The Saint Mary's University Enactus Canada Team is heading to Astana, Kazakhstan to represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup from October 2 - 4, 2024.
Enactus is the largest student leadership organization in the world with a network of over 60,000 students on campuses across 33 countries. It uses experiential education to engage the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders to use innovation and business principles to improve the world by progress on the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals. At The Enactus World Cup, the brightest minds from universities and colleagues around the world showcase the power of social entrepreneurship and innovation to impact some of the world's biggest challenges.
In May 2024, the Saint Mary's Enactus team competed against 49 post-secondary teams from across Canada and won the Enactus Canada National Championship for their work on Plastarch and Square Roots. Plastarch creates affordable, durable and food-safe bioplastic crafted from an unexpected source potatoes slated to be discarded and Square Roots rescues "imperfect" produce that would otherwise be discarded and offers it affordable prices to those with limited access to healthy food. In the last year, Square Roots has providing access to nutritious food for 6,300 individuals.
"Enactus Saint Mary's University is a model of team success and social entrepreneurship. We are proud to have them represent Enactus Canada at the World Cup," says Catherine Fowler, President and CEO, Enactus Canada. "From their leadership on Square Roots to their innovative ideas on uses for potato waste and single-use utensils, we are confident the team will be a top competitor amongst the 29 other countries represented at World Cup."
The Enactus Saint Mary's has been building toward this championship having placed in the top 4 in the National Championships 11 of the last 13 years. "We are immensely proud of the Saint Mary's Enactus team," says Robert Summerby-Murray, President, Saint Mary's University. "These students are passionate change-makers, driven to do business well and for the good of the world."
The Saint Mary's Enactus team of 80 students is led by Courtney Dingle (Truro, NS), Gabe Martin (Ottawa, ON), Susan MacInnis (Sydney, NS) and Paige Bigelow (Kentville, NS) and students from around the world from business, arts and science faculties. The team is still actively fundraising for the trip and practicing their pitches.
"Representing Canada on the world stage is beyond exciting," says Courtney Dingle and Gabe Martin, co-presidents of Enactus Saint Mary's. "We had the opportunity to go to the Enactus World Cup last year and what an incredible opportunity it was to collaborate and come up with new ideas to the world's biggest challenges. This year we are so excited that we can showcase our work to that global audience and find new ways to collaborate to help us scale our impact across the world."
