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DURHAM STUDENT WINS BLUEPRINT COMPETITION SOLE TRADER PRIZE FOR INNOVATIVE STUDENT APPAREL WEBSITE
Freya McIvor, a 19 year old Ancient History student at Grey College, Durham University has won the Sole Trader Award at Blueprint 2012, the North East Universities Business Planning Competition. At a glittering awards ceremony held at the Newcastle Gateshead Hilton on Thursday evening, she also came away with the Runners Up award in the Creativity & Design category.
Freya's big idea was to create an innovative online brand aimed at students, from schools through to universities, providing sports teams, clubs and societies with an easy to use website for the creation, ordering and fulfillment of student stash such as personalised t-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts. "I've experienced for myself the difficulties of searching for a reliable supplier who could supply a quality sweatshirt printing service, on time and on budget. This got me thinking that there must be a more efficient way of not only improving purchasing but also to assist in the artwork creation, payment and distribution to individual club members" Freya commented.
Her other big idea is to also enable fellow students to establish their own affiliate web stores and profit from future sales of their apparel designs. Freya added, "I also wanted to empower students, clubs and societies to be able to setup their own versions of the website where they could profit from their own designs and earn while you learn, as I like to put it".
The Blueprint Business Planning Competition brings together the brightest entrepreneurs from the North East's five universities with the region's most astute and forward-thinking businesses. Blueprint is more than a business competition; it is an opportunity for vibrant graduates and undergraduates to make the very best of their talents and skills regionally, with dedicated support and mentoring from local and national businesses.
Having only just launched her website last week http://www.thestash.co) Freya has been busy spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter, "I only launched the site on Tuesday, so to win an award just two days later is quite surreal. I'm really grateful for the help I've had from the mentor Blueprint provided from www.entrust.co.uk, they've given me the confidence to just Go For It!", says Freya.
Freya's biggest challenge is to balance her time between business and her studies. "I'm in my second year at Durham now and it's quite long hours, but I just keep reminding myself of the current employment situation for students and the need to make a living when I graduate".
Public Lecture
Geometry and symmetries
Professor José Seade
Alan Richards Fellow in Mathematics,
Grey College, Durham University
The Old Library, Grey College
South Road, Durham
TUESDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2012 at 5.30PM
Professor Seade is a leading figure in the mathematics of geometry and topology. After graduating from Oxford (D.Phil., 1980), he took up a research position at the Institute of Mathematics of the National University of Mexico. He has published numerous articles and monographs on geometry and topology. In 2005 and 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize in Mathematics.
In this talk, Professor Seade will give us a personal view of geometry, symmetries, and their importance in our day-to-day lives. He will explain how the study of geometry arose independently in a number of early cultures as a body of practical knowledge concerning lengths, areas, and volumes, as well as art, cosmology and architecture. He will show how it continues to change and influence other sciences and areas of knowledge.
The talk is aimed at everyone, especially those who are not mathematicians but would like to learn something about the beauty of mathematics and its deep relationships with other areas of knowledge.
Access to the Old Library is through the Reception at Grey College, South Road, Durham DH1 3LG.
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