They better get their passports ready.

A group of energetic and savvy students from Memorial University's Faculty of Business Administration has won the top prize at a national competition in Toronto and the right to represent Canada at a prestigious international event in Paris, France, this September.

ACE (Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship) Memorial, a student-run youth entrepreneurship organization, beat out 43 groups from other universities and colleges from across Canada to win the prize at the Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) competition earlier this week. That event was part of the ACE National Exposition where ACE teams prepared and delivered in-depth presentations on their educational outreach projects.

The group captured the Frank Stronach Cup for most enterprising campus at the competition which ran May 14-17.

Team members - including Andrew Crocker, Amy Fisher, Andrea Kean and Stephen King who presented at the national event - are now gearing up for the SIFE World Cup in France Sept 11-13, 2006, which will include national champions from 45 countries around the world.

“Personally, I was shocked when we won,” said an enthusiastic John Hurley, president of ACE Memorial, and a fifth-year marketing student. “I think it will take a few days until I, and the rest of my team, can fully realize how much we have achieved.”

Memorial's team presented 12 of the 19 business projects its members have launched over the past year. Members were judged by a panel of Canada's top executives including Lindsay Gordon, president and chief executive officer, HSBC Bank Canada, and Mario Pilozzi, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Canada Corp. They picked the team that did the best job over the past year at creating economic opportunities. SIFE focuses on leveraging education, expertise, local business support, and university resources to build better communities.

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency recently provided $17,360 in funding to ACE Canada to enable representatives from six ACE teams in Newfoundland and Labrador to compete in the national event: Memorial, Cabot, Stephenville, Clarenville, Corner Brook and Grand Falls-Windsor.

Not only did Memorial win the top prize at this week's competition but two of its members came home with top individual awards.

Heather Comerford, a third-year accounting student, won the project manager of the year award for a program called Project Passport which consisted of a series of seminars aimed at teaching multicultural citizens in the community the principles of business and entrepreneurship.

And teammate Angela Dyke, a fourth-year business student, won the John Dobson ACE Founder's Bursary for leadership, commitment and contribution to Memorial's ACE team.

These latest awards augur well for the high-calibre students coming out of Memorial's Faculty of Business Administration, said Mr. Hurley.

“As we ran projects throughout the year, the national competition is not something that we think of a great deal. Instead, we focus on the impact the projects have on the community,” he said. “This win confirms that the students of Memorial are among the brightest, hardest working, and most innovative in the country. By succeeding against groups from other post-secondary institutions from the largest cities in Canada that have more resources at their disposal, ACE Memorial demonstrated our passion and ability to impact the community through our program.”

That enthusiasm is shared by Dr. Gary Gorman, dean of the Faculty of Business Administration. He said team members have been committed to their projects since the very beginning and he's delighted their efforts have been recognized at the national level. “ACE makes a very important contribution to instilling entrepreneurial and business skills among all students,” Dr. Gorman said. “But they also make an important contribution to a variety of community organizations and groups. They practise entrepreneurship in a social as well as a business context. I applaud their efforts as well as their success. The organization and its members serve as important role models for the entire student body.”

Winning the national competition and representing Canada is a direct result of the entire ACE Memorial team who worked tirelessly over the past year to deliver the 19 projects in this province and beyond, said Lynn Morrissey, ACE Memorial faculty advisor and assistant professor in the Faculty of Business Administration.

“This is a proud moment,” she said. “The SIFE World Cup Competition is the pinnacle of entrepreneurial education for students.”

Dr. Axel Meisen, president of Memorial, said the ACE Memorial team members are effective ambassadors not only for the university but for Newfoundland and Labrador as well.

“These students represented our university and province at the national competition this week and their creativity, knowledge and commitment for their business projects has paid off. I applaud them for that work,” Dr. Meisen said. “ACE Memorial will take the experience from the national competition and apply it to the SIFE World Cup this fall in France. Representing Canada is a great honour and I wish the team all the best.”