UCD to represent Ireland at the prestigious 2014 Enactus World Cup in Beijing, China

BITCI News - Uncategorized - Jun 24, 2014

enactusSix Nations Winning Head Coach, Joe Schmidt, and Enactus Ireland Chairman, Terence O’Rourke, announced UCD as the winners of the prestigious 2014 Enactus Ireland National Competition for their project Generation Accommodation. Generation Accommodation seeks to match students who can’t afford to pay rent with elderly people living alone

The winning team led by Aoife Buckley and comprising fellow students will represent Ireland at the 2014 Enactus World Cup in Beijing, China, which takes place from 22nd – 24th October.  The Irish students will compete against 35 countries at the annual global showcase and present the results of their community outreach projects through a written annual report and live audio visual presentation.

Enactus in an international non-profit organisation founded on the basic principle that entrepreneurial action can be a powerful catalyst for human progress.  Guided by educators and supported by business leaders, it provides a platform for teams of outstanding university students to create community development projects, while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders of the future.

The establishment of Enactus Ireland was a result of KPMG’s long-standing international support for the initiative.  The firm has been involved with Enactus in the US since 1990, helping grow the programme globally and, today, works with Enactus in over 30 countries worldwide. Enactus is one of KPMG Ireland’s signature CSR programmes where we are the lead sponsor of the programme and we also support 14 bursaries to students from the non-winning teams to also travel to Beijing to experience the World Cup. KPMG has 16 staff who volunteer to participate on Business Advisory Boards for each of the participating third level institutes and the firm also engages with the students throughout the year supporting various training sessions.

The National Competition is an annual event where students come together to present the projects they have pioneered over the last 12 months and demonstrate how they are transforming lives and enabling progress through entrepreneurial action.  As part of the competition, eight student teams representing Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland Galway, National University of Ireland Maynooth, University College Cork and University of Limerick, showcased their outreach efforts to a distinguished panel of executives.  The judges, including Leinster Rugby Captain and Enactus Ireland non-executive director, Leo Cullen, evaluated the quality and impact of the projects before announcing UCD as winners.

Presenting the winning team from UCD, Ireland Rugby Head Coach, Joe Schmidt, said, “Congratulations to the team from UCD on winning the 2014 Enactus Ireland National Competition and to all the finalists who took part.  Enactus is a fantastic initiative that inspires university students to create innovative solutions to tackle real-world problems.  These incredible students are paving the way for the next generation of socially responsible business leaders who understand that sustainable business solutions are a tool for positive change.  I wish UCD every success at the World Cup in Beijing and I’m sure they will do their university proud.”

Winning team captain, Aoife Buckley from UCD said, “Participating in Enactus has been a fantastic experience for the whole team and it is a great feeling to be acknowledged for the hard work we put in throughout the year. We’re thrilled to present the continued success of our project, Generation Accommodation on a global scale at the Enactus World Cup.”

Terence O’Rourke, Chairperson of Enactus Ireland, said, “Each year, the Enactus Ireland National Competition provides an opportunity for  the nation’s leading entrepreneurially-minded students to compete based on the quality of their community empowerment projects and depth of their impact.  Each team’s passion, determination and desire to transform lives is inspirational.  The success achieved UCD is a strong testament to the ability of entrepreneurial action to enable real change.  We were really impressed by their presentation and the way they have developed and expanded Generation Accommodation.

Enactus Ireland is sponsored by KPMG, Arthur Cox, AIG, IFG, KBC Bank Ireland, Unilever, The Ireland Funds, Musgrave Group and Enterprise Rent-a-Car. The initiative is also supported by Gibney Communications, The Irish Times, Chartered Accountants Ireland, Event Partners and RR Donnelley.