Kailynn Bannon
The Southern Editor
Two business organizations at Florida Southern College recently became recognized by the Student Government Association, adding to the list of business and innovation opportunities for students to pursue on campus.
After being dissolved for nearly two years due to COVID-19, the FSC chapter of Enactus is back and ready to get to work again. They started the club back up toward the end of last semester, and look forward to recruiting more people to the team next fall.
Founded in 1975, Enactus is an organization that uses entrepreneurship to create positive social and environmental change. The FSC chapter was started in 2013. They support students in coming up with business ideas that attempt to solve global issues.
The club died down once students stopped showing up to online team meetings and most of the executive board, including the president, graduated. However, last semester, they decided it was time to restart.
It all started with a phone call that took place Sept. 2022. Dr. Silviana Falcon, business professor and chapter advisor, called a former member of Enactus to see if she and a group of students would want to go to the Enactus World Cup in Puerto Rico. That former Enactus member is now the FSC chapter’s current president, Morgan MacMillan.
After taking notes and gaining insight during that three-day conference in Puerto Rico, the team was inspired by the winning project to begin working on their own project, thus starting back up the FSC chapter.
MacMillan says that Enactus is an “organization that strives to find problems that are global,” but that they also work on statewide and local issues.
“It is also a great way to network with other countries and find out problems that they might be experiencing that we aren’t, but we are all working together to solve world issues,” said MacMillan
The club currently has around 12 members working on their first project since restarting at FSC. Planning on partnering with Florida Polytechnic University, the group is participating in the 1 Race 4 Oceans competition in an attempt to find use for the Lionfish, a harmful invasive species.
“We are trying to make people aware that [Lionfish] are venomous, not poisonous. So that is why they are okay to eat,” said MacMillan. “So we’re trying to use the venom for medicine, utilize the quills for jewelry and just teach people how to eat the fish so there’s more incentive to get these fish and that the fish are being used 100%.”
The chapter wants to start adding more members soon so they can start adding on more projects.
“We’re in the works of bringing up Enactus again and starting recruitment in the fall semester,” said sophomore at FSC and Vice President of Finance of the chapter Galilea Delgado.
While being an inherently business-centered club, the chapter does not require students to be a business major to enroll. In fact, they encourage the opposite.
“There is a huge misconception that [the club] is just for business students, which it’s not,” said MacMillan. “We’re trying to get students from every single major.”
Skills and knowledge from many sectors are needed with a project like this one, which is why the chapter wants to recruit students in majors such as fashion and biology.
“We want Enactus to be more inclusive throughout the whole school,” said Delgado.
The chapter recently renewed their SGA affiliation after becoming an official organization once again.
Along with the reinstatement of Enactus, business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi became recognized by the SGA on Jan. 19 from a majority vote during President’s Circle.
Toward the end of 2022, SGA changed their bylaws to allow professional fraternities to be SGA recognized organizations. DSP petitioned to become SGA recognized during last month’s President’s Circle, which was approved.
Previous to becoming SGA affiliated, DSP had been a Recognized Student Organization, meaning they could attend Blast Off, Relaunch and President’s Circle, but had no voting privileges or funding.
Founded in 1907, DSP is a professional co-ed business fraternity. The FSC chapter, Delta Iota, started in 1957 with a focus on professional development, networking and philanthropic service.
“Anyone who is a business major is able to join, and our main goal is to help students develop professionally,” said Ben Greenman, former DSP president and current member.
The chapter hosts several fundraisers and community service events, ranging from cleaning up lakes to collecting canned goods for hurricane victims. Partnered with the Ronald McDonald House Charities, DSP ensures their brothers have opportunities to be both charitable and professional.
“We like to be philanthropic and also have a sense of brotherhood and social aspect on top of all of our professional development,” said Greenman.
The 80 members of the chapter give back to their community through service and donations.
“It has also been a semester filled with fun, service and giving,” said Chapter President Alex Blankenship in a School of Business newsletter. “We raised over 100 canned foods as part of a holiday drive for hurricane victims. We packed over 200 SnackPacks for Ronald McDonald House in Tampa. We also collected toys for local toy drives at our holiday party.”
Both DSP and Enactus are hosting events soon for fundraising and recruiting, including making dog toys for shelters and selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
