The Pierce Lyceum student business ECOWITCH has qualified to the Final in the educational program Student “Virtual Business” of “Junior Achievement Greece,” in which the 10 best student businesses in Greece will take part, for the 2017-18 school year. The final will take place at the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Center (Piraeos 254) on Friday, June 1, 2018 and ECOWITCH is busily preparing for one more distinction!
JA Greece and mainly the students that are competing will be honored with the presence of His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos, the Leader of the Opposition and President of New Democracy, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Deputy Minister of Education, Research and Religion, Mr. Dimitris Baxevanakis. They will address the students and award the three first prizes.
The President of the Republic will award the coveted First Prize as the team that wins it will represent Greece in the Paneuropean Competition of Junior Achievement Europe, July 16-18 in Belgrade. The Second Prize will be awarded by Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Third Prize will be awarded by Mr. Dimitris Baxevanakis.
This is the 5th year in a row in which a Lyceum student business of the American College of Greece has qualified to the top 10 in Greece! ECOWITCH (http://ecowitch.me/) is a modern platform through which anyone can post, give away, donate or exchange items they don’t need, free of charge. In this way, others can obtain items that are useful to them. The Motto of the enterprise is: “Exchange, give away, donate, request, free of charge – a platform by all of us for all of us!”
The platform separates the items into categories which include: antiques, art, books, clothing, shoes, accessories, health and beauty, jewelry, watches, electronics, mobile phones, cameras, video games, DVDs, music, musical instruments, toys, children’s items, household items, furniture, garden, sports, travel, tickets, machines, and more. It is a unique social innovation of great importance, not only in today’s difficult socio-economic conditions but also for the future. The students’ initiative is part of the triptych “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” and is a basic element of a new economic approach and of a new consumer behavior, which is known as “circular economy.”
On this platform, the students have undertaken a campaign aimed at encouraging all of us to adopt a more responsible stance with regard to the finite natural resources of our planet. The students seek to convey the message about indiscriminate consumption and the production of waste, as well as about the need for the re-use of usable items. ECOWITCH is going to collaborate with the College’s Center of Excellence for Sustainability aimed at making this a common cause among the entire American College of Greece community. They have already started posting various items and there have been some actual exchanges.