YouAlberta
Tell us about NXT-GEN and what you and your team do!
NXT-GEN was officially founded in February 2021 with the mandate to bridge the gaps in high school-level business education and foster the development of the next generation of business leaders. To do so, our team of approximately 30 members is focused on reaching as many high school students as possible with our programming, which includes a range of workshops, guest speakers, case competitions and pitch competitions that collectively bring together some of the great resources within the Edmonton business and entrepreneurship communities in a distilled package designed by students for students.
What motivated you to found NXT-GEN?
When I was in grade 10, as part of an entrepreneurship course, I had the incredible opportunity to compete in (and win) a pitch competition previously run by The Learning Partnership. I believe it was critical to the development of my career interests and trajectory. Unfortunately, that competition was discontinued shortly after. As I spoke with my peers and educators both at the university and high school levels, it became apparent to me that there was widespread agreement that business, entrepreneurship and financial literacy were key gaps in our high schools. Taking my experiences with that prior competition, public speaking, event organization, and experiences I was having in real-time entering the University of Alberta, I decided that we needed to take action and started building our team to address this, and NXT-GEN was born.
What’s one challenge you want to solve through your work?
Our primary challenge is to address the lack of business education at the high school level as I wholeheartedly believe that, like other forms of literacy, developing financially literate adults is critical to advancing our society as a whole. The soft skills developed through business education, such as effective communication, teamwork, and problem solving, are critical in any industry. By introducing exposure to business and entrepreneurship, we are able to create a generation of leaders equipped with the mindsets and skill sets to spot opportunities, drive value and ultimately become empowered to innovate.
What advice would you give to someone that wants to venture into business innovation but is afraid to?
Build a team and organization that you trust and is prepared to support you and the work you are looking to do. Not only does this help you divide up your responsibilities and workload and gain that critical support, but you now become accountable to this team and that pushes you to take more risks, go further, and truly be able to drive the innovation that you have in mind.
Who is an innovator you look up to?
I think the vast majority of innovators are worth looking up to for their own reasons, but focusing on my personal networks, two key individuals come to mind. The first, Evan Chrapko, is an Edmonton-based serial entrepreneur and Alberta School of Business alumnus and has been a remarkable mentor throughout my employment with his most recent startup, Trust Science. Throughout his career, Evan has delivered more than half a billion USD of shareholder gains and champions the values of innovation, compassion and the entrepreneurial spirit. The second is a close friend of mine that has, through his own accomplishments, continued to push me to go further and reach new heights. Connor Povoledo, a third-year biomedical engineering student in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta and founder of Level 7 Plastics, has been a key influence in my early entrepreneurial pursuits. I am proud to be working alongside him on Fabri, a business focused on supporting the prototyping and product development cycles for new innovation driven enterprises.
What do you think are the biggest issues facing young innovators right now?
Innovation is fundamentally a social activity, and one that relies heavily on the ability to get the correct stakeholders involved. Unfortunately, by virtue of being younger and lacking the experience of a more senior innovator, young innovators are systemically challenged in getting access to the stakeholders, and subsequently the resources, they need to succeed. As a student group that is driven by youth innovation and seeking to foster youth innovation, it is important that we showcase that young innovators are indeed just as capable as our more senior counterparts and give young innovators more opportunities to get in front of potential key stakeholders. Of course, this is a highly intersectional phenomenon that also needs to take into account subconscious biases within the industry, especially as it relates to race, gender, sexual orientation and a number of other factors. Creating a more inclusive innovation community in all of these facets is incredibly important, and it’s critical that our next generation of innovation leaders recognizes these issues and continues to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the overall innovation ecosystem.
About Colin
Colin Tran (he/him) is a second year entrepreneurship student at the Alberta School of Business and the Founder and President of NXT-GEN, where he is responsible for the overall operations of the student group, especially as it relates to external stakeholder relations and event organization. In addition, Colin is involved in case competitions and is a teaching assistant for BUS 101. Outside of the University, he is the Marketing Manager for an Edmonton-based startup, an avid golfer, and escape room enthusiast. Colin looks forward to continuing to develop and apply his skills to grow NXT-GEN and redefine the boundaries of entrepreneurship, as well as meeting new people and exploring new opportunities through the University.