Stefanos Dolomas
  • Finance/Management
  • Class of 2016
  • Mount Prospect, IL

Mount Prospect student travels to Enactus National Competition with Carthage College

2016 May 19

Stefanos Dolomas from Mount Prospect traveled with the Carthage chapter of Enactus to the organization's national exposition. This year marked the eighth straight year that the group made it to nationals. The group earned their bid at the Chicago regional competition on March 21 and this year's national exposition was held May 15-17 in St. Louis. While the group has advanced to this stage for the better part of a decade, it's still an accomplishment.

"Only about 180 teams in the country make it this far," Prof. David Schlichting, associate professor of business administration and advisor for the Carthage chapter, said. "Some schools have a much larger budget than we do and send 50-60 students to nationals and we're only sending 12, so I think it's an honor just to compete with those other schools."

Enactus, open to all majors, works throughout the year on projects aimed to better the lives of others by teaching self-empowerment skills. The organization encourages active hands-on learning, teamwork, leadership development, communication, and educational growth. The group gets its name from the words "entrepreneurial, action, and us."

At regional and national competitions, teams from each chapter make a 20-minute presentation on their accomplishments during the past academic year. Presentations are then evaluated by a panel of businesspeople who serve as judges.

The group presented on the four main projects they performed this year.

Technology and Retirement Homes

Seven students in the group routinely visited St. Catherine Commons, a senior living residence in Kenosha, to teach residents how to use technology. "They asked us to teach them how to use a bunch of different technologies," said group president-elect Chelsea Niemuth '18. "It ranged from teaching them how to use their smartphones, how to upload photos onto a computer, and how to get books on their Kindles. I even went out to one of the resident's cars to install a GPS and show them how it worked." The group hopes to expand the project to other facilities in the area for next year. "A lot of the residents came up to us every time we were there," she said. "So it's more than just learning about technology, it's having someone to talk to."

Piggy Bank Project

A cornerstone project for the group has been its ongoing Piggy Bank Project. For the past few years, the group has been going to elementary schools and Boys and Girls Clubs teaching children about the importance of saving and interest rates. "All the children are given 'Enactus points' which they can either spend on small trinkets right away or can invest to buy things later," Prof. Schlichting said. "We have the interest rates set pretty high so students can see in a short period of time the difference between needs and wants."

Days for Girls

Enactus worked with the Social Work Advocacy Group to create hygiene kits for the Days for Girls organization. Days for Girls helps provide hygiene kits to female students in developing countries in Africa. The sanitary kits are important because without them, female students miss an average of five school days a month, meaning they miss two months of school a year. Enactus helped fund the project and garnered donations of plastic bags from Walgreens and underwear from Jockey.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance

Some members of the group also volunteered for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance preparing income taxes for those who need assistance preparing them, but can't afford professional help. The group has sent students to volunteer six times each and every session lasts 3-4 hours. "It is very eye opening to see what people live off of during a year and sometimes is a challenge to find where their income is coming from that would make surviving possible." Chelsea said.