Heritage University is proving itself a worthy adversary of larger, and in some cases high-profile, academic institutions. Call it a modern-day version of David vs. Goliath.
When it comes to the Toppenish university’s Enactus team, older colleges and universities with larger enrollments anxiously wait to learn what new projects and ideas the group has devised.
“It’s the craziest … when you walk into a room and (other teams) know what your projects are and they’re afraid of you,” said Zia Lohrasbi, the team’s chief executive officer. “People come with laptops and notebooks writing information and wondering whether to be afraid.”
Enactus is an international nonprofit which promotes entrepreneurship for improving the quality of life of others. To better showcase what colleges, universities and businesses are doing through Enactus, several countries host regional and, ultimately, national competitions to find stand out teams. An international competition is planned in Toronto in September.
Last month, Heritage’s Enactus team finished fourth in the national competition in St. Louis, Missouri among 250 other colleges and universities. That was after winning an 11th consecutive regional title earlier in the year. Since 2004, the university’s team has placed in the top four in the national competition five times — more than anyone else, Heritage officials say.
This year, three projects in particular helped the team nearly win it all. The first focused on the growth of Camp SEED, a summer program for at-risk 11- to 14-year-olds, teaching participants social, economic and environmental development through activities and projects. What started as a partnership with Mabton and Toppenish schools has since expanded into Wapato, White Swan, Zillah and the Yakama Nation Tribal School, and includes about 120 children.
Nicole Lopez, 20, was tasked with doubling the camp to its size of 120, proving successful in the end. She said the team’s expansion efforts caught the attention of Microsoft, which has agreed to send officials to speak at the camp this summer.
A senior majoring in business administration, Lopez said she hopes her talks with Microsoft, which started Enactus competitions, could help her land a job with the software giant.
“We’ve gotten quite a few job offers,” said Lohrasbi, 20, also a senior in business administration. When teams present in Enactus competitions, they are usually judged by representatives from several businesses, such as Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola. If officals from those companies and others are impressed with what they see and hear, networking likely will follow, he said.
This year, it wasn’t just Camp SEED that attracted attention. Another project focused on training of indigenous peoples in Panama to use machinery to increase earnings from rice crops.
The third project presented was a local effort teaching seasonal farmworkers how to dehydrate apples and sell them year-round to clients in the Seattle area. Lohrasbi said the team reached 10 families, each was provided a simple $300 dehydration machine, taught them how to use the machines and given a basic business tutorial. The families produced the dehydrated apples, mostly cut up as apple chips, and sold them in bulk.
Through their connections, Heritage Enactus would help find clients willing to purchase dehydrated fruit.
They are still selling apples to Seattle-area clients, resulting in significant income for the families.
“The families receive about $500 to $600 a month,” he said. “And it takes no work, either, to dehydrate apples.”
Both Lohrasbi and Lopez, and Heritage President John Bassett, credit the team’s decade-long success to team advisor Len Black, who is set to retire at the end of the month. Black worked at Heritage for more than 17 years.
“He really is the heart and soul,” Bassett said.
Heritage’s reputation is a nice turn of events for a team that in its first competition was characterized by a judged having the “worst performance I’ve ever seen” or so Bassett was told secondhand. And while first place beckons, Bassett says the team already is a top winner.
“I thought they were the best of the four but I’m prejudiced,” he said.
This report has been updated to correct how much money families are getting for dehydrating apples.
