Members of the BYUH Enactus team, who placed third overall in the Enactus World Cup in San Jose, California, said although they were disappointed with the results, they were proud of the team and their work with the RiceUp organization.
Meeting and sharing culture with competitors, Hannah Jansson, a sophomore from Sweden studying supply chain management, said, “Even though it’s a competition, at the end of the day we are all trying to do good in the world, and that unified us rather than separating us.”
The Enactus team presented their RiceUp organization for the second consecutive year. RiceUp supports farmers in the Philippines and Cambodia in growing their farms and businesses.
She said RiceUp turns farmers into entrepreneurs. “We facilitate co-ops where they can pool their resources together to fill bigger orders and grow their business. It helps them access larger markets and get better equipment and machinery, [whereas] one farmer alone could never afford.”
Zenos Thoreson, a sophomore from Utah majoring in social work who served his mission in the Philippines, said, “We have a dream, and we believe in it for the farmers.” He added it is important because it’s not just another school project, it’s real life for the farmers that RiceUp supports.”
PJ Rogers, an advisor to the Enactus team, said all the success the team has had over the last 2 years is due to the hard work of the students. “Hands down it’s the students. We the professors purposely just guide the students and point them in the right direction.”
Rogers, who has worked with Enactus teams for several years, said about the competition, “I knew our biggest competitor was going to be Canada. So, when they announced Canada came in second place I thought, ‘That means we’re first.’ I was shocked [and] very surprised we did not get first.”
Although they did not meet their goal of a world championship, Thoreson said the theme of the competition was, “When we compete to improve lives, we all win.” He explained this mindset helped him accept the loss gracefully.
The country who won the Enactus World Cup was the Egyptian team. Regarding this, Jansson said, “[The Egyptian team] was very gracious, humble and were great winners.” She said it made it easy to accept because of the attitude and grace the Egyptian team had.
Thoreson said, “I knew that at the end of the day we weren’t there for us, we were there for the farmers, and so were all the other teams, all of us were there to help others.
“So even though our team didn’t win. Really, we all won, because of the lessons we learned and the work we did for different communities we are in.”