I’ve written before about how badly marketed marketing is, the bad rep it has and how many of us regularly have to defend our profession. My family is made up of artists/designers and educators with the remainder, entrepreneurs and/or working in business, deemed capitalists. I fit somewhere in between but leaning more towards business. The next generation, our children, are starting their college careers and I’ve witnessed the hushed disappointment when the first two, both high achievers, have chosen to study business over science or humanities. ‘What a waste’, ‘they could have done something worthwhile‘, I’ve heard them say.
Giving Something Back (in advance)
This week, my son is in San Jose, California with his university’s Enactus society. Enactus is the world’s largest experiential learning platform dedicated to creating a better world while developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators and they are active across 1,730 campuses in 36 countries.
Team DCU are in Silicon Valley to compete in the Enactus World Cup having won the Irish Nationals earlier in the year. That all sounds great but what it really means is that my son and his teammates have been working tirelessly for the last year building sustainable, values-driven social enterprises. Again, that all sounds pretty fab but what they’ll be doing is presenting the projects they’ve been working on in all their spare time throughout the academic year and the summer, yes during our recent heatwave. These are:
- Threads – a project that empowers people seeking asylum in Ireland through the up-cycling of unwanted jeans to create customised denim clothing.
- Giveback.ie – a chrome extension that directs a portion of money spent in online retailers towards tackling homelessness, you can download the extension here.
- Second Scoop – a project that provides work experience, training and mentoring opportunities to people seeking asylum in Ireland through a mobile pop-up ice cream vendor targeting corporate, social and educational events.
So while they might not be writing poetry or cracking DNA codes, they’re certainly honing their skills to make the world a better place and there are not many undergrads that can say that. Best of luck to Enactus DCU and as one of the hashtags for the event sums it up: #WeAllWin.
Apologies for stroking the image from Aisling’s twitter stream.