Trinity Students Represent Ireland in Johannesburg

Posted on: 27 October 2015

Trinity students, Pamela Sweeney and Conor O’Meara, made their way to Johannesburg, South Africa last week as part of a group of 40 Irish students representing Team Ireland at the Enactus World Cup 2015. The initiative Enactus encourages social entrepreneurship amongst third level students, motivating students to empower members of the community by applying entrepreneurial action.

A total of 5,000 students, from 36 countries, gathered for the three day international conference which saw a selection of the brightest and most innovative students present their social enterprises to some of the world’s leading business figures with the hope of being crowned the Enactus World Champion. Although Team Ireland unfortunately didn’t make it through to the next round they thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience, taking the opportunity to discuss possible solutions to the world’s social problems with business leaders from many leading companies such as KPMG, Brambles and Unilever.

A particular highlight was learning about other universities’ projects at the World Cultural Experience, a forum where all 36 countries gathered to showcase what their country has to offer. The team had the opportunity to meet students from all over the world and hear about the social problems other countries are facing and what the Enactus students there are doing to combat these issues.

President of Trinity’s Enactus Society, Pamela Sweeney commented: “I joined Enactus because I liked the idea of giving back to the community using the business and entrepreneurial skills we learn about in lectures. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be able to do this through the various projects we have set up in Trinity. Conor and I are very proud to have been able to represent the University as part of Team Ireland and work with so many like-minded people who want to help make the world a better place.”

Trinity’s Enactus society is running multiple projects at the moment, including Ethnic Threads, Change for Change and Keep Appy, and are always open to hearing new ideas and helping people put these ideas into action. They're currently recruiting new members, if you would like to find out more information you can check their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TCDenactus?fref=ts) or contact them at enactus@csc.tcd.ie