When I came to Queen’s, I thought that the university experience was going to be all about meeting people and trying new things, like you see in the movies. What I was not prepared for was how hard it can be to get involved in new things as a fresh faced first year. I’m an Architecture student, which meant I spent so much time with my classmates in studio that I felt quite isolated from the rest of the University.

This year, I participated in the FRS Boston programme, which is a great programme that allows students to work together with people from different degrees and improve their networking and communication skills, while also getting to travel to Boston. For me, this scheme totally changed my perspective on extracurriculars at Queen’s. I met so many amazing people on this scheme, but what I noticed the most was how many people were involved in clubs and societies, and how, for many people, the clubs and societies they were involved in were just as or more important to them than their actual degree.

^{FRS programme in Boston}

It was on the FRS programme that I was informed about what Enactus was, how it had existed at the university before and how keen the SU was to help students to get it started again. As I learned more about Enactus, I thought it was a perfect fit for me, and so I, along with a few others on the programme, agreed to take the lead on restarting Enactus.

So, what is Enactus?

Enactus is a social enterprise society that is aimed at engaging young people in social action. There is a network of 72,000 universities over 37 countries with Enactus societies, setting up innovative projects and training people to be our future leaders. The commitment to action of Enactus positively affects the lives of 1.3 million people every year, and so it was a no brainer that I wanted to be a part of it. In my eyes, Enactus can be broken down into three main components:

• Innovation for social change;
• Networking with professionals in industry and gaining professional skills; and
• Meeting like a diverse range of like-minded young individuals and working together as a team to implement projects.

My journey with Enactus

When I agreed to take over Enactus, the first thing that I had to do was gather a group of interested students to fork our committee. Once we had that in place, we then had to go through all the formal steps to formally re-start the society. After many Teams meetings and a pizza lunch, we finally had a really good group of students who were interested in bringing the best out of our society.

^{Enactus Belfast is currently in the top 5 Enactus teams in the UK}

We’ve been in collaboration with Enactus UK, who oversee all branches in the United Kingdom, to learn more about the access to funding and training that we have at our disposal. We were thrilled to find out that these opportunities are vast, with countless industry links to help us on our way. Several of our committee members are heading to the Enactus leadership summits in the summer, where they will meet with different branches from all over the UK to exchange ideas and gain valuable training in leadership and management of projects.

What will Enactus look like in 2023/24?

When setting up projects, they must be addressing a need and providing a solution, preferably in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. I believe that introducing sustainability to students in a way that is actually accessible, affordable, and easy will be a key component of our projects this year.

For example, we are planning on running a kilo sale or clothes swap this year, where people can donate clothes that maybe don’t fit anymore or that they don’t like anymore, and then host a kilo sale to allow people to buy trendy, second hand fashion at a cheap price, thus avoiding the need for fast fashion. Any clothes we have left over will be repurposed to make it more accessible for people with accessibility needs who may struggle with things like buttons and laces, and then donated to communities where they are needed.

^{The society will be running kilo sales and clothes swaps this year}

As we are in our infancy, we can be incredibly flexible, and we hope to have more than one project up and running before the end of the next academic year. If you think that you have an idea of things that you would like to change around Queen’s or in the local community, we would absolutely love to hear your ideas and have you as a member. If this interests you, email us at enactus@qub.ac.uk.

Find out more

Sustainability at Queen's

Clubs and Societies

Study Architecture at Queen's