UA Enactus Team Wins U.S. Regional Competition

TUSCALOOSA. Ala. — The name may have changed, but the results remained the same: The University of Alabama Enactus team was named a regional champion at the Enactus United States Regional Competition held in Atlanta, one of the organization’s 10 regional competitions being held across the United States in March and April.

The UA team has won the regional competition for the past eight years.

Enactus is the new name of the former organization called Students in Free Enterprise. The name was changed last fall to “reaffirm its long-standing commitment to using entrepreneurial action as a catalyst for progress.”

David Ford, director of the Business Honors Program and clinical professor and Sam Walton Free Enterprise Fellow, who directed the Enactus team, said, “Despite the interference of spring break, team turnover and other obstacles, the UA team coalesced into a crack unit and made an outstanding presentation of its projects to pull out a win for the eighth consecutive year.”

The members of this year’s team are: Taylor Hamilton, first year MBA, Mount Juliet, Tenn.; Allysa Huffstutler, junior, Oneonta; Linny Zambuto, junior, Englewood, Fla.; Duane Kennedy, senior, Birmingham; Conley Rogers, junior, Trussville; Andrew Ray, sophomore, Gardendale; David Guarnieri Speakman, senior, Seminole; Jason Guthrie, sophomore, Gardendale; and Sirui Shao, sophomore, China.

UA-Enactus is one of more than 500 Enactus programs in the United States. Participating students use business concepts to develop community outreach projects, transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.

During this academic year, the UA-Enactus Team team organized six major projects in Tuscaloosa and the West Alabama community, including 6Sides, which also won the Culverhouse College of Commerce Business Plan Competition (and more than $16,000 in cash and in-kind professional services), The ABC project to prevent drop-out with more than 100 Brookwood Middle School Students, entrepreneurship projects, including more than 90 micro-loans in 20 countries on five continents, a small business guide for consultants and environmental initiatives, in partnership with the UA Environmental Council, The Business Honors program and The Birmingham Partnership Walk.

The culmination of the Enactus program is an annual series of competitions that provide a showcase for teams to present the results of their projects and be evaluated by business leaders serving as judges. Teams compete first at the regional and national levels, then at the international level when the national champion teams from each country meet at the Enactus World Cup.

As an Enactus U.S. Regional Champion, the University of Alabama Enactus Team now advances to the 2013 Enactus U.S. National Exposition in Kansas City, Missouri, May 21-23.

The UA Enactus team also was honored as an Enactus 4.0 Club member, which recognizes chapters for quality education programs, success in Enactus and long-term sustainability in enabling progress through entrepreneurial action.

“This documents the long term institutional and administrative support of UA’s Enactus Team,” said Ford. “This support and the dedication of UA-Enactus students has led to nine regional championships in 10 years, the past eight consecutively.”