Starlight shines bright at Young Enterprise Awards!

Five hard-working students from New City College have beaten tough competition to scoop two awards at the finals of the Young Enterprise Company of the Year 2022.

Called Starlight, the group from New City College Tower Hamlets, won the Best Marketing Award and the Participation Award – beating some excellent entries from a variety of schools and colleges in the East London finals.

The double win follows the team’s earlier success when they were awarded Best Trade Stand at Spitalfields Market in the regional round of the competition in March.

The students – Jibril, Aisha, Naima, Adnan and Samirah – who are all studying Creative Arts at the Poplar campus, create beautiful gifts to sell from recycled glass bottles. The bottles are transformed into magical lights using solar power and each bottle carries a caring message to promote well-being.  Starlight’s aim is to inspire, enlighten and make people feel good about themselves and the planet.

During the finals they had to set up a trade stand at the RBS bank in Bishopsgate which was inspected by a judging panel comprising top business minds from companies including Elixirr and UBS.

They then had a series of intensive interviews with the panel to explain their business plans followed by giving a presentation about their business to the judges and the other finalists.

The team were delighted to be announced winners of the Best Marketing Award for their professional looking logo, innovative website and T-shirts. They also won the Participation Award – presented to them for all their hard work and perseverance in getting to the finals in this fierce competition.

Starlight will continue to trade for the rest of the academic year and will run a special Jubilee pop up shop on campus at the end of May to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend where they will be selling their magical recycled solar-power bottle lights – perfect for street and garden parties. 

Mags Doyle, Creative Arts Lecturer at Tower Hamlets campus, said: “These awards are a great achievement for the team. They stole the show with their eye-catching logo, website and bright red team T-shirts. They really looked the business!”