Celebrating Black Women in Entrepreneurship

ACCEL and the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Inclusion invite you to join them in celebrating Black women in entrepreneurship. On Tuesday February 16th, they will bring together four dynamic entrepreneurs who will share their unique journeys to entrepreneurship as Black women. From what inspired them to start their own businesses to the advice for new entrepreneurs, the guest speakers will enlighten the audience with key insights and valuable experiences. In sharing their personal entrepreneurship stories and the impact of the important work they do, the guest speakers will reinforce the importance of celebrating and supporting Black women’s entrepreneurship.

MODERATOR

Andrea Bryan, ACCEL

Andrea Bryan is currently a Coordinator with the ACCEL Business Accelerator here at Centennial College. As a resource connector, Andrea has spent many years working with culturally diverse and vulnerable communities across the GTA.

Andrea volunteered, consulted, worked in retailing and banking and as a TDSB Heritage Instructor in her undergrad years. She managed the Each One Teach One, a career-based mentoring program for black youth in Toronto, led and supported community-building initiatives for the United Way of Greater Toronto. Plus, she designed and facilitated a life-skill development and leadership program for High School students while at Tropicana Community Services.

Andrea is an MBA graduate in Community Economic Development from Cape Breton University. She volunteers on select boards and committees with organizations, seeking to advance learning, leadership, capacity building, and economic opportunities for communities in need.

GUEST SPEAKERS

Asia Clarke, Wild Moon Jewelry

Asia Clarke is an entrepreneur, foresight strategist and artist who is passionate about re-envisioning pan-African futures. Asia has been a leader in economic empowerment international development projects professionally for the past 7 years in Canada, Dominica, Trinidad, eSwatini and Ghana. She holds an MDes in Strategic Foresight and Innovation program from OCAD University. Asia is also a successful art-based entrepreneur. Through her business Wild Moon Jewelry she has released 10 official jewelry collections to date and has been featured in many major publications.

Cola Bennett, Unforgivingly Pur

Cola is an author, a creative arts educator and natural skincare formulator from Toronto. She developed a love for writing, poetry and the arts while completing her BFA in classical piano from York University. Her talent for creative writing was a key element in overcoming and surviving several challenges. Since the passing of her son Kayshaun in August 2014 she has grown her passion for overall wellness and has partnered with different Toronto organizations to share her experiences surrounding trauma, grief, mental health, identity and natural skincare.

With a hunger to create real impact and disrupt lives for healing purposes, she founded the natural skincare company Unforgivingly Pur. with her sister and also speaks about her many experiences in her memoir C.O.L.A Real, Raw & Resilient she pushes beyond her ability to ever quit.

Sandra, The Amazing Tea Company

Sandra Anderson is the founder and CEO of The Amazing Tea Company, the largest Black woman-owned all natural loose leaf tea company in Canada. She was inspired to get in the tea business after watching her mother blend and mix various herbs for healing purpose. As a child she was sick quite a lot and can recall that she missed 70 days out of the school year in grade 3 due to illness. She had severe asthma and was often given homemade blends of various herbal concoction to cure it. While no cure was ever found, this led her to learn so much more about the benefits herbs, the tea plant, spices; how to infuse, and the tea business. As a result, she became fascinated with the entire industry and was hooked after that. She started her tea business. Amazing Chai, which has since morphed into The Amazing Tea Company in 2017. The business’ focus is on providing all natural loose leaf teas. Their teas can be enjoyed free of sweeteners, artificial flavours and preservatives.

Melissa James, East End Vegan

Questions? Email gcei@centennialcollege.ca