Junior Achievement Cyprus Bi-Communal Innovation Camp: 90 students from across the island took part in the 2015 event
On Friday, 9 October, the second Junior Achievement Cyprus Bi-communal Innovation Camp took place at the University of Nicosia. The Innovation Camp aimed at encouraging young people to use their skills in enterprising and innovative ways, fostering their employability and entrepreneurial flair in the process.
The participants were made up of 90 Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot students, aged between 15 and 18, from private high schools from all over Cyprus, accompanied by their teachers. In groups of 5-6 persons, the students were asked to come up with an answer to a business challenge unveiled to them on the same day. The challenge, which focused on tourism, required the students to suggest an innovative product, service or solution that would contribute to strengthening and modernizing tourism in Cyprus, while reinforcing the national economy.
Students had only a few hours to learn to work as a team with other students they had not met before, and to collectively shape their ideas, in order to propose an innovative solution that could be applied to the case of Cyprus. At the end of the day, all teams presented their solutions (products/ services/ innovations) to a panel of experts. The presentations and jury questions which followed were in English.
The winning team will take part in the annual professional development summer programme Olympism4Humanity Praxis, run by Olympism for Humanity Alliance, a global humanitarian consortium of world leading actors with expertise in applying Olympism to address local and global challenges.
The event was supported by the US Embassy and the University of Nicosia.
The winners of the second Bi-Communal Innovation Camp are:
1st prize: “BICY: Explore the island with us”
The team consisted of: Maria Polycarpou (Grammar School), Eftychia Constantinou, (The English School, Nicosia), Othman Diyar Mousa (Eastern Mediterranean Doğa College), Tolga Atun (English School of Kerynia).
2nd prize: “Leisure Hunt”
The team consisted of: Gazioglu Ayhan (Eastern Mediterranean Doğa College), Şadi Kayra (English School of Kerynia), Izel Sevgen (TED Northern Cyprus College), Stylianos Kakouris (American Academy, Larnaka), Daniel BucKley (IMS Limassol)
3rd prize: “Top to Toe Cyprus”
The team consisted of: Elissa Abbara (Foley’s School Limassol), Diva Basay (The English School, Nicosia), Emilios Charalambous (Pascal English School Limassol), Ilerici Yusuf Ziya (Eastern Mediterranean Doğa College), Todd Daniel (English School of Kerynia)
Ice-breaking activities
Students working together in teams
The students’ teachers
The winning teams with the jury members
