Winners : Azurro Compay Ltd from student of Ebene SSS Girls

The students of Ebène SSS Girls are on cloud nine. Grand winner of the competition at national level, the team is now looking forward to representing the island at the JA Africa Regional Company of the Year Competition. “Our several weeks of sacrifice, patience and hard work have paid off. Our team is highly inspired by what Walt Disney stated years back: “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” At no point in time did we give up. We continued to persevere. Today, we are proud representatives of Azurro Company Ltd who are going to participate in Company of the Year Africa 2017 competition, to be held at Johannesburg the first week of December 2017,” said the four members of the team Laureen Chung Tak Cheung, Sandiana Chokupermal, Kritee Heerooa and Swetlana Narasimhulu.

Azurro Ltd was first set up by a team of 17 Grade 12 students of Ebène SSS. “After several market research and brainstorming sessions, we came up with the following three products, namely Wooden Bookmarks, Wooden Case USB and Multi- purpose Jar Holders,” explains Swetlana Narasimhulu.

The students said that the competition has allowed them to gain lifelong skills on the personal, team as well as entrepreneurial levels. “We learnt so many things during this competition both on a personal level and as a team. It has helped us to improve our personal self, acquire soft skills which would help us in our studies and careers in the near future. Our personal achievements and things that we learned are: As a team, we create synergy, stand-alone, success is difficult, hard work always pay, and we should never give up. To achieve great things, we should always go the extra miles. Time management is very important for the success of any endeavor. Entrepreneurial skills: Set up a business, manage and control it, develop risk-taking abilities, improve communication skills through customer interaction and last but not least problem solving skills.”

Laureen Chung Tak Cheung, Sandiana Chokupermal, Kritee Heerooa and Swetlana Narasimhulu say that they are very excited for the regional competition coming in December. They plan to prepare well in order to face the other talented teams. “This is another learning opportunity for us. We will further polish our soft skills and practice a lot. Practice creates confidence and confidence will empower us. The competition will be tough at Africa level but this is in fact a motivating factor. We are ready to take up the challenge, as we see this occasion as an incentive to keep on improving as young entrepreneurs,” they said.