Maynooth University team wins Enactus Competition for its Access Earth app

A team from Maynooth University has won the 2015 Enactus Ireland National Competition for Social Entrepreneurship and will now represent Ireland at the 2015 Enactus World Cup in South Africa in October.

The team won the competition for its Access Earth project. Access Earth is an app that allows users to find reliable and up-to-date accessibility information about places and businesses.

Last July, the team won third place in the World Citizenship category of Microsoft’s international competition, Imagine Cup, also for Access Earth.

Enactus is an international organization that encourages university students to make a positive difference to their communities and develop the skills to become socially responsible business leaders of the future. In the annual competition, students come together to present projects they have developed over the last 12 months.

In this year’s contest, student teams representing seven of Ireland’s higher education institutions presented their outreach efforts to a judging panel of 39 senior business leaders, who evaluated the quality and impact of the projects.

“We’re thrilled with our win and really looking forward to representing Ireland and our university at the World Cup,” said Darren Smith, a third-year law student and captain of the winning team. “Preparing for the Enactus Ireland National Competition has been a fantastic experience. It’s given us valuable team building, fundraising, research, and presentation skills, and we hope that through our project, we’ve been able to make a real contribution and improvement to the lives of people in our community.”

“All the student teams involved this year have shown tremendous understanding of how their entrepreneurial skills and talents can be used to bring about real change in their communities,” said Enactus Ireland chairperson Terence O’Rourke. “Each team’s passion, determination, and desire to transform lives is inspirational.”

Click here for details of all the team projects. 

Grainne Rothery