From turning plastic waste into sewing thread to championing sustainable agriculture and beekeeping, three alumni of the Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship are now among the 2025 Mandela Washington Fe
Pascale Avenvuka Mbu-Letang is a Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship alumnus, program coach, and the founder of Sabaoth General Trading. Sabaoth General Trading specializes in utilizing ancestral African hair techniques to offer affordable, organic, and nutritious hair care products to South Africa.
Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship Fellow, Baluku Hannington has opened his first telemedicine Centre in Bundibugyo, Uganda.
Current Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship Fellow, Hadiza Shettima, took second place at the Northeast Creativity and Innovation Summit for her venture, Farm Solution. Farm Solution is an agricultural venture focused on revolutionizing rice farming in Yobe State, Nigeria.
Kingston, Ontario, Canada – The Dunin-Deshpande Innovation Centre at Queen’s University (DDQIC) is proud to announce the remarkable achievements of the finalists in the 2024 DDQIC African Initiatives Pitch Competition.
For the second year in a row, DDQIC hosted John Polyani Collegiate Institute from May 29th to 31st during their visit to Queens. The visit aimed to encourage diverse youth from Toronto to set their sights on post-secondary, consider the benefits of an entrepreneurial education, and mitigate financial barriers associated with on-campus visits.
The DDQIC is committed to assessing the impact on the entrepreneurial mindset of youth in each of our programs. When DDQIC piloted the Future Leaders Initiative at Queen’s (FLIQ), a program supporting high school youth to develop entrepreneurial skills, we discovered there wasn’t a strong research foundation to draw from regarding entrepreneurship education for adolescent youth.
Kingston has been named the top small city for the strength of its startup ecosystem, and ninth overall in Canada. Kingston has also been named tenth worldwide in the clean tech industry, above Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Edmonton. Fostering a supportive ecosystem encourages job retention and growth, as well as attracts foreign investment.
Congratulations to QICSI Alumni Shreyansh Anand for being named Student Entrepreneur National Champion by Enactus Canada. Anand was a part of the 2020 QICSI cohort where he founded Waive the Wait, a company that uses AI to improve healthcare efficiency and clinic experience.
The Queen’s Innovation Centre Summer Initiative (QICSI) is a 16-week summer program that offers aspiring entrepreneurs a stipend, seed funding, valuable training, and mentorship to begin forming their ventures.
