Alaska or the Queen Charlotte Islands. There is such an interest in Aboriginal culture, and this idea would allow visitors to get first-hand experiences and exposure to traditional activities," she said. Although she recognizes the value of museums and interpretive centres for preserving items and providing excellent historical information, she says that getting out into ancestral lands, and walking the time-honoured trails can only be done in the natural setting upon which this project has focused. "Tourists can actually live the culture; they can get out into the wilderness and sample traditional foods and experince life away from the modern lifestyle which we have developed today."

Van Heek feels the Business Development Bank should be commended for the excellent opportunity afforded to the youth who participated in the competition and in the conference. "They brought 65 teams together from Nunavut to British Columbia. The students presented their business plans to the assembled group and were judged on originality and on their ability to complete each of the seven modules," she said. Each team also participated in a trade show that featured information and cultural items specific to their projects.

The 2003 E-Spirit theme was Know No Boundaries. Michel Vennat, president and chief executive officer of the Business Development Bank, estimates that 300,000 new jobs will be required to meet the demand from Aboriginal people entering the workforce in the next 10 years. "This is why it is so vitally important to expose Aboriginal youth to the potential of entrepreneurship."