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BYU-Hawaii Enactus Team Heads to South Africa

After winning the U.S. national competition in April (see story here), the BYU­–Hawaii Enactus team will be traveling to South Africa from October 12-20 to compete for the international title. Five students have been chosen to be a part of this experience and adventure to South Africa.

Enactus stands for entrepreneurship, action and us. The student organization is based upon the idea of inspiring people through entrepreneurial action to change lives. BYU–Hawaii has had an active Enactus team for a number of years, and has consistently placed among the top teams in the country during the last few years.

More than 500 schools in the United States participate in Enactus, and of those schools typically around 180 go to the annual national competition, according to the Enactus website.

Kevan Hendrickson, the current president of the BYU–Hawaii Enactus team and senior majoring in IDS Digital Marketing from Arizona, said he is thrilled to be joining the other members of his team in South Africa to compete. “It’s an honor to get to compete in the world competition against 35 teams in South Africa,” he said.

The goal for Enactus is to empower students to make a change through well thought-out and impactful projects. “The last couple of years we have been working on a project called ‘Well Africa,’ which was started by [BYU–Hawaii alumnus] Sery Kone,” said Hendrickson. “He’s been working on this project for three years to fight against child slavery on the Ivory Coast. The really cool thing was that we were able to send students over to Africa this summer to meet the people and continue the project. We want to show people that we care and want to make a change – not change that just happens once, but is sustainable and affects thousands of lives.”

This BYU–Hawaii Enactus project in the last year has reportedly impacted 38,000 people.

During the competition in South Africa, Hendrickson and his team want to share their experience with the student body in Laie so they are using a new app called Periscope. The app allows you to see a live stream video of people from around the world who have the app. “Our plan is to use it at the competition, and film the events and students from the 35 different countries.”

One of Enactus’ main goals is to show students they can still make a difference and can impact other people, even as young students. The goal for the week in October is to build relationships with students and employers from around the globe. “We started an Enactus collaboration in which we share our ideas with 100-plus people around the world as a part of our international group,” says Hendrickson. He’s excited to see where the program is headed and looks forward to more students to joining the team.

Sneak peek: Look for Enactus’ upcoming project that will transform student transportation on campus. The Enactus program has more than 40 bikes that they are going to fix up and paint green. These bikes will be put all around campus and students can use the bikes to get around. It will be a continuous cycle of recycling bikes, so students can use a bike and leave it at the next bike rack for other students to use.

Learn about past BYU-Hawaii Enactus projects here:

Well Africa - http://www.well-africa.org/

 

Learn about current BYU-Hawaii Enactus projects here:

Kapalu Connection - http://www.thekapaluconnection.com/who-we-are/

Morph Studios - http://www.morphgames.com/

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