The winning entry in the Idea Hunt Contest organized by the Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) student club at Thompson Rivers University has turned out to be just the solution TRU business student Brandon Lazar needs to make math easy for BC’s Grade 10 students.
His great idea is an Internet business called EasyMath.ca, an online tutoring program he developed two years ago when he was in Grade 12 at Salmon Arm Secondary School. “There was online help for students in Grade 12, but nothing for students in Grade 10 who also had to write government exams,” Lazar said.
“ACE’s Idea Hunt contest was an opportunity for me to get EasyMath off the back burner,” Lazar said about entering the contest in November. “I had done a lot of work developing the program when I was in high school, but since university I just haven’t had time to take it to the next level.”
On EasyMath.ca there are step-by-step instructions, following the British Columbia Math 10 curriculum. Lessons made up of audiovisual animations and video clips, specifically designed to keep the learner interested and focused. After each lesson, the student can test their skills with practice tests.
“Brandon had thoroughly thought out the business concept and entered the contest with a fully developed product,” said Michelle Jongbloets, a fourth-year marketing student who is TRU ACE’s vice president.
“We’ve been meeting weekly since the November win, honing the marketing plan, researching markets, determining price points and target audiences. Now we’re ready to take EasyMath out to the world.”
ACE motives aren’t altruistic; the group of business students is looking to succeed with their own competitions against other business students from other universities. The student teams presents audio-visual and written summaries to judging panels comprised of top business leaders who determine which teams did the best job of practicing, teaching and celebrating entrepreneurship. The regional competition is later this month in Calgary, with the nationals being held in Toronto in May. Top national winner goes on to the international competition, the Students in Free Enterprise World Cup in New York.
Lazar is the winner of ACE’s first Idea Hunt contest, loosely based on the TV show the Dragon’s Den. The group’s faculty advisor Bernie Warren was impressed with the student entrepreneurs that entered the competition, saying, “the ideas were of a better quality that we expected, some were wonderfully fun and very interesting.”
Contact:
Brandon Lazar
(e)Brandon@easymath.ca
(p)828-0889
(e)acetru@gmail.com
(p)574-9499
Bernie Warren
Assistant Professor,
TRU School of Business and Economics
(e)bwarren@tru.ca
(p)371-5936
