A business student at Moose Jaw’s Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus has been named one of six winners in the school’s first-ever Student Sustainability Innovation Competition. 

Joel Glines is in his second year in the business diploma program and has been an assistant researcher when it comes to reducing poverty in Moose Jaw. 

The competition asked students to present a report on innovative solutions to problems related to one of the seven United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals as part of Sustainability Day on April 20. 

Glines’ used his research to write a report detailing a post-secondary program for those living below the poverty line. The program would be tailored to the community it is in, connecting participants with community supports. 

“As I've done poverty reduction research work in Moose Jaw, I discovered that there were a lot of people in the community, a lot of service providers in place, people who care, people who want to provide and make the world a better place,” Glines explained.  

“But in doing the interviews with lived experiences, I noticed that many of the people only knew about one or two of them or a handful didn't know of all of them.” 

The program would also include financial literacy courses that would be micro-designated to help participants find work. 

Glines said he was shocked when he found out that he was one of the six winners from the competition. 

“It was less than two years ago when I decided to turn my life upside down and go back to school. So, this is very new to me. Winning was a great honor. I'm very humbled by it and the fact that people thought my idea was good,” he said. 

The winners will now take part in UNITE’s Camp 2030 from Sept. 11 to 16 in Upstate New York. According to their website, Camp 2030 is an “in-person convening, bringing together top Youth Leaders from across the globe for six days of innovation and co-creation for the Sustainable Development Goals.”