To show its support for service learning, the College of Business at Florida International University (FIU) offers courses in which students “participate in and reflect on a service activity as a means to attain the course’s learning objectives.” This year, it went even further by helping prepare students for the Enactus (Entrepreneurial, Action, Us) Competition at which participants will showcase their community involvement.

On February 15, 2013, six students made 15-minute presentations, describing their projects and explaining how they used their talents, innovative ideas, business concepts and the power of entrepreneurial action to create career opportunities for FIU graduates and to raise the standard of living for underserved communities in mutually beneficial ways.

Presenters Estela Lewin, Kyrsten Alvarez-Basulto, Laura Osorio,Jocelyn Benitez, Dennis Gibson and Lureida Soto

The presenters and their topics were Kyrsten Alvarez-Basulto, Healthy Bodies: The Importance of Healthy Lifestyle in Sweetwater; Jocelyn Benitez and Dennis Gibson—Books for the Future: Reading in Sweetwater; Estela Lewin—Baan ChivitMai: a home for a new life based on a study abroad experience in Thailand; Laura Osorio—Heart10: Altruistic Shopping; and Lureida Soto—Financial Plan for Homeless, Chapman Partnership, Miami, Florida.

Student presenter Lureida Soto and judges Karen Paul, professor, Department of Management and International Business; Flavio Carrillo, director, State Farm Financial Literacy Lab; Jane Gilbert, Wells Fargo; Nicole Kaufman, senior director, Corporate and Foundation Relations, FIU; and Adele Mann, ADP. Deanne Butchey (PhD ’05), senior lecturer, Department of Finance, and Donald Roomes, instructor, Department of Management and International Business, are co-advisors for the FIU Enactus group.

Though the students were auditioning for a chance to compete in Atlanta, Georgia on April 2^nd, the judges agreed that the caliber of the presentations made it impossible to choose, so all will represent FIU at the competition.