How helping others can help you get ahead - Enactus Birmingham society talk openly

We caught up with four students who represented the University of Birmingham at the Enactus National Finals In London City Centre in on 8 April.

Timi (pictured), Catherine, Daphne and Owen talked about the social enterprise projects they have been working on and answered questions to a panel of judges for a chance to represent the UK in the Enactus World Cup in California (in September 2019).



What is Enactus? Enactus stands for Entrepreneurial Action for Us - and encourage students to get involved with social action and volunteer projects. Enactus website.

Hi, I’m Daphne, Vice-President of Enactus Birmingham. Enactus is a global organisation of students, academics and business leaders, whose ethos is to use entrepreneurial action to create a better world for us all. I joined Enactus because I am motivated by the idea of helping others and was drawn to the ethos of the society.

Enactus Birmingham is a passionate and dedicated team who believe in improving the world around us. We work closely with the Careers Network team, Enactus UK and corporate partners which this year included Capgemini, Amey and AIG.

Our committee is made up of myself, I’m a final year Maths student; Catherine (the President), a final year Business student; Timi, a final year Law and International Relations student and Owen, an

Engineering masters student.

Between us we have been running two projects, creating links and exciting new opportunities in our local community…

The Harmony Project

Loneliness in the elderly community is a serious issue. Age UK report that, shockingly, for 40% of elderly people TV is their main source of company. Loneliness leads to social isolation and lack of stimulation, which is detrimental to wellbeing. Music is proven to trigger emotional memories, bringing people together and enhancing quality of life.

At Enactus Birmingham we had the idea of bringing music to the elderly. As I am passionate about this issue, I volunteered to lead the project.

We have partnered with the University’s Live Music Society to deliver fortnightly sing-alongs in Bournebrook Care Home, Selly Oak. The sessions have been a great success and the residents have really enjoyed them.

We are now planning to expand the Harmony project to more care homes and to other vulnerable groups. For example, the charity Sense works with individuals with complex disabilities and believes that no one should be isolated or unable to fulfil their potential. We plan to deliver our sessions as part of Sense’s arts and wellbeing programme to help improve the quality of life of these individuals.

CodeWrite

As the world becomes more centred around technology, coding is a highly important skill.

Last year, Enactus Birmingham piloted a project called CodeWrite, which delivered coding lessons to year 9 students at St Edwards school. The classes were a great success, so much so that one of the IT teachers used the idea to start up his own ‘code club’ at the school.

During the pilot project, the team noticed that very few girls attended. Therefore, this year’s CodeWrite leaders, Timi and Owen, worked hard to increase female engagement in the programme.

We felt that this an important issue as it is widely acknowledged that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers are male dominated. The Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Campaign reports that in 2018, the percentage of women in ‘STEM occupations’ was only 22% and in ‘IT professional occupations’ only 16%.

We decided to run a girls-only code club at Bartley Green, a school in an economically deprived area of Birmingham. So far, we have delivered several lunchtime sessions with a group of year 9 girls. The girls created magazine covers using HTML and Python and commented that it was ‘nice to go beyond the curriculum using coding levels that professionals use’.

As part of CodeWrite’s aim to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers, we plan to organise talks by women in STEM careers, about their work.

At the end of each academic year, Enactus teams showcase their projects in Regional and National competitions. We are delighted that this year we were selected to progress through to the National Competition, which takes place at the ExCel in London.

We are very proud of our success this year and hope that next years team can continue to grow and develop these projects and others, enhancing Enactus Birmingham as a centre for entrepreneurial community action at our university.

*Add news idea possibilities here such as sustainability, food banks etc *
* Start-up / entrepreneurial like running your own business, employers , development etc*

Enactus need you! If you are a University of Birmingham student and would like to help progress into next year, please email Bob Lee at r.lee@bham.ac.uk with your contact details (and your project preference if you have one). Alternatively, you can contact the society direct through the Guild of Students website here.

With thanks to Daphne Martin.