By Allison Jarboe, Features Edtitor
“A community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world.”
This is the motto of Enactus.
Monday, April 10, members of the OBU Enactus team attended and competed in the 2017 Enactus regional competitions in Dallas, Texas.
Isabella Scarinzi, sophomore marketing major and chief marketing officer of Enactus, gave a description of the organization and how it works.
“Enactus is an international organization that mobilizes students from universities to empower their communities through entrepreneurship,” Scarinzi said. “Each year, every team presents on the projects they have worked on.”
Sophomore finance major and chief information officer Libby Unruh also spoke about the purpose of Enactus and the event that the team attended.
“Enactus is a business club that seeks to create a more sustainable world through taking action to benefit our OBU students, our Shawnee community and the world,” Unruh said. “We went to a regional competition in Dallas to present on our projects for the year.”
Scarinzi expressed her appreciation for the event.
“I always love going to the competitions,” she said. “We get a chance to watch the other teams’ presentations and find out about all the awesome projects they dedicated their time to.”
Scarinzi also explained that at the event there is also a career fair and a lunch with business leaders.
“We get to meet them, network, find out about job opportunities and much more.”
The name Enactus comes from a statement embodying everything the organization stands for.
“We believe investing in students who take ENtrepreneurial ACTion for others creates a better world for US all.”
Unruh said that the group gave a 14-minute presentation outlining the year’s projects, including “aiding urgent needs, impacting our own students and community, and helping small, local businesses.”
Scarinzi said the first project they presented was a partnership with the Community Market in Shawnee.
“They provide food for low income families through a set up that is designed to restore the family’s dignity. Instead of just being handed out food, they get to choose it from a set up that looks like a supermarket.”
Unruh elaborated on the work that the OBU Enactus team is doing for this organization.
“We partnered with the Community Market of Potawatomi County to make the market more mobile, potentially reaching up to 10,000 individuals,” Unruh said.
This is being accomplished through renovating a bus into a mobile market that will take food around the Shawnee area for those who do not have transportation to get to the market.
Unruh said that the team was able to pitch the idea to the Market and has secured a substantial financial pledge for renovations.
“We hope to finish this project by the end of 2017. We are also looking to make the market more mobile by creating a shopping feature on their website for those who work to be able to come by and pick up their food after work,” Unruh said.
Scarinzi shared about another Enactus project that is impacting the community.
“Working with Project Safe, we can help victims of domestic violence to get back on their feet through resume building and job training,” Scarinzi said.
Unruh explained that members of the team also provided professional dress help. “We set up a $500 for a professional dress fund and $1000 transportation fund to take the women to job interviews,” she said.
Another OBU Enactus project presented at the competition was a task working with Mission 10:10, an organization in Ethiopia.
“We made videos covering basic business and technological skills,” Unruh said. “These were sent to a transition home in Ethiopia to be used for years to come.”
Also presented at the Dallas competition was an event that Enactus has hosted for multiple years, called the Enactus Etiquette Dinner.
“This is an annual fundraiser to connect students to local business professionals and receive etiquette training for future endeavors,” Unruh said. “Two students received internship opportunities from our event.”
Another endeavor the OBU Enactus team discussed in Dallas was their work with the Google Platform.
“We helped small business set up their Google Platform to verify their location, business hours, logo, contact info, and provide a link to their website,” Unruh said.
As many small businesses in Shawnee do not have an online presence, this greatly helped their organization’s overall communication and appearance.
Unruh said that although they did not advance to further competitions, this year was a productive year for the OBU team,
“We did not make it to nationals,” she said. “But had a successful year through our various projects. This year our team directly impacted 44,548 individuals, 11 small businesses, and had 277 total service hours.”
OBU business students are making a real impact on the community, and this is in step with not only the Enactus motto, but with OBU’s core values.
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