Bermudian Zea Swainson is among six female students sponsored by Butterfield Bank to complete the 2024 Leadership and Entrepreneurial Accelerator Programme.

The ten-day programme, held on the Channel Island of Jersey, brought together 85 students, aged 14 to 18, from 49 countries to develop essential business and leadership skills.

The LEAP programme culminated in a Dragon’s Den-style final pitch where international teams of students pitched their business ideas and competed for prize funding.

The students were supported by a number of professionals, including members of Butterfield’s leadership team and employees in the Channel Islands, who acted as coaches, mentors and guides.

The six sponsored students, each from a place where Butterfield has operations, included Ms Swainson, Sayde Shah (Canada), Ruby Eude (Cayman Islands), Amelie Watts (Guernsey), Charlotte Knights (Jersey) and Grace Quaye (United Kingdom).

Butterfield said the students came together as a team called Planet Quest and pitched an environmental app where players would be given points for picking up rubbish.

The bank said the team impressed the Dragons and were awarded more than £1,000 for their project, which was one of the highest amounts received.

Ms Swainson, who attends St Andrews University and founded a face paint and body art business in Bermuda, said: “Attending LEAP was an amazing opportunity and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been selected.

“I was able to network with a diverse group of girls from around the world. Together, we exchanged ideas and even created business concepts that we successfully pitched to a panel of Dragons. This really put our critical-thinking skills to the test.

“It also helped me to be more comfortable presenting in front of large crowds, an invaluable skill for the future. The programme facilitated open discussions about current global issues and even included debates on various situational problems, all of which were engaging and enlightening.”

Butterfield said the Planet Quest team hopes to continue building on the project idea and has plans to discuss the continuation of their initiative, with Ms Shah stating that they want to “inspire environmental stewardship across the globe”.