Since the Fall of 2015, the CPA’s Epp Peace Incubator program has aimed to support at least six peace-related start-ups each semester. The incubator was first imagined by the “Dream Team” that Grebel convened to develop the vision and mission of the CPA, and this forward-thinking group understood the need for spaces where emerging changemakers could be nurtured and their ideas could become reality.
The community that sowed the vision for the Epp Peace Incubator is now reaping a harvest with some unexpected benefits.
Marlena Books, a social venture that has participated in the CPA’s Incubator program since 2015, creates meaningful leisure in the form of reading material for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. In a recent push to expand their team, Marlena Books reached out to the CPA network to find strong candidates. They settled on a computer engineering student from the Grebel residence program named Mariak Saninto Achuoth, who joined the Grebel community in 2016 through the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Student Refugee Program. Rachel Thompson, founder of Marlena Books, noted,
“Upon interviewing him I heard about [Mariak’s] life as a refugee from South Sudan, and he explained how he had taught himself everything he knew, and worked hard to get into computer engineering at the University of Waterloo. I knew that the perseverance he has demonstrated in his journey thus far would serve him well working on the development team of my start-up.”
Marlena Books is not the only Epp Peace Incubator start-up hiring from the Grebel community. Demine Robotics recently signed on Grebel student Jared Baribeau to help them develop their technology for extracting landmines safely and efficiently from the ground. As an engineering student interested in social entrepreneurship, Jared connected with the CPA to see whether he could contribute to a peacebuilding project for his fourth year Capstone Design Project. CPA Director Paul Heidebrecht introduced Jared to Richard Yim, the co-founder of Demine Robotics, and this relationship is now leading to much more than an academic credit. After he graduates in April, Jared will be joining the Demine team full-time, moving to Cambodia to help test their technology on active landmines.
While over sixty students have had internships or co-op jobs in the CPA, and six recent graduates have gone on to co-found incubator start-ups, it now appears that these new initiatives will be providing longer-term employment opportunities as well.
Whether it is for mentorship, funding, partnerships, internships, or jobs, the CPA is eager to connect members of the Grebel community past and present to ventures in the Epp Peace Incubator. The original and ongoing support the Mennonite community shares with the CPA is invaluable, and we are excited by the ways our programming gives back.