BRANDON, Man. – Well, at least it was a chance to get out of Shoal Lake.
Nathan Chubak, a Grade 10 student, has goals. He wants to travel, meet people, live in a big city (maybe Vancouver) and get out of his home town of Shoal Lake, Man.
Chubak got to meet Carol McCutcheon of Neepawa, Nathan Lewis of Hamiota, and Fraser Randall and Jennifer West from Brandon at a recent forum here for 400 high school students from rural Manitoba.
They’re fairly positive about what the future holds. And they were frank about what they thought about the forum.
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“It sucks,” Chubak said.
At the back of a poorly-lit room with bad sound and all the atmosphere of a high-school cafeteria, the five students bonded because of boredom, through playing Tic-Tac-Toe and chatting during breaks.
The students seemed typical of many of the 400 at the forum: bright, polite, optimistic, but bored. They noted that even teachers were not paying attention.
The youth forum was sponsored by the provincial government and Junior Achievement, a non-profit organization that runs after-school business education programs.
Hands-on experience
The conference, sponsored mainly by provincial and federal government departments, featured hands-on sessions on advertising, surfing the Internet, dealing with the media and managing time. Government officials say it drew 3,000 over the three days from schools and the public. It included sessions for 400 high school students and a food court of Manitoba restaurants and caterers.
Joan Lawless, the executive director of the organization, said the agenda of the conference was set by youth through a survey done last spring after a similar but smaller forum.
“The goal is to give our rural youth the same opportunities to enhance their development that city students get,” Lawless said, adding that all schools in the province were invited to bring students.
While organizers’ intentions were good, students said they should have set up the event differently. They said speeches, which took up most of the day, were too general.
“It should be short and blunt,” said Chubak. Across the table, Randall said he learns better in smaller groups. “I haven’t really learned anything,” added Lewis.
West said she likes workshops, “But I don’t like (speeches). It doesn’t do anything.”
The students had vague ideas of plans for their futures. But they all agreed they wouldn’t be doing what their parents are doing, nor were they likely to be staying in their hometowns for long. They said the forum did nothing to make them aware of opportunities in rural areas.
Learning from mistakes
Apart from speeches, the forum featured a panel of two recent university graduates and students who have started their own businesses.
- Dave Kalinchuk runs a shelterbelt company and nursery near Virden, Man. He told students to start small. “The trick is go out there and create employment for yourself,” he said. “Once you get a taste of entrepreneurship, you’ll be surprised at how gung ho you’ll be for starting a business.”
- Jill Jackson of Souris, Man., chased her first business through her neighbor’s wheat field a few times. She just graduated from high school last year, but she has already made money selling feeder cattle during two summers.
- Chad Hughes of Brandon grossed more than $110,000 during his first summertime venture into the world of entrepreneurship as a manager for College Pro Painting. Since then, he has opened a window and eavestrough cleaning business. He also started selling high-pressure water-cleaning systems.
Hughes said he learned from mistakes. He also told students that it’s essential to find “people who have faith in you and your ideas,” especially when it comes time to find start-up loans.
