21 March, 2018

The CIT Societies Awards were held at CIT’s Bishopstown campus, Students Centre on 21st of March 2018. A wide range of societies are represented across the institute with many applying to the societies awards looking to be recognised for their hard work and dedication throughout the year.

ENACTUS CIT, the CIT society with the aim to ‘use entrepreneurial action to empower people to improve their livelihoods in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way’, were awarded the “Risam Uile” award, meaning to achieve everything, which is CIT’s motto.

The introduction of the Enactus movement in to CIT and continued support and mentorship has been provided by the Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence and The School of Business in CIT.

Kiran Shaju, president of ENACTUS CIT, discussed what it means for the society to have gained this recognition and won this prize and what the active and innovative society envisions for the society in the future.

You applied for the CIT Societies awards. What led you to apply for these awards? “Throughout this year ENACTUS CIT has been very active and was actively involved in working on the two projects, Renewable Restoration and Cocoon. The society made remarkable progress during the year, that is to say, Renewable Restoration conducted many workshop sessions with students from Cork life Centre, the Cocoon team are actively working on a working prototype while organising a workshop session with the students from Youth Reach. It was necessary that these handworks, put in by our motivated members, must be recognised throughout CIT, hence the reason for applying for this award."

You won the "Risam Uile" award. Did you hope to win any of other awards?

"We were hoping to win the ‘Most improved society of the year’ award as we felt that we had stepped up massively in terms of making impacts on our projects and having a better influence around college. We had more sign ups this year and more actively involved members. Furthermore, we organised more events around college this year to promote ENACTUS i.e. summits, talks, bake sales etc.” "Risam Uile" means to “have achieved everything”, and it is the motto of the CIT.

What does it mean for you to have won this prize?

As the award say itself, “have achieved everything”, we believe we have achieved everything. It is an honour to be awarded this prestigious award at the CIT Societies awards. For us winning this award is a recognition of all the hours and hard work put into each project by our driven members, and to realise that CIT consider us worthy enough to win this award is a bonus for us. We hope that through this award, our society will get more publicity among the students in CIT campus, and will encourage more people to join the society.

Do you believe that this award is consistent with your values as ENACTUS CIT society?

Yes, this award recognises not only our work ethic, but also the social impacts that we, as a society, are making within our community. The aim of ENACTUS CIT is to empower the disadvantaged by making an impact through our entrepreneurial action. I believe this award, completely recognises our social involvement and encourages it.

Tell us a little bit about ENACTUS, a society that has representatives in many countries around The World.

Founded in 2011, ENACTUS Ireland is a charitable organisation, which develops future talent by enabling third level students to create, and implement, social entrepreneurial projects that positively affect our local and global communities. ENACTUS is currently actively in operation in 36 different countries around the world. ENACTUS has established the largest global business and higher education network in the world. This unique network brings together the knowledge of professional business educators and the expertise of business leaders to focus the potential of university students preparing for leadership roles in business.

What about ENACTUS CIT? How do you make a difference?

ENACTUS CIT was set up in 2015 and is in its third year of being active. Over the three years, ENACTUS CIT has been working with numerous charities and organisations such as Churchfield community, Cork Life Centre and Youth Reach. The society has been directly involved in certain aspects of these organisations through the projects such as Compass Crafts, Cocoon and Renewable Restoration. The society has made numerous direct and indirect impacts with in these organisations. The society was also successful in empowering participants from these organisations such as providing workshop for students from Cork Life Centre; through these workshops, we were able to teach them technical skills.

During these years, do you think ENACTUS has changed/improved?

Over the years, I certainly believe that ENACTUS have improved. The ENACTUS community in general are tackling more social issues and are coming up with more innovative solutions. ENACTUS has also been encouraging their participants by bringing in more competitions, such as water race, more partnership, such as ENACTUS Ireland’s partnership with CITI Bank, and the partners are offering more help and guidance for students to develop their ideas. Therefore, it is fair to say that ENACTUS has been improving over the years and will do so in the future.

What are the next steps / action plans for ENACTUS CIT?

We have planned to have more workshops with the organisations, such as Cork Life Centre and Youth Reach. We hope to make more impacts in the coming weeks. Since the academic year is drawing to a close at this stage, this means that all ENACTUS teams in Ireland are preparing for the National Competition. Similarly, ENACTUS CIT are also in the process of preparing for the national competition. We hope to put in an excellent presentation at the nationals, and hope to justify all the efforts and works we have put in for the projects throughout the year. After the nationals, we are all looking forward to the ENACTUS World Cup, which will take place this October in San Jose, California. Currently two bursaries are offered by KPMG. However, we are hoping to send at least four students over to the World Cup. 

The top prizes on the night included:

• Best Academic Society
• Best New Society
• Most Improved Society
• “Rísam Uile” Award

In addition, societies were also honoured in the following categories: “best supreme event”, “best small event”, “best fresher”, “best individual” and other individual awards.