My Irish Gran taught me how to make jam using her beloved recipes when I was 14 years old. I perfected the craft in no time. Eager to earn a profit, I sold the homemade products to neighbours and people at church fairs, farmers’ markets and local delicatessens. When I discovered that my product was in high demand, I decided to improve the products. I came up with an idea to make my jam entirely out of fruit and fruit juice.

Thus, SuperJam was born. 

Little did I expect that within a couple of years, this tiny enterprise would blossom into a million-dollar company that would supply the biggest supermarkets in Great Britain. What started out as an idea grew into a successful business! Before I knew it, I found myself on a whirlwind of media interviews all around the world.  

Most exciting for me, though, was a chance to represent my country at the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) in Chicago, Illinois, USA. GSEA is an awards program that honours the top undergraduate students who are running their own businesses. I was told that more than 750+ students from around the world had entered the competition, and that I was considered to be among the top 20. I was given 15 minutes to present my company to the expert judges, all of whom were running hugely successful enterprises themselves.

Before it was my time to present, I watched other students pitch their companies. Several ran software businesses that supplied huge, multinational corporations like McDonalds; some owned the fastest-growing companies in Canada and others had reached the pinnacle of excellence in their respective fields. Although selling jam was perhaps the lowest tech of all of the business ideas, I certainly felt honoured to be considered in the same realm as these bright kids.

When it was my time to present, I shared the past four years of my life with the judges. The judges were clearly excited by my adventure and enjoyed asking questions about my finances, business ethics and what I was doing to protect my ideas. Later in the day, the winners were announced, and it came as such a huge surprise! Out of all of the young entrepreneurs, the judges gave me the title of “EO Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year.” 

Winning the competition was certainly one of the high points of this amazing adventure. Since I was the first non-American winner of the competition, I encountered spells of media attention. Not only was the British press very proud of my story, but I found myself in the global news, including the biggest news station in China! I was even featured in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes magazine, all thanks to EO.

While the press coverage was a major perk, simply meeting all of the other entrepreneurs and EO members was by far the real prize. As a young entrepreneur, it is rare that I come across other young people who have experienced similar business situations. Meeting these diverse entrepreneurs, learning more about what makes EO so special, making new friends and sharing experiences has made me even more certain that the path I have chosen in life is the right one.

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