La Sierra University Enactus team second in nation at U.S. competition

La Sierra’s Enactus team reached the final four round after successfully completing three preliminary rounds of competition. Nearly 200 colleges and universities sent Enactus teams to this year’s national competition. Brigham Young University-Hawaii was named the 2015 Enactus U.S. champion followed by La Sierra in second place, John Brown University in third, and Belmont University in fourth. 

“It’s a tremendous honor to be compared in this way to the best business students from across the United States,” said John Thomas, dean of the Tom and Vi Zapara School of Business. “Finishing as the number two Enactus team in the nation is an incredible accomplishment for our students, who have worked so hard to do important things both in the Riverside community and internationally. They are truly showing the rest of the world how business can be a tool for making the world a better place.”

“This outstanding finish is due in part to the efforts of John Razzouk, our Sam Walton Faculty Fellow,” Thomas added. “John worked many hours with our students to put together an outstanding Enactus team and series of projects this year.”

“Our students represented La Sierra University in an incredible way," said Randal Wisbey, university president. "Through their efforts, our Enactus team beautifully demonstrated all that we as a university have learned about service, and our campus' determination to see the world transformed.”

Thirteen Enactus team members represented La Sierra University in St. Louis, including a five-member presentation team. La Sierra’s Enactus team’s report focused on the projects that the team has developed to use business practices to enhance communities. The projects included:

Mobile Fresh: Enactus students partnered with Riverside’s Family Service Association to launch “Mobile Fresh,” a refurbished bus that now serves as a mobile grocery store. The bus makes regular visits to underserved areas of Riverside, making fresh, healthy produce and other foods available to lower income area residents. Serving more than 1,000 customers per month, the project has also lowered those customer’s food costs by 30 percent.

Cow Bank: As part of a strong focus on sustainable projects, La Sierra Enactus has been operating a field station in Denkanikottai, India. Women in that region typically make $2 per day, barely enough for food. La Sierra Enactus has established a cow bank, which loans cows to women in four villages, and has developed agreements with local milk wholesalers to purchase all the milk the women bring for sale. Every woman who has participated in the program has seen her income at least double, and no one has defaulted on her loan during the two years of the project.

La Sierra University’s Enactus efforts also won a number of special recognition awards during the St. Louis competition. Enactus team member Andrew Ranzinger, a junior accounting and Spanish major, received three scholarship awards at the national completion. They are:

• The Enactus Service Leadership Award—Ranzinger is one of five students receive a $1,000 scholarship.

• The RILA/Unilever Retail Scholarship— “Sponsored by Unilever and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the purpose of this scholarship is to encourage students to consider career opportunities in the retail industry and recognize one outstanding Enactus student who is planning to pursue a career within the industry." Ranzinger received a $5,000 scholarship and also will be recognized at a RILA event this coming winter. Also, the La Sierra University Enactus team gets a $1,000 award.

• The Julie and Gwen Knapp Scholarship—Ranzinger received a $2,500 scholarship award.

La Sierra’s Enactus team received two top national prizes from Unilever Enhancing Livelihoods competition and the Bright Future Project Partnership. The team will be bringing home two trophies and a total of $14,500 in prizes. Both awards were for the Mobile Fresh initiative.

La Sierra University has a history of excellence in Enactus/SIFE competition. Along with the six previous U.S. titles, La Sierra won the organization’s World Cup in 2002 and 2007.  They are the only university to ever win the national title four consecutive years, putting together a string of successful appearances from 1994 to 1997.