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Wednesday, August 18, 1999 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER B1 Oakville Beaver Focus Editor: W ILM A BLOKHUIS 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Y o u r U l t i m a t e O a k v i l l e W e b s i t e L iv in g in O a k v i l le . c o m Shad Valley: unforgettable experience Melissa Nock's group project goes to national competition By Wilma Blokhuis OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Melissa Nock is having the summer of her life. Chosen 11th in the Top 100 to attend the Shad Valley science and technology camp, the 18-year- old Iroquois Ridge High School student was challenged to come up with a viable, workable business venture - complete with prototype. And she and her 12 colleagues in her group not only rose to the challenge, developing an Internet site, Community Grapevine, for Richmond, B.C., but won the competition. "We had to invent a new product, and provide a marketing and business plan," says Nock of the Community Grapevine project. "We did a web site, and came up with a plan to sell ads and make a profit." Web page samples, showing community information and advertisements, were made up and included as illustrations in the busi­ ness plan. The group identified Richmond as their target market, a well connected community of about 43,000 people. In a survey conducted by the group known as 'House 3,' 76% said they would be interested in using the Internet and 79% said they would use the Community Grapevine if made available; 74% of all households had com­ puters and 10% of respondents said they plan to buy one. Furthermore, 66% said they have Internet access, and 10% said they are planning to get on-line. Selected first at Shad Valley at the University of British Columbia by a panel of five judges representing the professional, corporate and banking communities, the Community Grapevine project has been entered into the Shad Valley Entrepreneurship Cup sponsored by the Royal Bank. Nock's group will be in competition against eight other projects from Shad Valley programs held across Canada. "We were given $500 to develop a business plan, and produce a video and develop the pro­ ject further," said Nock, who was co-chair of the Community Grapevine project, mainly responsi­ ble for its financial aspects. (The other co-chair is Kyle Doerksen of Calgary who runs a small busi­ Melissa Nock (left) and friends, from left, Maya Phansalker of Gloucester, OnL; Angela Chan of Vancouver Island; and Eva Christensen of Mississauga, Melissa's room mate. It seems everyone had cameras to record memories of their Shad Valley experience. volunteers had only one week to complete thisness setting up web pages.) They are completing the project via email. Only the participants from the Greater Toronto Area will be involved in pro­ ducing the video. The national competition will be held during the first week in September, giving each compet­ ing group five weeks to complete and submit their projects for final judging. Nock had her choice of location, and went to UBC for her summer adventure in entrepreneur- ship out of a desire to spend some time in Vancouver. The 52 students were divided into four houses, each with an assignment to create a business venture while at the same time cram in a lot of fun. The 13 participants in each house got to know each other by building a 'house' using chairs and newspapers. The Iroquois Ridge participant would start her day early, rising at 6:30 a.m. for her daily jog. She became known as the group's "early morn­ ing girl" (camp director Faro Sassani coined that phrase) and was recognized for abilities. In addi­ tion to helping develop the Community Grapevine, she worked on the Shad Valley 'month book' as a photographer and writer. This book, Envisioning the Future, resembles a high school year book complete with students' pic­ tures and brief articles of their experiences, photo collages of activities and trips, and pages and pages of signed messages. The month book task. "I started off working on the month book as a photographer," reflects Nock, "but I ended up doing everything from writing to helping out with the layout. We had only one day to put the whole thing together, and believe me, I didn't sleep." Nock came home at the end of the July, exhausted from the month-long experience and over tired from jet lag. In addition to working to develop the Community Grapevine business plan and the month book, Nock accompanied the others to a casino night, movie nights, hiking trips, took kick boxing lessons, learned swing and ball room dancing, and taught badminton. And she took on an extra workshop testing blood at the UBC cam­ pus hospital. "We went to Granville Island and made fish print T-shirts using real dead fish. We would paint the fish and squish it against the T-shirt. Some of the kids got more than paint on their shirts." She became known as the 'canoe rescuer' of Alouette Lake during a "nightmare of a canoe trip. I was doing a rescue by tying our canoes together and I fell in. The water was freezing cold." Nock feels she has matured personally from her Shad Valley experience, adding she feels more confident, and more comfortable making presentations. "The memories that I will take home with me are sure to last a lifetime," wrote Nock in the month book. "I will never forget the early morn­ ing jogs, the canoe trip on Alouette Lake which turned into a nightmare, the long nights of hard work and the lectures the following day, for which I could barely stay awake. The best part of my experience at Shad Valley was sharing all of these moments with a great group of people." Shad Valley, which accepted 450 high school students from across Canada, the United States and other countries, is run by Shad International, a Canadian educational organization based in Waterloo. Launched in 1981, Shad Valley offers science, technology and entrepreneurship camps for top academic high school students aged 16 to 19 who are in Grade 12 or OAC programs. Back to her regular routine, Nock is catching up on sleep and is working on her badminton game at the Boulevard Club in Toronto. She's off to Charlotte, N.C., to play in the Charlotte Open this weekend. Currently she is ranked sixth in Canada in ladies doubles and 10th in mixed dou­ bles and singles for under 19. Nock will be back at Iroquois Ridge High School to complete her OACs. She plans to study engineering at McMaster University. I 11 KM KK <K W l I I KM KK (:| K' l l l l Trafalgar V illage 125 C ross Ave, Oakville (Across from the GO Station) A R E Y O U A T H IG H R IS K O R D O Y O U H A V E O S T E O P O R O S IS O R A R E M E N O P A U S A L ? T H E N W E N E E D Y O U ! 30 W O M E N W AN TED ! 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