Education Partnerships
Leadership Development, Service Learning & Entrepreneurship
Memorial University
Memorial University

Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Work Terms/Internships
The Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship (MCE) inspires and enables aspiring entrepreneurs at MUN, offering entrepreneurial students foundational training, encouragement, guidance, access to funding and connections to create high-growth businesses. The program allows students to spend a semester working full-time on their idea while receiving personalized start-up coaching, peer support, and a bursary. Students enrolled in an Entrepreneurial Work Term attend the MCE workshops, the Evolution program at Genesis, the Y-Combinator Startup School, and the incubator of the Centre for Social Enterprise. The entrepreneurial work terms and internships are unique and experiential learning experiences that allow students to advance essential entrepreneurial thinking skills to form future leaders with a specific focus on problem-solving, tolerance with ambiguity, failing forward, empathy, creativity with limited resources, responding to critical feedback and teamwork approach. This is leadership in action.
The Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship (MCE) inspires and enables aspiring entrepreneurs at MUN, offering entrepreneurial students foundational training, encouragement, guidance, access to funding and connections to create high-growth businesses. The program allows students to spend a semester working full-time on their idea while receiving personalized start-up coaching, peer support, and a bursary. Students enrolled in an Entrepreneurial Work Term attend the MCE workshops, the Evolution program at Genesis, the Y-Combinator Startup School, and the incubator of the Centre for Social Enterprise. The entrepreneurial work terms and internships are unique and experiential learning experiences that allow students to advance essential entrepreneurial thinking skills to form future leaders with a specific focus on problem-solving, tolerance with ambiguity, failing forward, empathy, creativity with limited resources, responding to critical feedback and teamwork approach. This is leadership in action.

Diversity Incentive Awards
In 2022 MCE aimed to increase participation for women and non-binary students at its annual startup competition, The Mel Woodward Cup. Two new awards which are funded by FFF, also support the Foundation's focus on leadership development in NL. Read more in Unlocking Entrepreneurship - MCE steps up recruitment of women and non-binary students. Many of the students and companies involved in this competition are also supported through FFF sponsored entrepreneurial work terms at MCE and programs at Genesis.
In 2022 MCE aimed to increase participation for women and non-binary students at its annual startup competition, The Mel Woodward Cup. Two new awards which are funded by FFF, also support the Foundation's focus on leadership development in NL. Read more in Unlocking Entrepreneurship - MCE steps up recruitment of women and non-binary students. Many of the students and companies involved in this competition are also supported through FFF sponsored entrepreneurial work terms at MCE and programs at Genesis.
The following two incentives to women and non-binary applicants were established in 2022:
- An Entrepreneurship Award for Women or Non-binary Leadership to the most promising idea led by a woman or non-binary student. For a team, a woman or non-binary student co-founder needs to be the CEO and at least 50% of the team needs to be women or non-binary student co-founders. If the startup is under an incorporated business (which is not required for this competition), women or non-binary student co-founders need to own at least 50% of the company.
- An Entrepreneurship Award for an Early-stage Idea to a non-finalist team who has a promising startup idea and individual/team but needs a little more work to be in a position to win the Mel Woodward Cup. This will encourage students, and especially women, to apply to the competition even if their idea is very early.
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The 2022 inaugural recipients include PragmaClin Research and Cannaby. PragmaClin was awarded the FFF Entrepreneurship Award for Women and Non-binary Leadership and also won the top prize in the Mel Woodward Cup Competition for a software that provides motor and non-motor assessments for people with Parkinson’s disease. The company’s co-founders are Pharmacy PhD student Bronwyn Bridges, along with entrepreneur and Parkinson’s patient Gord Genge. Cannaby received the FFF Entrepreneurship Award for an Early-stage Idea. The company was founded by Master of Science student Laura Mateo and partner Saioa Arrizabalaga, and aims to educate users on safe cannabis consumption through a customizable dosage calculator. Read more about the 2022 Mel Woodward Cup and our recipients in 2022 Startup Support. Watch a video about Winning N.L. startup develops software for {Parkinson's testing and treatment.
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Recipients of the FFF awards at the 2023 Mel Woodward Cup included Med SimuLabs and CodeDoc Hub. Med SimuLabs was awarded the FFF Entrepreneurship Award for Women/ Non-Binary Leadership. The company's co-founders are Stephanie Roberts and Andrew Robart. Med SimuLabs is a social enterprise which aims to give Memorial University medical students access to a library of simulation devices to help with their training. CodeDoc Hub awarded the FFF Entrepreneurship Award for an Early-stage Idea. The company was founded by Tashin Ahmed Prottoy and Shawon Ibn Kamal, Read more in 2023 Startup Support.
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Student-led startups focused on sustainable opportunities in aquaculture were the big winners at the 2024 Mel Woodward Cup. .The 2024 Champion is Atlantic BioCorp and Runner-up is Invertable. Invertable was also awarded the FFF Entrepreneurship Award for Women/ Non-Binary Leadership. Founder Jessika Lamarre is developing a land-based fish feed made of insects as an alternative to using wild stocks to feed farmed fish. Tuckamore Technologies was awarded the FFF Entrepreneurship Award for an Early-stage Idea. Founders Tyler Yard, Ben Thomas and Carl Thibault, are using augmented reality and thermal imaging to help firefighters navigate low-visibility environments. Read more in Entrepreneurial Legacy.
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Solvers Program Pilot
In 2022, MCE launched a one-year pilot program called Solvers to connect industry professionals with entrepreneurial students to find technological solutions to real-world business problems. Through a solution exploration project, industry experts were matched with entrepreneurial work term/internship students to explore the market potential and develop an initial product/service to address the problem/opportunity the industry expert has identified. If the problem and solution secured some early validation at the end of the project, then they had the opportunity to incorporate a startup team together. Solvers could dramatically increase the quality of student startups at Memorial, leveraging the network of Memorial alumni all over the world. The project to help develop Newfoundland and Labrador's next high-growth startup was supported by a donation from the Fry Family Foundation. Read more in The Next Verafin?
In 2022, MCE launched a one-year pilot program called Solvers to connect industry professionals with entrepreneurial students to find technological solutions to real-world business problems. Through a solution exploration project, industry experts were matched with entrepreneurial work term/internship students to explore the market potential and develop an initial product/service to address the problem/opportunity the industry expert has identified. If the problem and solution secured some early validation at the end of the project, then they had the opportunity to incorporate a startup team together. Solvers could dramatically increase the quality of student startups at Memorial, leveraging the network of Memorial alumni all over the world. The project to help develop Newfoundland and Labrador's next high-growth startup was supported by a donation from the Fry Family Foundation. Read more in The Next Verafin?