The concept of social entrepreneurship has been gaining traction among the business community for many years now. Described as bringing about social and environmental change, while also generating a profit, the social entrepreneurship mindset offers an alternative way to make an impact through the business medium. Enactus, a worldwide organization uses business as a catalyst for positive social and environmental impact and encourages young leaders to pursue these values of social entrepreneurship. Furthermore, Enactus drives innovation through regional, national, and worldwide competitions where students and entrepreneurs from across the world can meet, network, and present their projects to professionals and leaders in the social entrepreneurship world. With the potentially last Enactus World Competition wrapping up, five others and I had the opportunity to represent the Telfer School of Management and Enactus uOttawa and experience the Enactus World Championship for what could be the last time.

Enactus uOttawa is an organization headed by Alexander Parsan with a strong presence at the University of Ottawa. With students from all departments offering their strengths towards 3 different unique projects, Enactus uOttawa offers students unique experiences in entrepreneurship and opportunities to develop practical business, social, scientific, and engineering skills. Having joined the Enactus team back in September 2021, I have worked with the Poly Plastics team in both their sales and operations departments. Having worked with Poly for over a year, it has been an incredibly rewarding experience seeing how my direct contributions help the project evolve.

The Enactus World Cup occurred in Utrecht, Netherlands, about a thirty-minute train ride from Amsterdam. The Enactus uOttawa team's first event was attending the 'Action with Africa' conference. The Action with Africa conference consisted of teams from African universities presenting ways to implement social entrepreneurship into their countries' economies. Presenting were teams from Egypt, Tunisia, and Nigeria, all with different ideas on how to empower change in their countries through pursuing social and environmental goals and helping their local communities increase the amount of capital obtained. Particular standouts were EPACT from the Higher Institute of Computer Science in Tunisia, which focused on the creation of new kinds of animal feed through invasive and previously thought to be useless plants which would contribute to waste in their country, and Snelia from Ain Shams University in Egypt, which would be aimed to eliminate an invasive species of snails that often cause trouble for Egyptian farmers. Snelia takes the invasive snails and turns them into animal feed and cream that helps treat sunburnt hands, which is especially beneficial to the farmers as many of them suffer from heat injuries from working long days in the sun. However, the ultimate winner of the event and the team that brought back over fifty thousand euros was BiRi from Modern Academy in Egypt, which takes eggshell waste and produces a supplement that gives twelve essential vitamins and minerals necessary for the health of many farmers in Egypt. BiRi's product was not only incredibly creative but also an incredibly innovative way to use a product that could've previously only been seen as waste. The presentation made me think about the ludicrous number of eggshells that are thrown away by myself and many Canadians every day, where across the world the students of the Modern Academy in Egypt have found a way to use this previously thought to be useless waste product to help solve malnutrition problems that many people face every day.

Following the 'Action with Africa' conference, the Enactus World Cup conference began in earnest. The first rounds of presentations began on Thursday, October 19th, which consisted of thirty-two teams competing in 8 different leagues with the top two from each league advancing to the next league. A particular standout from this opening round were the teams representing South Africa and Colombia. South Africa had an incredibly strong presentation attempting to use wormology to give farmers an option to divert food waste into usable compost. One of the most interesting parts of this project was the team's desire to close the very large wage gap present in South Africa. The team believed that the implementation of their project would give farmers an option to have more consistent and better quality crop yields and as a result would provide them to bring in more money far more consistently.

In my opinion, Colombia's project was one of the most interesting ones presented. Colombia presented a 'work in progress' project, meaning they have yet to make any sales and the project is still within a testing phase. The project was a water filtration system made up entirely of fungi. While the science behind the project was fascinating, the team focused primarily on how the fungal system is entirely environmentally sustainable and can be composted after use. By far one of the most interesting projects for me, Colombia provided a solution that I had never considered to a problem incredibly prevalent in all parts of the world. I am very excited to see how Colombia develops their product in the coming years, as I truly believe that this project has the potential to win a potential future Enactus World Cup.

I was particularly impressed with the Italian team's presentation come the semi-finals. The team representing Italy was from a technical college in Milan, meaning their project was potentially more technologically advanced than others. Their project utilized oyster and shellfish shell waste, one of the largest waste products in Italy's many coastal regions, and turned those shells into cubes as a natural water purifier. The team discussed how bad the water pollution has gotten on the Italian coast, and thanks to the natural purifying capabilities that oyster shells provide, allows for an eco-friendly solution to water sanctification without the use of large-scale treatment plants.

Come the finals on Friday, October 20th, tensions were high. After a brief introduction, the final four were presented. To our pleasant surprise, Canada made the cut! The team representing Canada this year was Wilfrid Laurier College in Brantford, Ontario. Their two projects consisted of a small-scale milk pasteurization project designed for families and farmers in Africa. The device is designed to eliminate many harmful pesticides within unpasteurized milk, which is commonly consumed in many poorer parts of Africa. Furthermore, they had a housing project designed to fit comfortably into shipping containers, where it can be shipped to northern First Nations communities in order to provide a cheaper option for housing. Canada was facing up against Australia, and notably Egypt and Tunisia, two countries that have been Enactus World Cup finalists for the past few years. Egypt's team provided a solution to the increasingly expensive fish food in the fish farming industry. As a result of the increased prices in soy and wheat shipment, many Egyptian fish farmers are unable to afford these standard fish foods, and as a result have to use alternative foods such as meat scraps and waste, which can often lead to parasites and disease. The Enactus Egypt team found a way to produce fish food through the sustainable harvesting of insect larvae and providing these fish farmers with a far more inexpensive and better quality fish feed. The company Enactus Egypt started through this has made profits in the millions and impacted over three hundred thousand farmers. Egypt would end up going on to win the whole competition, marking the second year in a row where they brought home the gold.

The entire event was a truly one-of-a-kind experience. The individuals I met were some of the most passionate, dedicated people I have ever met. I was incredibly impressed with their almost innocent desire to help make their communities, universities, and countries better. Their passion for their projects was palpable throughout the entire competition, Enactus teams from countries such as Kazakhstan and Germany brought this incredible energy to where you forget that this was a contest and felt it was a celebration for the different countries in attendance. The quality of the projects was also astonishing.

As the Enactus World Cup came to an end, there was one last announcement. The host thanked us for our participation and congratulated all the teams one last time. To everyone's surprise, a video started playing, only to show the location of the next Enactus World Cup, amidst an erupting audience, we were all surprised to find that thanks to a recent merger, the Enactus organization despite its recent bankruptcy will be continuing, and the worldwide competition where teams from across the globe can come to represent their countries, presenting projects and ideas that may very well change the world one day.

Steve Jobs once said, "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." This statement was clearly evident in how all the students presented themselves at the Enactus World Cup. This trip was both inspiring and motivating, reminding me of the reasons why I was initially drawn to the Enactus message over a year ago. While it is easy to be pessimistic considering the uncertainty of our world's future with the challenges of climate change, social inequality, and more, witnessing how Enactus prepares and encourages future leaders to make a positive impact on the world makes me believe that a bright future is within our reach.

Works Cited:

• “Home - Enactus.” Enactus, enactus.org/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
• “What Is Social Entrepreneurship?” BDC.Ca, 25 Oct. 2023,
• www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/sustainability/environment/what-is-social-entrepreneurship.