Fending off the likes of Warwick and Bristol universities, a group of nine students stormed their way into the second day of the competition, finishing semi-final runners up behind Nottingham.

“It was wonderful to see a team like Bedfordshire compete so brilliantly against universities who operate Enactus on a much bigger scale.” Those were the thoughts of Nicola Battle, University Business Adviser at KPMG, a leading provider of professional services and one of the Big Four auditors.

One of the main reasons for the strong performance was the presentation of Enactus Bedfordshire's work with the Roma community in Luton, empowering them through language and literacy. That project, entitled Rewriting Fate, achieved second place nationally for the ‘Diversity’ award at the finals, whilst also being voted third in KPMG’s award for ‘Inspiring Confidence and Empowering Change’.

Paul Harrison, University Adviser for the Careers and Employability Service, wasn’t surprised by the team’s success, especially with regard to the groundbreaking work with the Roma:

“This was a great performance,” he said. “Our students received plaudits from the different judges representing major national employers.

“A judge from Lloyds Bank commented on the excellent commitment and results achieved working with the Roma.

“We have the only Enactus team in the country who are working with this hard-to-reach community and are making progress that many statutory bodies are envious of.”

The University’s success was further cemented by team leader Alex Iftime’s victory in Enactus’ Placement Student Team Engagement Award, in recognition of the Business Decision Management student’s ‘great commitment and performance’ during his placement with Network Rail.

Enactus Bedfordshire students involved at the finals were:

• Maddie Vararu (Marketing)
• Ben Nightingale (Accounting and Finance)
• Rita Goncalves (Public Relations)
• Alex Iftime (Business Decision Management)
• Dessi Dimitrova (Psychology)
• Teresa Valente (Psychology)
• Andre Ilie-Blaga (Marketing)
• Sanchez Cunningham (Business Studies)
• Sebastian Bosslet (Business Decision Management)

Check out the team’s Facebook and Twitter pages to get involved, or contact Paul Harrison paul.harrison@beds.ac.uk in the Careers and Employability Service.