United States National Competition Highlights

Nearly 2,000 students participate in the Enactus United States National Exposition

Kansas City, Mo., USA – It was a banner year for the Enactus United States National Exposition, an event that saw nearly 2,000 student participants at the Kansas City Convention Center.

Taking the National Champion title was Flagler College. The team showcased a variety of impressive projects ranging from Veterans Farms – an effort that worked with disabled vets to develop a new food product and establish a franchise system to help them sell it – to Soapy Tales, a project that worked with young men leaving the foster care system to create and sell all-natural soap. Currently these special soaps are sold in 15 stores throughout St. Augustine, Fla., and to date this project has generated more than $3,500 in profits. The team also presented on their Passport Pretzel project that used a soft pretzel business to help individuals in a local homeless shelter gain basic culinary skills and receive certifications for future employment.

Judges still had their work cut out for them as many other empowering community outreach efforts were on display at this year’s competition. Among those: a project working with islanders destined to lose their land to rising sea levels, solar lights to rural villages in Haiti and even a mobile app aimed at helping businesses and households conserve energy.

Adding to this year’s competition experience was an official event mobile app that allowed attendees to participate in interactive forums, share updates, view agendas and check in to special sessions. Another special highlight was keynote speaker Cameron Cushman from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation who spoke on the importance of entrepreneurship.

Many students took also advantage of the event Career Fair, which was sponsored by Robert Half International. Many of the 52 companies participating in the fair conducted interviews and made job offers onsite.

A special thank you goes to Hershey for being the event presenting sponsor, we well as Ferrero U.S.A. Inc., and UMB Bank for sponsoring the opening round and semi-final competition rounds. Other sponsors included BIC, Bimbo Bakeries, MOM Brands and the Schwan Food Company.

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