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![\"Ruth](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4037549_web1_260306-Student-Trade-.jpg\")
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Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
Morden Collegiate Institute student Tasvee Jain shows off Luxe Prep cutting boards alongside JA Manitoba program manager Jeanette Bergmann at St. Vital Shopping Centre.<\/p>\n
The after-school program, which teaches financial literacy education to youth, asks students to build a business from a concept, to selling shares to gather capital, to making and marketing their product. Pitching their product is also key: Tasvee\u2019s team will be offering free recipes at their booth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went through this whole process of (asking), what is something we think is a problem in our daily life?\u201d said Tasvee, 17. \u201cAnd a lot of us were thinking about plastic cutting boards, because most of our parents had used them at one point or were still using them, and microplastics are a big issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeanette Bergmann, JA Manitoba Company Program manager, visits schools across the province in the fall yearly to promote the after-school program.<\/p>\n
While JA Manitoba has existed since 1961, interest continues to grow \u2014 this year, 13 teams and 300 students signed up, compared to just three teams taking on the challenge four years ago.<\/p>\n
Bergmann said the program is still looking for adults working in the business sector to volunteer as mentors. For her, seeing young people gain confidence in themselves through the process \u2014 both through success and learning from mistakes \u2014 has been meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe confidence is phenomenal, in the kids, how much there\u2019s a change in them, and they feel more secure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Other student-built businesses coming to the trade fair include Beak-a-Boo from Windsor Park Collegiate, which sells bird watching kits, and St. John\u2019s-Ravenscourt School\u2019s Rootd, a hydroponics operation.<\/p>\n
The money they make goes to covering expenses, paying shareholders and donating a percentage to a charity of their choice, often related to the business.<\/p>\n
The program also partners with SAFE Work Manitoba, which assesses the students\u2019 safety plans, and the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Manitoba, which provides feedback for their business plans.<\/p>\n
Even former participants have come back to support students.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey\u2019re gaining work skills, real life experience,\u201d Bergmann said. \u201cI\u2019ve had so many students come back to me\u2026 saying, \u2018I want to come back as a customer. I want to see what it\u2019s like on the other side.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This is Tasvee\u2019s third year in the program, and she said she\u2019s proud to have watched newer students get involved and gain confidence. While opening a business isn\u2019t in her immediate future, Tasvee said, she\u2019ll be able to take what she learned here wherever she goes next.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a skill you can apply everywhere, any place you want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trade fair will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at St. Vital Shopping Centre\u2019s centre court today.<\/p>\n
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Malak Abas Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg\u2019s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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