The final competition and award ceremony of the Annual Competition "Mind REsetters of the Year 2023 - 2024" was completed with great success! The event was organized for the 3rd consecutive year by Junior Achievement Cyprus on February 9th, 13:30 - 17:00, at POED premises.

The event was open to all those interested in discovering the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity of the promising new generation. The final competition was the culmination of the efforts of more than 345 students, aged 10-14, who have created green innovative products and services.

The ten finalist student companies, out of the 85 created under the "mind REset" programme, presented their innovative business ideas publicly and in front of a specialized jury. The program involved 68 schools from all over Cyprus (39 Primary & 27 High Schools), with a total number of students of 3063 (1728 in Primary & 1335 in High Schools) with the support of more than 154 teachers.

The student companies were created within the framework of the "mind REset" programme, a fun and interactive program that offers 5 lessons to students in the 5th and 6th grades of primary school and 1st and 2nd grades of lower high school. Junior Achievement Cyprus in collaboration with Lidl Cyprus implements the programme free of charge in public and private schools all over Cyprus. The programme is approved by the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Youth.

The students have been asked to identify the consequences of plastic in our lives and propose practical and sustainable solutions that will contribute to the protection and preservation of the environment. At the same time, they had the opportunity to enter the very interesting field of entrepreneurship and promote their own products and services.  The students went from the idea stage to planning and implementation.

For the final selection of the teams, the judges assessed the quality of their business idea presentation, the quality of their exhibits and booth, and the quality of their stage presence and responses.

The Mind REsetters of the year 2023-24, who won an educational business experience in Austria, are:

The PLANt Be company from Stavrou Primary School created single or multi-use objects from pine needles and flour paste glue. These items can be bottles, food containers or boxes to replace the corresponding plastics. Available in various colors and sizes, they are handmade, eco-friendly and suitable for human use to store or consume food and drink. The team members were Andreas Christou, Stavros Papageorgiou, Kyril Eni, Aris Patsalides, Christos Loizou, and their teacher Kyriacos Pastides.

The company EGGSclusive from Engomi High School – Kyriakos Neocleous, with innovative products that utilize the properties of eggshells for whitening, cleaning and exfoliation. The integrated natural sponge makes them unique as there are no similar ones in their category on the market. The team members were Alexandros Larcos, Gerasimos Demetriou, Petros Nearchou, Constantina Papademetriou and Giorgos Lyras, and their teachers Stella Themistocleous and Stella Christodoulou. 

Congratulations to the rest of the finalist teams who emerged from among 85 teams from all over Cyprus! Hairbombz (Engomi A’ Primary School), Planet Preservers (Kapedes Primary School), Salty Box (Kissonergas Primary School – Christou Kkeli), Patsiaourin (Paphos B’ Primary School – Dimitreio), POLY BRICK (Pancyprian Gymnasium), Rebracelet (Kokkinohoria Gymnasium – Panou Ioannou), RECAF (Stavros Gymnasium), and SAFE STRAW (Pancyprian Gymnasium).

The members of the final jury committee were: Antonia Theodosiou Commissioner for the Environment, Jannet Hadjiosif, Inspector of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education, Andreas Papadopoulos, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JA Cyprus, Vasilis Lagogiannis, Regional Director of Lidl Cyprus, Aliki Drakou, Head of Sustainable Development at CYTA and Marilena Paraskeva, Head of Operations at Research and Innovation Foundation. 

The will, the ideas, and the passion with which all the students worked from all 85 teams all over Cyprus were admirable, sending a hopeful message for the future in entrepreneurship but also in environmental awareness.

For more information, visit our website www.jacyprus.org or contact Marios Kakouris, by phone 99203701 or email [email protected].