Getting to know Enactus Southampton

When I heard that the Southampton Enactus team won the 2015 World Cup, the first image that came to my mind was – believe it or not – football.

Of course, I have heard of Enactus before but never really understood what it was about.

Well, it most certainly is not about football, I tell you. Enactus is a non-profit organisation that mobilises university students to give something back to their communities using the genius of entrepreneurship.

Enactus is an international group and Enactus Southampton, one of our many student groups, is just one of hundreds of teams worldwide. This year, Enactus students from the University of Southampton won the prestigious World Cup in competition with other budding young entrepreneurs from 36 countries!

The Southampton team won because of the sustainability of their projects. At the moment there are three international Enactus Southampton projects:

SanEco: a sanitation project based in Kenya that delivers re-usable sanitary towels, waste composting toilets and natural soap through local entrepreneurship.

Right Light: offers solar powered alternatives to kerosene light. Kerosene is dangerous; it is bad for the respiratory system and hazardous for young children. Last year alone there were around 4000 kerosene related child deaths in Kenya.

Juamaji: a project which integrates social entrepreneurship with water purification to remote communities across the globe.

All projects are clean, efficient and, most importantly, sustainable!

BeInspired

 

As well as international projects, Enactus also runs programmes right here in our local community. I met Amina who is project manager of BeInspired, a local Enactus project based here in Southampton. The BeInspired team themselves are University of Southampton students doing courses ranging from Biomedical Sciences to Economics.

With Amina, BeInspired Project Manager and Imogen, Vice President of Enactus’ Local Projects 

At this very moment BeInspired are running their Social Impact Programme; a six week course in Southampton City College that supports the integration of young migrant pupils in the school. The course is interactive and is part of the pupil’s weekly timetable. In fact, the team are scheduled to run an entrepreneurial exercise at the school today. The plan is to get the pupils to sell cupcakes with the aim of creating profit. This means that the pupils themselves will have to manage their own production line, pricing and marketing of their merchandise. Afterwards, the students will travel to Highfield where our very own Student Ambassadors will be giving a campus tour and a talk on how to apply for university through UCAS. The workshop aims to make these young migrant students aware of their potential with the hopes that bolstered confidence will make integration into their new community easier.

The BeInspired Team planning their interactive workshop

Success Stories

The team told me about Juan, a motivated and engaging student who is originally from Spain. With the team’s Empower1 after-school workshops, Juan is motivated to make the most of his creative skills and resources – from his phone, to his school’s design software and his wider social network – to start an entrepreneurial business.

How to get involved

Amina got involved after seeing a poster about Enactus. A PhD Student, Amina wants to get into teaching and is interested in the matter of international student integration. Indeed, as an international student herself, BeInspired lets her contribute back into the community and at the same time satisfies her passion for education.

Whether you’re a potential University of Southampton student or a current one, I suggest you look out for Enactus at the Fresher’s Fair Bunfight. Alternatively, you can go to the Enactus Southampton website and apply for membership as anyone can join at any point in the year. There you can specify which project you’d like to get involved in and why you’re interested.

Being part of the Enactus Society looks fantastic on your CV. What’s more, you’re bound to cultivate skills such as networking, leadership and according to them, ‘everything in-between.’

Enactus is about taking action on innovative ideas – so why not check them out and take action yourself!?

Rylyn