Realizing upon their return from an educational trade mission in Malaysia in the summer of 2001 that the economic impact of their stay could have been tenfold had it been done in a business context, Hugues Mousseau, currently a student in public affairs and political science at Concordia University, and Louis Dorval, a student in mechanical engineering at McGill University, decided to found Mission CommEx. With the aim of diversifying the Canadian economy by stimulating the export activities of Canadian SMEs while offering professional research, representation and escort services, CommEx has already carried out two missions abroad: one in Mexico in 2002, the other in Costa Rica in January, 2003. Made up of students from different universities in Quebec and Ontario with a passion for international trade (they are a dozen to date), the CommEx delegations represented eight Canadian SMEs during these two missions, including Groupe INEO, Aviation Strategies International and Alis Technologies. Most of these companies are starting procedures to export to the visited markets.
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Though technological innovation can, on many occasions, be the key to commercial success, the right ingredients must be in place to achieve it. In sketching out the outline for a specialized academic project in product development entrepreneurship between two university departments (engineering and administration), Simon Grondin and Maxime Laporte (respectively students in mechanical engineering and marketing at the Université de Sherbrooke) wanted to offer students from both departments a tangible experience in the mechanisms which can lead to commercial success. Launched this fall, this North American-unique, pedagogical program will last five terms. During that time, multidisciplinary teams will carry out their projects all the way to the final commercialization stages and even to the launch of an enterprise. Currently involving 36 students, the project's distinguishing mark is that it repeats itself over time, thereby enabling new groups of students to appreciate the benefits of a multifunctional experience in product development.
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No one is spared at income tax time, regardless of income level. So with the aim of smoothing this tedious process for destitute people, last March 16 second- and third-year students in accounting sciences at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue successfully held the long-awaited income tax clinic called Clinique d’impôt 2003. With the help of over 50 volunteers (including 32 students supported by a team of auditors from both levels of government and a specialized firm), this regional activity offered the participating future accountants an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the various fiscal aspects of a real income tax declaration while helping over 200 low-income individuals. By contributing, too, to the influence of their university and greatly improving their academic training, these students turned the activity into a major social engagement. Had it not been held, it may not have enabled the clients encountered to obtain the tax credits they were entitled to.
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