The Woodward family has donated $500,000 to help grow student entrepreneurship at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s.

The funding will expand the Mel Woodward Cup, the university’s main startup competition for students, providing more young entrepreneurs with the chance to develop and launch their ideas.

The $500,000 gift builds on the success of the Mel Woodward Cup, a student startup competition named after founder Mel Woodward Sr.. This donation will help grow the program through the university’s Faculty of Business Administration and the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship, which supports more than 300 students each year.

Since its inception, the centre has supported students in transforming their ideas into real businesses through guidance, mentorship, and funding, without taking any ownership stakes in their companies. The Mel Woodward Cup has so far awarded over $350,000 to student ventures, helping them build and grow successful businesses.

In the last decade, the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship has supported student businesses that have created more than 200 jobs and raised over $125 million in funding. Successful companies like CoLab Software, BreatheSuite, and PragmaClin all started as student ideas at Memorial. Many graduates have stayed in Newfoundland and Labrador to build their businesses, helping support and grow the local economy.

Source: Daniel Ferguson, Gazette – Memorial University of Newfoundland