A team of City University of Seattle Enactus students placed fourth out of 444 schools nationally in the Enactus United States National Exposition on May 22 in Kansas City, Missouri, making them the first team from the Seattle area to ever rank in the national final four.

At the competition, the team of CityU students showcased the social entrepreneurial work they’ve done this academic year on their signature projects:

• Fertilives: The students partnered with Rainier School, which provides training to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, to help the school develop organic compost from recycled food waste so that the school can produce and sell it and use the proceeds to help run the organization. Additional community partners include Operation: Sack Lunch and Orchard Supply Hardware.
• One Text Away: The students helped provide local homeless individuals a phone number to text to receive information about jobs, shelter, food and clothing from social services via SMS. Community partners include: Chief Seattle Club, FareStart, Mary’s Place, Millionair Club Charity, Tom Douglas Restaurants and ZipWhip.
• The Green Energy Center: The students designed a smokeless stove that provides a way to cook food while generating electricity through thermal energy to support under-resourced communities in places like Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Gabon, Africa. Partners include: Duwamish Industrial Innovation Center, Enactus University of Puerto Rico Humacao, Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves Guatemala and Jiko Power.

The students had advanced from the Western Regional competition in San Bruno, California, in April. The national competition was made up of 86 schools, and the team advanced through semifinals into the final four where they competed and placed fourth.

The 10 students on the CityU Enactus competition presentation team represented eight different countries: Australia, China, India, Mongolia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

“Seeing all the hard work we’ve done recognized was an unbelievable feeling,” said City University of Seattle Enactus President Sophia Haccou.