JA team ‘cozies’ up to the competition

St. Boniface

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2025 (204 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’re walking in your favourite mall, you may run into some enterprising young entrepreneurs behind a trade show booth with a unique product or service to sell.

Meet this year’s Junior Achievement Company Program students. They’re immersed in JA’s annual, 20-week-long entrepreneurship competition.

When they’re not at a booth selling products, attempting to garner the most unit sales, they are busy designing engaging websites, building enticing trade show booths, writing comprehensive business plans, crafting detailed production safety documents, and managing busy workloads.

This year’s JA Company Program participation is the largest ever, with 224 students from 24 urban and rural high schools filling 11 teams.

Nelson McIntyre Collegiate has been participating in the program for the last 11 years and has earned a reputation for designing innovative products that capture the imagination of buyers.

Last year, a Nelson Mac team earned a rare national distinction for its innovative Chirper birdfeeder. The team is headed to Toronto this May to receive the 2024 McCall MacBain Canadian Company of the Year Award in the retail/manufacturing category.

This year’s NMC team has created a product called Cozie, small beeswax candles with resin-wood coasters which celebrate the importance of finding pauses to relax during busy or stressful days.

What separates JA from regular high school work is that while the Cozie gang imagines an idea, as they might in a high school class, the team must actually put the idea into motion.

Determining the right temperature to pour liquefied wax into 1.5-ounce mini glass jars and testing clear and colourful resins to seep into crafted wooden coaster shapes took days of experimentation. There were more than a few jigs, iterations, and miscues before discovering a workable production process and palatable products worthy of a target market audience.

Cozie has partnered with BeeMaid Honey for its beeswax and wicks and contributes 15 per cent of their profits to the Canadian Honey Council to support and promote one of the world’s most important pollinators.

The engagement in these projects is astounding, reflected in the fact that teams meet outside the regular school day to plan and implement the project and to connect with volunteer business mentors and teachers who offer guidance and sage advice.

Jeanette D. Bergmann, manager of the JA Company Program, believes that “JA’s hands-on and student-led process ignites a fire in students to explore a variety of jobs and skills which help them make more confident career choices.”

Cozie president Emerson McFadyen believes the work is “unlike anything we do in high school with every detail of the project decided on by the students.”

When you encounter a JA team selling its wares, be ready to pull out your wallet – they are very persuasive and proud of their work.

You can check out the latest JA products at the Kildonan Place Mall trade show on Saturday, March 29 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.