Humber College business students used their education to make a few bucks, and made the world a better place in the process.
The students, as part of their Applied Business Management course, started a business with seed money from each student. They made a 300 per cent profit on their initial investment. Instead of taking the profit, they donated $3,000 to World Vision Canada for earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan.
“We have a couple of international students from Japan in our class and we saw how this disaster impacted them,” said Vikesh Patel, a Business Administration student in the program and a member of the marketing team. “We felt like we could do something to help, and World Vision is a reputable organization which will put the money to good use.”
The students sold luggage tags, diploma frames and utility bags from their company, Ristics Inc. The students targeted various schools at Humber as their customer base, and sold the items to the deans of the schools. The schools will use the items in several ways, including as graduation gifts.
For the students, it was a strong learning experience that enabled them to better understand how a company operates.
“We had to handle all aspects of the company, including human resources, sales, marketing, operations, finance and management,” said company president Andrea Tolfo, a Business Management student. “We’re getting to use the theory we’ve learned about in a real-world situation. It’s a lot of work, but this is a great way to learn about everything, including working with people. Business is not something you can only learn from reading a book.”
The course was designed by Bob Bolf, Business Management program coordinator, and Paul Pieper, a Humber economics instructor, to allow students to utilize their newly learned business administration skills in a small business setting.
“We help some at the beginning to give guidance, but this is a student initiative,” said Bolf. “This is a real business; it’s even incorporated in the province, so they had to make good decisions. They were the ones who decided to donate their profits.”
World Vision regional representative Thanh Campbell was on hand to accept the donation at a special ceremony on April 27, attended by Humber president John Davies and the entire class. Campbell is impressed by how the students made the choice to donate their profits.
“We’ve had schools fundraise for us before, but this is the first time I’ve heard of students donating profits from a business, where they put in a lot of time and energy,” he said. “It says a lot about them and their priorities. They aren’t just looking to make money; they also want to make the world a better place.”
