Enactus Sydney

What is the Enactus program?

Enactus Sydney is a student-led organisation that uses entrepreneurial action to create sustainable social enterprises. Our projects aim to tackle important social issues within the community  and are first-class demonstrations of the power of entrepreneurship, enabling progress and enhancing the lives of those we touch. Our organisation consists of 60 students from various faculties and in different stages of their degree progressions. We are part of the global Enactus network spanning across 36 countries, 1730 universities and over 72,000 students.

What projects did you work on as part of the program and present in the Enactus Nationals?

At the Enactus Nationals, we presented three of our current projects:

Culinary Tales provides refugees with employment, a source of income and social connection by empowering them to run their own cooking classes. This provides our refugees not only with economic skills and income, but also a social platform to share their experiences and cultures. We believe food has a powerful ability to forge harmonious connections between people from all different culture and across generations. Culinary Tales started by running classes in the community, open to all members of the public. We have since expanded our reach to high schools, where our classes directly supplement the Food Technology syllabus and enhance students' understanding of multiculturalism. Furthermore, we piloted our first Corporate Class for Culinary Tales in 16/17, representing the launch of our third innovative branch. 

The Pop Up Project aims to empower disadvantaged youths with business, hospitality and customer service skills to increase their chances of employment and cultivate a stronger sense of independence and self-determination. Through, partnerships with Glebe Youth Services, we are currently delivering a 'Three-Day program' involving a one day barista course, a business skills training day and one day real life experiences running a Pop-Up coffee and waffle stall on campus. in 16/17, we have also expanded the program by delivering a paid cafe internship program for two of our students. We hope to continue our partnership with local cafes and organisations to empower disadvantaged youths to seek future education and employment. 

Flashback is a creative writing program that aims to provide a platform for socially isolated senior citizens to share their experiences and explore their creativity. Our workshops are facilitated by students from University of Sydney and aims to provide an avenue for social interaction and inter-generational understanding. This project was started in February from our Enactus Summer Internship program and had its first pilot program in May 2017. We hope to continue expanding the project across retirement villages and publish their stories in the future. 

How did you implement entrepreneurial thinking and action to address the social causes/groups behind these projects?

One of the biggest tools that we utilise at Enactus Sydney is the design thinking methodology that allows us to go deeper beneath the surface of a problem to truly empathise and understand what needs to be solved. This involves needs assessments and a lot of critical preliminary research. Ultimately, this allows our ideas and solutions to be truly impactful when we pilot and launch them. Furthermore, we often employ business tools and frameworks that we've learnt during our University studies to ensure our projects are as strong as possible. 

What was your key takeaway from the experience of the Enactus Nationals?

Enactus Nationals was truly an amazing experience. For our team, the ability to see the amazing projects of other universities was a key learning experience. We really appreciated the opportunity to hear about the social impact being made around Australia and it inspires us to continue working hard on our projects to ensure targeted, effective empowerment for the disadvantaged communities in Australia. At the end of the day, we are all tackling similar social issues in the community and we hope to foster a sense of partnership with other universities. By working together, we will be able to create solutions that will ultimately be most beneficial and empowering for the community.

What was it like interacting with other Enactus teams and presenting in front of industry professionals?

(From the presenters themselves):

Matthew: 

Interacting with other Enactus teams and hearing about their projects with such passion was inspirational, truly highlighting the power that student volunteers have in creating social impact. Similarly, the opportunity to present to a panel of industry professionals who wanted to listen and learn about what we had achieved over the past year was invaluable, providing us with insight and advice that we can apply moving forward.

Lisa:

At first, presenting in front of the industry professionals was pretty nerve wracking, but the judges would smile which made me feel a lot more comfortable presenting. 

Meeting Enactus teams from other universities was also really great because we got to see what their Enactus culture was like and the different projects they were involved in.

Monique: 

Watching other teams' presentations was highly inspiring and refreshing when reflecting on the future direction of our teams' projects. 

I certainly underestimated the formality of the competition, which was immensely pleasing, as it showed the support, time and efforts industry professionals were willing to offer to the Enactus teams and their projects. 

How did you feel when it was announced Enactus Sydney were first place winners?

Speaking on behalf of the group, I think it is fair to say that when we were announced as winners, it was a moment of pure shock and joy. At the start of the year, Enactus Nationals was not on our radar: we were driven and focused on improving our projects to empower as many members of the community as we could. Hearing that we won was a great validation for us as a team because the results of our projects spoke for themselves and it simply reflected the hard work each and everyone of our members had put in. 

What are you looking forward to the most about participating in the upcoming Enactus World Cup in London?

As a team, we are excited to witness what other universities have accomplished in a multitude of countries. Furthermore, it will be an amazing cultural experience as we are able to network with students and business professionals from 36 other countries. Finally, as university students, we are simply excited to be able to travel to London and we are proud to represent Australia, and showcase our projects on the world stage. 

What are your expectations from the World Cup?

Going to the World Cup, we have not set any expectations on ourselves. Similar to the Enactus Nationals, we plan to let the results of our projects speak for themselves. However, we also expect this will be great learning experience as we hear about the various methodologies other universities utilise and their strategies towards delivering sustainable social impact in the community. 

Key people from the Nationals experience:

• Our core executive team: Jonathon Tan (Chief Executive Officer), Alexander Chye (Chief Operating Officer), Sharon Yin (Chief Marketing Officer) and Carl Lesmana (Head of Project Development)
• Our faculty advisors: Andrew Lee and James Meade
• Our presenters: Matthew Youie, Lisa Gong, Monique Andreatta 

By Enactus Sydney, first place winners of Enactus Nationals.

Culinary Tales

By Ceewing Tsui, Culinary Tales Project Director, current student at the University of Sydney Business School and member of Enactus Sydney - a community of students, academics and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.

Who doesn’t love a good story accompanying good food? Culinary Tales, an initiative of Enactus Sydney, provides a unique cooking class experience. In our Culinary Tales classes, our customers learn authentic recipes from a variety of exotic cuisines, including regions such as Yemen, Nigeria, India and Tibet, from our refugee chefs, while hearing their stories. Be whisked away on a culinary journey as you hear the stories behind their own experiences.

“I am thankful to Enactus for giving me the chance to cook and share my recipes.” - Tashi (Culinary Tales Chef)

The beauty of food lies in its universality; its power to forge connections between a diverse range of cultures. Upon attending a Culinary Tales class, you gain an insight into a new culture and the experiences of a refugee. When you arrive at the cooking class, you will be greeted by one of our lovely refugee chefs (RCs) and a host of fellow class members with whom you will have a truly memorable time.

Then, when you learn to cook the dishes, you will also find out about the personal stories embedded in the traditional dishes you are making, and experience the feeling of home that each of our chefs bring to their recipes. Once you have made the dishes, you will also get to share an amazing meal together and learn more about each other!

“Despite all hardships, my passion for cooking continued to grow.” - Joan (Culinary Tales Chef)

What is unique to Culinary Tales classes is that you get a hands-on experience in cooking new and exotic cuisines together with other locals, whilst listening to the chefs’ inspiring stories. The Culinary Tales experience isn’t just about learning new cuisines, it’s about connecting with new cultures and refugees.

Our classes are located at the Lane Cove Living and Learning Centre (180 Longueville Rd, Lane Cove). Be sure to give us a like on Facebook and check out our website to keep updated on upcoming classes that will be advertised soon!

About Culinary Tales
Unfortunately, there is a high rate of unemployment amongst newly settled refugees even if they are highly skilled or qualified. This is why Culinary Tales is aimed at improving the employability, skills, and integration of these refugees into the larger Australian community, via a standalone cooking class business, which hopes to promote their uniquely diverse culinary experiences and culture.

Culinary Tales provides refugees with work experience by employing them to help run a cooking class to showcase their exotic cuisines. Food has a tangible role in forging links to connect a diverse range of cultures. Not only can we share the ways of cooking of refugees, we can also share their stories with the wider community.

Enactus Australia Ranks on the World Stage in Social Entrepreneurship

This October, the University of Sydney Enactus team travelled to Beijing to present their social entrepreneurship ideas, projects and results at the 2014 World Cup.
 
Monitors and billboards flashed their vibrant colours, the keen walkalators buzzed in its efforts, the floors dressed in its finest outfit and the air was unmoving. It was as though Beijing Airport was holding its breath in anticipation to impress its guests – a strange but warm welcome for the team from down under. Little did we know, this was merely the beginning of a life-changing journey. We are Enactus Australia, students, representing University of Sydney, on a mission to impress and be impressed at the Enactus World Cup 2014.
My name is Jack Huang, a first-year student in Enactus Sydney. In week 12 of my second semester, I had the privilege attending the Enactus World Cup with the National Champion team of Enactus USYD. The three day competition and conference exposed me to the cultures of 33 countries across the world, and the exciting ideas and innovations which students like us are dreaming up across national boundaries. On the first day of the conference, a cultural fair was held. Each country blazed their national pride with items of their unique culture. Exotic foods and symbolic hand-outs were a common sight. Many stands had quirky activities like Korean Tuho, taking a Polaroid to an iconic Ukraine background, wearing a traditional Mexican dresses and many more. I remember seeing a rainbow of different cultural dresses, dancing to Chinese lion dancing drums, led by a billboard-sized Egyptian flag. Everyone was warm and smiling and having a good time embracing other cultures.

The next day, our new friends turned into our competitors with the opening of the first heats of presentation. The competition ran in 3 rounds with 34 teams. I was able to witness some of the most outstanding Enactus teams from around the world, each with their individual flavour and way of presentation. The Australian team presented projects on supporting artists with a disability; refugee issues and women living in shelter housing. This impressed the judges and led us to rank first in our league.

We were deeply inspired by the work of teams across the world including China and Morocco. The Moroccan team innovatively built a clay device to filter water to a drinkable standard and created a business model to support their communities. This year, we finished as a Top 8 team out of 34 countries and over 1600 teams across the world. This was a significant win for Australia. Inspired by our experiences, our student team will continue to work on projects to empower our community throughout the summer break and ready ourselves to compete again next year!



Jack Huang and Joy Chen
Students at The University of Sydney Business School

The Sight Project: an initiative at the crossroads of disability, creativity and commercialisation

Enactus students at the university have been responsible for driving projects that tackle a range of social issues from education inequality to the integration and employability of refugees. One such project which has recently come to fruition is The Sight Project: an initiative at the crossroads of disability, creativity and commercialisation.

The Sight Project’s operations started last year, with the beginning of its three stage model. Starting with a series of workshops, artists with a disability are provided the environment to explore their creativity, as well as access to mentoring from professional artists in the community. The second stage involved the development of a business model where the artworks created during the workshops were leased out to cafes and businesses on a monthly basis to create dynamic public spaces celebrating disability and diversity.

The pilot run of the program recently entered its last phase with an exhibition displaying these works. Titled, “Time & Place”, the inaugural annual exhibition was displayed at The Verge Gallery on campus. Opened on the 4th April 2014, by Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir (Governor of NSW) and Professor Tyrone Carlin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Registrar) the opening ceremony was certainly a celebration aimed to influence the social perception of disability for the better. The artwork was available for purchase through a silent auction, with all proceeds directly contributing to the income of the artists and reinvested back into the project.

In the coming months, the student volunteers are exploring exciting avenues of growth for this new social enterprise with the development of three streams of workshops to accommodate the demand of such initiatives. Workshop locations have been confirmed for The University of Sydney, Redfern and Homebush.

Joy Chen
Joy Chen is a Bachelor of Commerce / Bachelor of Arts student and part of the Enactus Student Leadership Team at The University of Sydney