One of the biggest and most successful student-led community non-profits in the world is rebranding itself, resulting in a new name for SIFE Okanagan.
SIFE, which stands for Students in Free Enterprise, has been operating internationally for almost 40 years and, effective Jan. 1, 2013, became Enactus.
“This is a more powerful name for us,” said Adrienne Renaud, a third-year Okanagan School of Business student at the Kelowna campus and vice-president of marketing for Enactus Okanagan College. “We’re about taking action. We don’t just sit around and come up with ideas, we make things happen.”
Enactus stands for entrepreneurial, action, and us. It highlights the role student leaders (guided by both academic advisors and business experts) take in sharing their classroom skills by creating real solutions for people in the community.
In the Shuswap-Revelstoke region this has resulted in several key projects including:
• Shuswap Launch-A-Preneur – a student-run business competition open to all ages where local entrepreneurs launch their ventures in the community of Salmon Arm.
• Help Hunger Disappear – where team members tackle hunger by addressing long and short-term needs and raising awareness.
“Working on these programs has allowed me to make a difference in my community by applying what I have learned in the classroom to real world situations,” said 21-year-old Tom Arrowsmith, vice-president of the Salmon Arm campus program.
Okanagan School of Business professor Terry Kosowick, who mentors the Enactus team in Salmon Arm, said it’s this practical experience that makes an impact on students.
“Through Enactus, students discover what it means to develop their sense of civic duty, to build citizenship capacity, to be part of their community and not apart from it,” Kosowick said.
The Okanagan College team has distinguished itself both in the region and on the national stage, taking spots in the top five in the last four years of competition.
To find out more about the organization and current local projects, visit www.enactusoc.ca or call Enactus Okanagan College President Paven Singh Sekhon at 250-469-1513.
