DCU team are crowned champions

A TEAM from Dublin City University were crowned winners of the prestigious Enactus Ireland National Competition last week.

Enactus Ireland is a charitable organisation that enables third level students to create social entrepreneurial projects for the benefit of local and global communities.

Enactus DCU presented eight projects to highlight their work and they beat 10 Enactus teams from higher education institutes from across the country to win the national title.

They’ll now go forward to represent Ireland at the Enactus World Cup in Silicon Valley, USA, this coming October.

Enactus DCU presented the impacts of eight projects including Second Scoop, a catering company that empowers asylum seekers who are taught sales and event organising skills.

Another headline project, Threads, is a clothing company that provides people in the asylum seeking community with the skills and opportunities to upcycle old and unwanted jeans.

Asylum seekers are taught how to work with denim and how to sew through workshops, provided by a team from DCU who have been professionally trained in these areas.

This year’s Enactus Ireland competition saw innovative and socially inclusive projects presented by colleges around the country and judges were particularly impressed with the energy and creative thinking presented by all the students.

“The energy from the students is contagious and this year again we have seen a truly amazing range of projects and initiatives creating real community impacts,” said Enactus Chairman, Terence O’Rourke.

“We are very excited for Enactus DCU to represent Ireland at the Enactus World Cup.”

Founded in November 2011 Enactus Ireland is one of 36 country organisations around the world that operates an Enactus programme, bringing together student, academic and business leaders who are committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action solve community challenges.

The Enactus DCU team includes Northsider Robert Kelly from Ballymun.

He’ll be joining his teammates at the Enactus World Cup in Silicon Valley where they’ll be competing against national champion teams from all over the world.

Each team in the national competition had access to support and mentorship from a range of Enactus partners including, KPMG, Bank of Ireland, Abbott, AIG, CarTrawler, Citi, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, KBC Bank, Merc Partners, Musgrave Group, New Ireland Assurance, The Ireland Funds, Unilever, Havas, HSBC and Microsoft.