Dear Colleagues

Welcome to our November Newsletter, 

I am very pleased to announce I have been reappointed by the board as Chairman continuing on to 2023. We have big plans for 2023/24 and I look forward to seeing them realised. We have seen many new initiatives and student opportunities since our last newsletter and I hope you enjoy learning more as you read through.

The main program this Quarter is from the 2022  Enactus World Cup that was held in person in San Juan Puerto Rico on the 30th October - 2 November.

This was the first face-to face World Cup Event since 2019 so it was a wonderful celebration with a range of different events and activities throughout the week. Our congratulations go to the winning team from , from Ain Shams University Enactus Egypt.  We would also like to congratulate the runners up from Tunisia and all the teams who participated and delivered projects.  It is a credit to all the teams across the world who continue to grow their projects to create a better world for us all.

A big congratulations to our 2022 National Champions, Monash University, who represented Australia at this year's World Cup event. They had a seamless presentation that was very well received by the audience, and judges in their league who gave some great comments and feedback. They were praised for delivering such a strong and polished presentation of their textile recycling and activated carbon filter technology project, Cyrcle. We are very proud of their achievements and look forward to seeing the project grow over the next 12 months.

We also have some sad news about the passing of former CEO Judy Howard on Sunday Nov 28^th. Judy was a great friend to us all and the number one supporter of Enactus in Australia. Whilst we will miss her passion, support and guidance, we will always remember how lucky we were to have had Judy in our lives. Simply an amazing lady.

Thank you to all of our stakeholders for your on-going support of the program here in Australia. We appreciate what you do to help create a better more sustainable world. 

As we head into the end of another challenging year we ask you to consider that we are a small Not for Profit with a very big job to do, and as such we would welcome your financial support through the rest of the year leading into 2023.

We appreciate any support no matter how big or small. It all makes a difference. All donations over $2.00 are tax deductible. A regular donation of $5 per month, just 1 coffee, would make an incredible contribution to enable us to support more impact.

To make a donation to Enactus Australia please visit our webpage https://www.enactusaustralia.org.au/donations, you may also consider promoting ENACTUS as a corporate giving recipient within your organisation. If we are not listed on your corporate giving platform please let us know and we can make sure we are.

It is exactly a year this month that I started as CEO of Enactus Australia and I have been reflecting on the last 12 months. It has been an interesting journey starting with mentoring from former CEO Judy Howard, one of the most organised and professional people I have ever met. I then had the task of taking stock post covid of where we were at as an organisation, and exploring where we should be heading. It has be great working with the Enactus Board, Kylie and all of our teams, faculty advisors and supporters to consolidate and grow this year. We are in a great position to continue creating impact across all our teams, add new teams and projects, and create new relationships in 2023 and beyond. Coming full circle the end of my first year has also been informed by Judy Howard with the very sad news of her passing. I was fortunate to have been able to work with Judy as an FA for 12 years before taking this role. She was a great friend, mentor and role model for me, and all our Enactus Community. Judy’s engagement with Enactus Australia spanned more that 20 years, thousands of students, hundreds of projects, 2 different organisation names, tens of board members, and a huge collective impact. Judy was a strong advocate for student development and their ability to make real, meaningful change whilst attaining the leadership skills needed to create a better global future. After sharing this news with local and international colleagues I have received many stories of her kindness, generosity and her inspiring, steadfast leadership at both a personal and organisation level. Judy touched so many lives in so many ways and made all of them better for it. In true form she remained engaged with the community right up until her last day, supporting and commenting on LinkedIn and Facebook. That was Judy, always giving the interests of Enactus a priority and remaining a firm friend to the last possible moment. She left us with a strong vision and culture and I look forward to honouring that with all of you as we move into 2023.

Events and Happenings, World Cup.

I recently returned from San Juan, Puerto Rico experiencing the first,  "in person" World Cup since 2019. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with other country leaders, enactus staff, academics, students and supporters from around the globe.

The Monash University team did a great job as ambassadors for Enactus Australia and we hope that as many of our community as possible were able to follow their experience via our LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. I encourage all of you to follow our various social media accounts for updates, opportunities and to keep up to date with Enactus Australia activities.

The Enactus World Cup was a Hybrid event with the majority attending in person. The online component  for those countries that were unable to travel this year was interactive and in real time. A live world cup has tremendous energy and passion which can be experienced amongst the attendees as they celebrated together for the first time in a while. Many of the Enactus staff, students and supporters had not experienced an in person World Cup before and their experience in Puerto Rico was designed and delivered by Enactus Puerto Rico to showcase local impact projects, culture, food community and their amazing country. There were over 2000 students and delegates present . and a further 1200 online with over 100 countries represented. Huge congratulations to Enactus Puerto Rico Country Leader Rody Rivera and his team for being amazing hosts.  We are all now counting down the days until we meet in the Netherlands for 2023 World Cup.

The theme again this year was ‘passion on purpose’ focusing on students and their purpose driven passion to make a better world for us all. 

It was a busy agenda that offered many topics and interactive forums catering to participants and observers from across the Enactus network including business leaders, students, academics, Enactus staff,  alumni, family and friends. New to the agenda this year included  Enactus Project  Excursions to different parts of Puerto Rico and visiting some of the projects from the Puerto Rican team.  Enactus Monash was spread across all 5 activities and we will be posting some details over the next few weeks on our Instagram and Facebook accounts. They were able to see first-hand the impact the Enactus Puerto Rico teams are making.  Other Sessions included  a Student Networking Luncheon where the Australian team made some great friends , an Academic Lunch & Seminar where i was on the panel that discussed what makes the Enactus experience so unique and valuable. The Welcome Ceremony was a load of fun with a new initiative called Fiestas De Las Calles where each team was asked to prepare a 1 minute cultural experience  that typifies their country - this left us with quite a challenge because Australia, being such a multicultural and diverse community, does not have any specific or unique  national identity. The team came up with the brilliant idea of explaining what an acknowledgement of country is.  There was also an Enactus Staff Dinner were we learnt how to do some local dances, and discussed the new strategic plan. More here https://enactus.org/forward-motion-2025/ . The Opening Round of Competition was full of energy, especially our league  which included the home team Puerto Rico. This meant standing room only, lost friends, family supporters and a TV crew were there ! There was  Walgreens Health Forum, 77 Second Film Festival, A Network Breakfast and Workshop with Intuit on Design Thinking, The Enactus experience, Global Goals Forum, all the Race competitions, where UNSW was awarded 1st place in the Wilo award  and 14th Place overall in Action with Africa. Impact of Collaboration, Sponsor Booth Highlights, Enactus Ventures pitch DEMO which UTS participated in,, The final four competition, Impact Ceremony and Awards where MQU alumni Shirly Lee won Global Alumni of the year under 30 and  EWC Afterparty at T-Mobile District.

All these sessions were also livestreamed viewing for those not able to attend in person.

The competition itself was of course the “main event” and some amazing projects were presented to hundreds of judges from around the world.

Considering we are a small country Enactus Australia teams and Alumni made a real presence and demonstrated how we can make a difference on the world stage ! We All Win!

Next year we hope we will have more teams participate in the Action with Africa Challenge , the 77 film festival, and the races. We have so many projects that would be perfect to compete in these. 

Sector News

It is great to see the Social Enterprise Sector being recognised as more than a fad, but rather an international movement, and a permanent model in the enterprise space. The Social Enterprise World Forum was held in Brisbane in September and was full of energy and interested industry and government learning more about the sector. There were also many Social Enterprises, Impact funds, academics and practitioners in the mix. Great to see some of our students attending both the main, and the youth forum.

Last week I was fortunate to attend a sneak peek meet-up to learn   about the Business for Good report https://lnkd.in/gWxmzEdj.


The report shares new findings on the size and contribution of Social Enterprise in Australia: 12,000 social enterprises, $21B economic impact, over 200,000 jobs. Lots of opportunity for employment - it's as big as the mining sector yet creates 9 jobs per million AUD invested in the Social Enterprise Sector compared to 1 job in the Mining sector.

Keep an eye on Social Enterprise Australia for more.
https://lnkd.in/gereKeeY
 

Support our Projects  - Christmas Gifts 

Enactus Australia would again like to promote and showcase some of our team projects that have products available to the public to purchase.   There are some great ideas for Christmas gifts and we would love to see you support our teams. To view these great ideas just click on the link below.

https://www.enactusaustralia.org.au/what-we-do/support-our-projects 

Enactus World Cup 30 October - 2 November 2022 

The main event for the students for this quarter was the Enactus World Cup.

EY Mentoring Program for 2022-2023 

We are very pleased to partner with EY on a further  Enactus/ EY student Mentoring Program which is available for enactus students hosted through the Guider platform. On the 22nd of November we had an introductory meeting and were happy to hear that some mentoring is already in progress!   

This structured mentorship program of 4 approximately 1 hour sessions runs over 4-8 weeks over November to January. The 4 sessions can focus on a provided curriculum covering 4 topics: career development, entrepreneurship, leadership, and global citizenship.

This is a wonderful opportunity for our students giving them access to business mentors withing the EY Network which highlights to our Enactus students the benefits both personally and professionally of having a mentor throughout University and your Career.

There is a call out for students for the next round starting in February - Please register here https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GQXJG3K

ECU Sustainability Festival  15 October

Enactus ECU hosted the second iteration of its Sustainability Festival on 15^th October 2022. The Sustainability Festival aims to build the community’s knowledge, understanding and awareness of the 17 Goals and the prime focus were SDGs 13 (Climate Action), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 4 (Quality Education) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). Enactus ECU believes that this leads to behavioral change and adoption of sustainable practices and choices. Local organisations and businesses came together under one roof showcasing the work they are doing to deliver products, practices, and services for a sustainable planet.

The day was filled with many fun activities such as: a smoothie bike where people pedalled to generate the energy needed to make their own smoothie; a seedling planting stall to start a veggie patch; a marine life quiz to learn about the vast habitat of reefs; clothes swapping and upcycling opportunities; a photo booth where one could made a pledge to the SDGs and discuss ideas on how to implement the pledges into their daily life to build a sustainable future for us ALL; and many other informative stalls advocating on behalf of those with no or smaller voices!

More than 850 people passed through the festival, engaging with the stalls (and voting on their favourite one – Protect Ningaloo was the winner, followed by FISH and Millennium Kids), completing surveys on the impact of the event, and learning about the SDGs and how to incorporate elements into their lives. The Sustainability Festival is growing, including more diverse groups of sustainable organisations, and sponsorship from a wide and growing group of organisations.

Enactus ECU welcomes everyone to join in at the next event – as a stallholder, sponsor, speaker, or supporter!

ECU’s Nickey Ludkins speaks at Seventeen X Perth!

ECU’s faculty advisor, Nickey Ludkins gave a great talk, the participated along with 5 other speakers on a panel discussion, at Seventeen X on October 26th. She talked about Enactus and leadership for the SDGs and their ECU activities. Nickey continues to inspire! ECU are fortunate to have such an engaged and energetic FA!

QUT Award 

On the 8th of October the QUT Guild Student Club Awards were held, and QUT Impact was awarded the “best new club” award.  QUT Impact was created at the start of 2022 as a way to offer ‘Enactus’ to all students across the university.  The Impact club allows students who care about creating impact to get involved with the Enactus team. They can engage in projects, events and see first hand what Enactus is all about with out needing to commit straight away to being a part of project development or competition. 

Operating Enactus QUT through student clubs has enabled them to reach a much more diverse range of students with a wider range of skill sets. The QUT Enactus team have been able to assist students from multiple faculty’s to explore how to turn their ideas in to actions, provided opportunities for students to engage in impactful activities in the community and recruited new committed team members to projects.  Congrats!

Help us grow the Australian Enactus Network

If you have any friends or colleagues at a uni that does not have an Enactus program please ask them to reach out so we can help them get one started.

We always love news items from teams so make sure you let us know what you are up to so we can include in our news.

Enactus Australia 2023

Congratulations to all the teams who have held their AGMs and elected their new management positions for 2022/23. A big thank you to the outgoing team executives for all their hard work and over this transition year. We are continually impressed by the ability of our teams to survive and thrive across the COVID impacted years.

New student Handbook 2023

A copy of the new team handbook has been added to our webpage and is now available to all team for the 2023 academic year. We have mailed all teams, and you can find a link on our website.

Regional Showcases 2023 

We will be holding our regional showcases next year helping teams showcase their projects before the National Competition in July

Western Australia Regional Showcase - Friday14th April 

New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory Regional Showcase - Wednesday 12th April 

Queensland Regional Showcase-Tuesday 4th April 

Victorian / Tasmanian Regional Showcase - Tuesday 11th April 

Registration for all regional days will be available early 2023 on our webpage.

National Championships 2023

Our National Championships will be held in the 1^st week of July 2023 in Melbourne, hosted by Monash University. We are very excited about this and look forward to this. Current detailed planning is underway but we would like to prepare teams by saying that they should plan for the Tuesday – Thursday of that week to be full of amazing experiences including visits to local Social Enterprises, a careers fair, interaction with teams from all over Australia, workshops with our partners, showcasing of projects and a lot of fun in between.

Enactus International  

At the world Cup this year was a great opportunity for our Global CEO to talk about the Strategic Plan for Enactus moving forward to 2025.  Robyn provided a overview of the core components that will project enactus forward in the next three years aligning our mission to impact the world and move closer to reaching the UN sustainability  Global Goals by 2030. 

A copy of the strategic plan can be found here: https://enactus.org/forward-motion-2025/