Wednesday, 08 April 2020
A team of students from the University of Nottingham have been crowned national champions of a youth social action and enterprise competition. The budding entrepreneurs, whose projects in Nottingham and Uganda won judges’ votes, will go forward to represent the UK in the world finals in September.
Over two days, the students competed virtually against 26 other teams in the 2020 Enactus UK National Expo. Showcasing their social and community projects, they were limited to a 12-minute pitch judged by business executives.
The team was evaluated on how successfully they demonstrated entrepreneurial leadership to drive business and innovation for sustainable positive impact to benefit people, planet and prosperity this academic year. In the final round, the judging panel comprised of more than 60 senior business and social sector executives.
Each year, a team from the University of Nottingham takes part under the name of Enactus Nottingham and is mentored and supported by the Nottingham University Business School. Guided by university and business advisers, students run real-life projects that create economic opportunity for others.
An annual series of regional and national competitions provides a platform for teams to present the results of their projects for judging. This year’s representatives - Dan Macken, Jordan Spurge, Farah Ravat, Ethan Richards, Yash Kumar and Annabel Mair - won the competition after presenting two of their eight inspirational social enterprises:
- Foodprint, a social supermarket in Nottingham tackling food poverty and food waste in their local community through supplying food 60% cheaper than supermarkets and redistributing free food to local charities and school breakfast clubs.
- Nutrigreens, an international project in Uganda, uses the power of innovation to combat malnutrition in Ugandan school children. The team used entrepreneurial leadership to design a vertical farming system and taught local farmers how to grow microgreens - the seedlings of leafy herbs and plants that can be grown in small spaces all year round - sustainably.
Some of the Enactus Nottingham team in Uganda working on Nutrigreens project
It’s an honour to see our Enactus Nottingham team recognised as UK National Champions for the second year in a row. It is a privilege for me and my colleagues in the Business School to mentor and support our students as they continue to make a positive, sustainable impact in our local community and around the world.
Enactus aims to develop the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. The university programme has been running since 2001 and now operates in 60 Universities across the UK, engaging up to 3,000 students each year.
Congratulations to the 2020 National Enactus Champion team from the University of Nottingham and all of our 60 teams who delivered so much more social and community impact through their projects this year. Every stage of the many competitions was fiercely contested this year and that is down to the hard work of all involved in the programme be they the team members, the business advisers and volunteers or the support from the university and alumni mentors.
Enactus Nottingham will now go on to represent Enactus UK in the 2020 Enactus World Cup, due to be held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 8th-10th September.
Story credits
More information is available from Dr Sophia Taylor in the Nottingham University Business School at the University of Nottingham, at s.taylor@nottingham.ac.uk; or Katie Andrews, Media Relations Manager in the Press Office at the University of Nottingham, at katie.andrews@nottingham.ac.uk
Our academics can now be interviewed for broadcast via our Media Hub, which offers a Globelynx fixed camera and ISDN line facilities at University Park campus. For further information please contact a member of the Communications team on +44 (0)115 951 5798, email pressoffice@nottingham.ac.uk or see the Globelynx website for how to register for this service.
For up to the minute media alerts, follow us on Twitter
Notes to editors:
The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage, consistently ranked among the world's top 100. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our 44,000 students - Nottingham was named both Sports and International University of the Year in the 2019 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, was awarded gold in the TEF 2017 and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally.
Founded in 1975, Enactus is the world’s largest experiential learning platform dedicated to creating a better world while developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. The Enactus network of global business, academic and student leaders are unified by our vision—to create a better, more sustainable world.
- Enactus UK was founded in 2001 and now operates in 60 universities, with more than 2600 active students.
- For more information about Enactus, please visit:www.enactusuk.org and www.enactus.org
- Enactus projects use innovative and entrepreneurial solutions and leadership to tackle a wide range of social issues in their local and international communities. Advancing the United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals, combating poverty and hunger, promoting good health and wellbeing, taking climate action and providing quality education, to name but a few, supporting diverse beneficiaries such as the unemployed, homeless, NEETS, immigrants and ex-offenders. They also harness the expertise of engineering students to tackle issues such as sanitation, irrigation and disease oversees. These experiences not only transform lives, but give students the opportunity to step out of the classroom and develop leadership skills firsthand and the perspective that is essential to resilient leadership in an ever-more complicated and challenging world.
- For project examples, please visit: http://enactusuk.org/projects
- In the UK, Enactus actively engages business and academic volunteers who provide know-how in a framework that encourages the students to be innovative, creative, and to take advantage of the unique resources and opportunities at their university.
- To read the 2019-2020 Enactus UK Annual report, click here: www.bit.ly/euk-annual-report
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
More news…