La Sierra University Enactus gives top performance at World Cup

To reach the world cup semifinals, the La Sierra Enactus students bested 532 U.S. teams and 19 international teams. The team’s strong showing came near the end of two days of intense competition representing the United States against other Enactus groups from around the globe who competed on the strength of their projects and presentation skills. Events were held in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Sept. 28-30. The Enactus World Cup went to Canada, with India taking second place.

Panels of judges comprised of executives from the world’s leading corporations determined winners. Big Four professional services firm KPMG served as scorer for the competition and presented the world cup event. Enactus describes the World Cup as the world's largest business innovation competition for social impact.

“Our team began this year with a mission to show the world what students everywhere are truly capable of,” said La Sierra Enactus Faculty Fellow and team mentor John Razzouk. “At every level of this competition our La Sierra University students have shared their story with passion and conviction, joined by more and more students and business leaders from around the world along the way. Our team will continue pushing and challenging themselves every day to take on the biggest challenges in our community.” 

“Our impacts will never be forgotten,” said presentation team member Eliza Hakobyan following the final round announcments. “We’re going to compete again in nationals and do our best.”

“I'm so proud of each and every member of the La Sierra Enactus Team,” said Andrew Ranzinger, also a presentation team member and last year’s La Sierra Enactus president. “It's always difficult to work so hard and pour so much of yourself into something and have it not turn out as you wanted. We gave this competition our all, and it hurts to lose. Ultimately, however, no competition outcome can take away the impact we've had, the skills we've learned, the people we've met, the memories we've made, and most importantly, the lives we have changed.” He also thanked John Thomas, dean of La Sierra’s Zapara School of Business where the Enactus team is based, and Razzouk for their dedication, advice and leadership. “[You] have pushed me every step of the way on my journey with this incredible organization,” said Ranzinger.

“Regardless of the competition outcome, the students gave it their best, and what really matters are the lives we changed,” added Thomas.

La Sierra University President Randal Wisbey also expressed his pride in the team’s accomplishments. “I am so very grateful for the exemplary way our students have represented their nation and their university,” he said. “Each time I have watched our team present, my confidence in this generation of young adults grows. Their sense of commitment, their willingness to be undeterred by the difficulties their projects address, and their love for the people they serve is truly inspiring.”

The world cup prize follows La Sierra’s first place win May 17 at the Enactus U.S. National Exposition in St. Louis, Mo., a precedent-setting seventh national trophy for the university. The team won world cups in 2002 in Amsterdam and in 2007 in New York City.

La Sierra’s Enactus team has an active membership of about 40 students from a variety of majors. Approximately 20 Enactus members traveled to Toronto for the world cup along with business school and university administrators. Students Joe Rees, Ranzinger, Sharina Carruthers, Hakobyan, Branden Liau-lau, and Xavier Watson served as this year’s presentation team giving 17-minute, multi-media presentations followed by five-minute question-and-answer sessions during world cup events. They told with passion the story of their team’s work in Denkanikottai, India establishing a successful cow bank micro-lending program and more recently, a tailoring school. The team also described the jointly-developed mobile grocery store project called Mobile Fresh which operates within a renovated commuter bus in ‘food deserts’ throughout Riverside County, Calif.

The La Sierra Enactus projects in India, part of the ongoing, 10-year Enactus India Field Station established in 2010, are significantly improving the lives of more than 100 impoverished families. The India Cow Bank micro-loan program, a sustainable project created by the 2013 Enactus team, currently involves 125 milk cows loaned to village women and their families. The women take care of the cows, which are insured, and sell milk twice a day to local milk wholesalers with whom the team established guarantees of payment. A portion of the milk sales goes toward the loan with proceeds invested back into the program. This entrepreneurial activity replaces day laborer wages of $2 a day the villagers typically earn for 12 hours spent working in the hot sun. Each villager involved in the program has experienced a 100 – 600% income increase and no participant has defaulted on a loan.

The team raises funds to purchase the cows for $500 each. This year’s team more than doubled the number of cows in the program, and last November established another economic empowerment/micro-lending project through the India Field Station teaching girls and women aged 15 to 23 how to sew. Each participant in the tailoring project will take sewing classes and receive their own sewing machines to create clothing which they can sell. This June, 13 participants graduated from the inaugural six month skills training program. 

Mobile Fresh, operated in partnership with Riverside non-profit Family Service Association, brings more than 30 different fruits and vegetables as well as bread, cereal and dairy products to people living in neighborhood tracts located long distances from supermarkets. The bus, which operates on 100% natural gas, increased its outreach from 10 to 40 stops within its first year to reach isolated communities. The team manages marketing and educational programming for Mobile Fresh including print, web and social media, customer experience, community outreach, relationship building, and lessons and activities at local schools. The team also created a children’s book about the mobile grocery store. The team’s efforts resulted in a 150% increase in total sales over the past year, with customers saving up to 50% on food costs. Mobile Fresh experiences about 1,800 customer interactions per month.

During competition, the team hands copies of their Enactus annual report to judges. This year’s report, which includes additional projects and work completed on future programs, shows the team’s India Field Station and Mobile Fresh programs during 2015-16 impacted 4,222 people.

The La Sierra University Enactus team functions like a self-sustaining nonprofit, supporting its activities entirely through donations, grants, fundraising efforts, and prize winnings.

Prior to this year, La Sierra Enactus last won the U.S. championship in 2007. It has come close to nabbing the trophy several times during the past nine years, placing second in the nation last year, third in the nation in 2009, and landing among the top eight teams in 2010.

La Sierra is celebrating its 25^th year of participation with Enactus, an international nonprofit sponsored by more than 550 corporate, organizational and individual partners worldwide including Walmart, KPMG, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Ford, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, and many other leading companies. The worldwide organization has more than 70,500 student members from more than 1,700 universities in 36 countries. In its U.S. division, Enactus has 533 universities and more than 16,800 students participating. The organization began in 1975 as SIFE, or Students in Free Enterprise and changed its name in 2012 to Enactus.