‘Lending Kiwi’ wins Young Enterprise Regional Awards, off to national final

The recent Young Enterprise Regional Awards were a significant success for our College teams. ‘Lending Kiwi’ and ‘Viridian’ respectively took out first and second place overall, with our third team, ‘Masie Jo The Label’, in the top six. In total, they were awarded four Excellence Awards, with the winners headed to the national final later this year. 

‘Lending Kiwi’, who won first place, automatically qualified for the National Finals. Team members Lucas Alward, Alex Blong, Ayden Hawken, Ben Thornburn, and Reilly Turner won an Excellence Award in Technology, and Alex additionally received ‘Deloitte Individual of the Year.’ Their project created an online platform allowing Kiwis to borrow and lend items from other members of their community. With an ethos of reducing waste and saving money by promoting peer-to-peer sharing, they were impressed with the creativity and practical uses of their platform. 

We also had team ‘Viridian’ invited to compete for a Wildcard place at the National Finals. Siwoo Baik, Mateen Bolkiah, Aidan Chu, Cynthia Liu, and Preston Tee received second place at the Auckland East Region and an Excellence Award in Finance for their horticultural therapy project, which focused on stress-reducing terrariums. 

Our third finalist, ‘Masie Jo The Label’, consisting of team members Georgia Fulford, Jess Lin, Stella Liu, and Lucy Waters, received an Excellence Award for an Emerging Business. Their sustainable, aesthetic makeup bags were created in support of the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ.