UF Enactus wins regional championship
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – UF Enactus, a team of students from the Heavener School of Business at the Warrington College of Business Administration, shared the League 8 championship at the Enactus United States Regional Competition on April 2 in Atlanta.
The victory marked the College’s 14th consecutive Enactus (formerly SIFE) regional championship. UF Enactus’ regional championship qualified the team for the Enactus United States National Exposition on May 21-23 in Kansas City, Mo.
Enactus is a “community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to enable human progress.” The organization has 535 active teams totaling more than 21,000 students at U.S. universities.
At the regional event, competing teams submitted an annual report, project verification form, team data sheet and active team sheet and conducted a 17-minute presentation detailing the projects the team performed over the past academic year. Teams were judged on the “relevant economic, social and environmental factors which most effectively empowered people in need by applying business and economic concepts and an entrepreneurial approach to improve their quality of life and standard of living.”
UF Enactus participated in 22 projects this past academic year accumulating 9,278 hours and impacting the lives of 6,357 people in the Warrington, UF and Gainesville-area communities. The projects focused on ethics, entrepreneurship, success skills and financial literacy:
Ethics: UF Enactus organized three ethics case competitions to address the lack of ethics education in college. The case competitions targeted first-year UF students, the top 100 sophomores at the Heavener School of Business and junior transfer students who had little exposure to ethics.
Entrepreneurship: UF Enactus’ Small Business Consulting (SBC) project had the team partner with local small businesses to analyze the companies’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Teams presented deliverables to those small business owners and implemented solutions.
Success Skills: UF Enactus’ Foster Teens program teaches foster children aging out of the system the skills necessary to live independently and create future opportunities. Among the skills taught are financial literacy, professional etiquette and health/fitness and lifestyle choices.
Financial Literacy: UF Enactus’ Smart Money Management Summit equips graduate and undergraduate students in their final year of college with the knowledge needed to make smart financial decisions upon entering the “real world.” Among the topics taught are financing a vehicle, planning for retirement, paying off student loans and investing.
UF Enactus was founded in 2000 with only 10 students, but has grown to more than 800 volunteers. UF Enactus offers students the opportunity to put skills learned in the classroom into practice while serving the community.
