St. Paul’s GreenHouse resident and fourth-year Environment and Business student Hannah Furlong, together with fourth-year Science and Business student Mark Kryshtalskyj and a team of other UWaterloo senior students, are planning a revolution to address today’s youth employment crisis.
They are creating Rockstar Café, Canada’s first youth-centric, sustainable, and entrepreneurial coffee house. In addition to serving locally sourced foods and fair trade coffee, using energy- and water-efficient technologies and committing to a goal of zero consumer waste, the Rockstar Café will also offer a place for high potential youth (“Rockstars”) to meet, connect, brainstorm, and develop ideas, and to find resources, tools, and funding to further their ideas and projects. The goal of this café is that these youth will be more employable and more confident in their potential career paths.
“Rockstar builds community, self-discovery, and empowerment,” says Hannah. “Our approach will involve peer-to-peer mentorship, helping students find what they love, and helping them do something about that.”
Mark recalls a defining moment on a co-op term where his employer’s goal was to create leaders of tomorrow: “That was great — but every single student who worked there wanted to lead now. Rockstar Café will give these people a safe, inspiring environment where they can talk about what they want to do.”
Rockstar Café is actually the fourth start-up Hannah has been involved with as a UWaterloo student, and her second at GreenHouse. She is very appreciative of the support from the community and staff as she has refined her ideas and figured out what she wants to pursue. “They focused on me as an individual and a social innovator, and were supportive of my needs and the skills I needed from the program.” She adds, “I tell people that GreenHouse is a really safe way to launch a social or environmental initiative. Whether you have a true passion or just the beginnings of an idea, this is a great place to help you develop your idea in a short time.”
Mark, who describes himself as an unofficial global ambassador for GreenHouse, says, “Without Tania’s mentorship, I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am on this project. She has been key in opening doors, offering opportunities, and giving the right advice.” Tania Del Matto is the Director of GreenHouse.
Hannah raises the perennial question of whether millennials are lazy or are the people who are going to solve all the world’s problems, and says, “There are huge problems that I didn’t believe could be solved by 22-year-olds. Now, through GreenHouse, I’ve found a really good fit with a problem I’m in love with. I can make a career out of a project with meaning like this!”
- by Susan Fish
- Read more about Mark Kryshtalkyj being chosen as one of 36 business leaders by Next 36, a non-profit business leadership program, in The Record
- Read about other Social Innovators in the Spotlight