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NUNAVUT - Four Grade 10 students from Arviat recently proved they have what it takes to promote a conceptual business in their community that would give Nunavummiut a healthy alternative to eating junk food.

Rochelle Illnik, Rhea Gavin, Daniel Alagalak and Jimmy Napayok of John Arnalukjuak High School travelled two weeks ago to Kelowna, B.C. to take part in the E-Spirit Business Plan Competition.

From left, Grade 10 Arviat students Jimmy Napayok, Daniel Alagalak, Rhea Gavin and Rochelle Illnik arrive at the awards gala for the E-Spirit Business Plan Competition held in Kelowna, B.C. two weeks ago. The team won an award for their marketing video. - photo courtesy of Charlene Paterson

The competition, which is organized by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), assembled 29 teams made up of 150 Aboriginal students from across the country.

Over the course of 16 weeks leading up to the contest, each team completed online course material that outlined the process of putting together a business plan modeled largely after those submitted to the BDC by genuine Canadian businesses.

"The main idea is to introduce them to those concepts so that if they want to actually pursue this after high school, that's quite possible," said teacher Charlene Paterson, who accompanied the Arviat team to Kelowna.

After surveying adult community members about what kind of store or service was sorely lacking in Arviat, the team settled on an idea: a cafe that would serve healthy snacks and tea made from local plants plus offer a venue for local artists and make an effort to recycle as much as possible

The menu drawn up by the team included items like tipsi (smoked fish), bannock and nipku (dried caribou meat). The students prepared samples of each item with the help of family and friends and brought the food with them to Kelowna.

For team member Daniel Alagalak, providing something more than just greasy fare was key when conceiving the cafe, which the team called Titurvik Cafe (roughly translated as "a place to have a drink").

"This community is full of junk food," he said. "We wanted people to get a healthier alternative."

Fellow student Rhea Gavin said the most fulfilling part of the competition was when the team's seven-minute marketing video was screened for judges and other teams.

The video begins by talking about the importance of drawing resources from the land, which is later contrasted with pictures of people eating "really gross stuff," said Paterson. "It was disgusting."

The video's high point, continued Paterson, was a cleverly-edited montage of interviews in which Arviat community members clearly reached a consensus: the cafe was not only a good idea, but necessary. Students' reactions pleased Gavin immensely.

"They were staring at the screen. Their eyes were wide open. That showed they were interested, so I was happy to see that," she said.

Despite some nervousness during the trade show the day before, the hard work ultimately paid off: the team won a special award for their marketing video.

"That was a big surprise," said Gavin, who added the video was evidence of her team's collaborative approach.

"I didn't expect us to click together so fast," she said, explaining that none of the members were very close when they were picked by the school for the competition. "But we all helped each other out. It had a really good flow and a really good feeling to it."