JA Manitoba trade fair puts youth creativity in spotlight

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This article was published 14/03/2025 (189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ivy Qiu is only in Grade 10, but she’s already the leader of a company about to bring a product to market.

The 16-year-old is the president of Sensosphere, a 10-person business made up of students from Pembina Trails Collegiate in south Winnipeg. The company will launch Stresslax — a stress-relieving fidget device infused with essential oils — today at St. Vital Centre.

It’s part of an annual trade fair organized by JA Manitoba, a non-profit offering business education programs and financial literacy training for youth. This year, 221 high school students from across the keystone province, divided into 11 teams (or companies) will present their products.

The trade fair is the culmination of months of dedication and hands-on learning as part of JA Manitoba’s company program, its flagship offering.

Ivy joined the afterschool program in October in hopes it would improve her leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

After coming up with the idea for Stresslax and writing a business plan, the team sold shares in the company to family and friends to raise the $500 needed to purchase the materials for the product. They manufactured it themselves.

Stresslax isn’t even for sale yet and she’s already learned a lot, Ivy said, especially from the businesspeople who have advised her team.

“A major thing that I’ve learned is understanding the impact of failure,” she said. “Challenges can help me build my resilience and adaptability, which I feel are key traits to becoming a successful leader or entrepreneur.”

Saturday’s trade fair will be the fourth for Jaxon Forster of Morden.

This year, the 18-year-old is the vice-president of health and safety for Bloom N’Bond, a team made up of students from the Pembina Valley area of the province.

The team sells gardening kits come with one of seven different seed packets, a pot, soil and growing instructions.

“We wanted something that you could do just to connect with nature,” said Forster, a Grade 12 student at Morden Collegiate Institute.

He and his teammates created 800 kits, which they started selling earlier this year at a pop-up event in Winkler.

The hands-on nature of the company program is what’s kept Forster coming back year after year.

“It’s not just about reading about business,” he said. “You get to experience what it’s like to be a business long term and I think that’s really cool.”

Students have worked alongside teachers and industry mentors for 20 weeks to build and operate fully functional businesses.

Along the way, they’ve gained experience through workshops in leadership, finance, marketing, sales, health and safety, website design, human resources and production.

Today’s trade fair is where the students’ hard work comes to life, according to Greg Leipsic, president and CEO of JA Manitoba.

Not all of the students who participate will become entrepreneurs or salespeople, he said, but the program exposes them to everything that goes into starting a business, which many of them haven’t thought about before.

“You’re working with people you don’t know and that’s a big takeaway — the kids’ ability to work together, mostly independently,” he said.

The public is invited to visit the fair from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

A second fair will be held March 29 at Kildonan Place mall in Winnipeg.

Leipsic encourages attendees to ask students what it took to bring their products to market. “I think folks will be fascinated by these young entrepreneurs,” he said.

JA Manitoba was established in 1961 and has hosted the trade fairs for more than five decades.

This year’s group of participants is the largest in more than 20 years, Leipsic said.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca