Southwestern Adventist University students on the Enactus team recently traveled to the Enactus National Exposition and job fair in Kansas City.  The SWAU Enactus team placed third nationally in their league in the opening round. This places the team in the top 28% of all competing teams, with over 170 teams in the United States. They also received the Jack Shewmaker Spirit Award, which comes with a $2,000 prize for the team to use in future projects.

The competitions are challenging, team-oriented events that create a sense of accountability and motivation for teams to continually improve the quality of their community projects.   In total, 29 colleges participated in the regional event.  The judges who assess the clubs are business professionals and executives from partnering corporations such as Walmart, CVS, Microsoft and Home Depot. 

To compete at the Enactus National Competition, the SWAU Enactus team won their regional competition in Dallas earlier this year. This is the fifth year in a row the Southwestern Adventist University Enactus team won their regional competition and went on to compete at the national level.  

Over the last four years the team has earned $8,600 in partnership grant funds plus more than $11,750 in Enactus competition awards.  Last year the team also won the Unilever Bright Future Partnership & Sam's Club Step Up for Small Business.

Before the excitement of the competition comes months of hard work: each Enactus team, from various colleges around the country, must develop and conduct projects to better their communities.  This year’s projects for the Southwestern Adventist University Enactus included

• Business in a Box – an after-school program in its fifth year that teaches entrepreneurship to middle school students. Partnered with the Keene Chamber of Commerce to host a market day during a city-wide event.

• Rez Refuge - Built two additional green houses, for a total of four. Partnered with the Navajo VP to build green houses at government run youth centers. They will be used for educational garden programs.
• Home Grown – building raised garden boxes and teaching community members how to garden