Posted on Wednesday, November 24th, 2021
In honour of the tenth anniversary of the Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence (ACCE), we caught up with a few ACCE alumni to see what they’re up to now.
When Jeff McCoy decided to get out of a job he didn’t like, and into the trades, he chose Algonquin for his training mainly because it was convenient.
Now working as a licensed plumber, and having completed two trade programs at the College, McCoy believes he couldn’t have chosen better even if his education options had been far wider.
He was impressed by the flexibility of the instructors in his courses who readily adapted to different learning styles. “With the trades, one person is not always going to learn in the same way as the next person,” says McCoy. “I found (the Algonquin instructors) were really good in accommodating.”
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Posted on Thursday, November 18th, 2021
In honour of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day on November 19, 2021, we are profiling a few Algonquin students past and present who are entrepreneurs.
The Cupcake Lounge has been an Ottawa success story from the day the first outlet opened in the ByWard Market in 2011. Not even a pandemic could diminish the consistent appeal of this haven for dessert lovers established by entrepreneur and life-long baker Claudia Arizmendi.
“We have a very strong business,” says Arizmendi, President and CEO of The Cupcake Lounge and a graduate of Algonquin College’s Baking and Pastry Arts program (Class of 2007). “At some point, people began to worry that we were too focused, that cupcakes were a trend that might fade. But we held firm because we felt that a cupcake is like a slice of a really good-quality cake, baked fresh and in a perfect single portion.
“That’s what I wanted to give to my customers right from the start and that’s what they keep coming back to enjoy.”
Arizmendi moved to Canada from Mexico in 1994 and started a family shortly thereafter. At this stage, the prospect of one day launching her own business was little more than a dream.
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Posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2021
In honour of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day on November 19, 2021, we are profiling a few Algonquin students past and present who are entrepreneurs.
Learning the ins and outs of life as an entrepreneur is changing the mindset and the future prospects of a young businesswoman studying at Algonquin College online from her home on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.
For the past eight years, Puran, 26, has been operating a car rental business in Saint Maarten, the Dutch portion of the island 300 km east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea. Tourism is the lifeblood of the 87 square-kilometre island, which has been divided between the Dutch and the French since 1648.
“Tourism is really the only business we have,” Puran says, and in good years it is a very good business indeed. About one million people visit the island annually in peak times, enough to keep Puran and her many competitors busy.
But the economy of Saint Martin has suffered massively since 2017, when it was one of the Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Irma. The Category 5 storm destroyed roughly one-third of the buildings on the Dutch side and damaged 90 per cent of structures. Seventy per cent of Puran’s uninsured inventory was damaged or destroyed by the storm.
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