IN 1967, Canada hosted Expo, showcasing our best people and businesses to the rest of the world.

It was also a coming of age for 50 Ontario university students, including four of York's brightest, who hosted the province's pavilion.

Chosen from thousands of applicants, Eva Innes (née Nagy BA '70), Sally Bowen (BA '68), Gary J. Smith (BA '68) and Malcolm McKechnie (BA '67) represented the next generation.

"We were told that we were the cream of the student crop," says Innes, "and were models of what Ontario could produce."

"In Montreal there was a charged, buoyant atmosphere. It was like being on a six-month high. It was a summer when I got very little sleep."

For Innes, bonding with students from around the world was the highlight of Expo. She and other hosts from the Ontario and British pavilions also rented a cottage together for the summer, outside Montreal.

"Having a couple of days to swim, walk and relax at the cottage was a nice antidote to the business of Expo and the city," she says. The Ontario hosts also pulled together students from other pavilions by holding monthly parties.

Innes gained a tremendous boost in self-confidence from Expo, which she says influenced her success as a television producer. The best-selling author of The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Canada, today heads the communication department for AT&T Canada.