“In so many different ways, the community gives so much to Union and us as Union students. So I think it’s also important to be able to give back to them.”
Hattie Thomasson, senior accounting major and president of Enactus, sat across from me outside of Barefoots. Despite flying in from out of state last night and getting ready to drive home for fall break, Thomasson made it a priority to discuss her club with me. Clearly, she is passionate about its mission.
“Enactus is kind of a community service based organization,” Thomasson said. “And our goal is to find needs, either in the Union community or the greater Jackson community, and then find a way to fulfill those needs in an entrepreneurial and sustainable way.”
I think I understand. “So you’re trying to not just help the community but equip them to help themselves?”
“The best way to kind of explain the club is the saying, ‘Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime,’” Thomasson said. “And that’s kind of our goal, is to teach people ‘how to fish.’”
I asked Thomasson if she has any examples of ways the club has done that already. She smiled, immediately launching into a list of past initiatives.
“We did this thing for a few years called ‘Skills For A Better Future.’ And so we basically developed this curriculum that kind of encompasses financial literacy and just basic life skills that you maybe don’t learn in high school or college, but that you need to be successful in life,” Thomasson said. “We partnered with a local women’s shelter, and then we also did that with ‘Keep My Hood Good’ for a more children’s friendly version.”
“We wanted to be able to teach people who maybe don’t have certain skills — who don’t know how to save well, or don’t know how to take out a loan and things like that — to kind of help themselves,” Thomasson said.
Dani Beth Moffett, a sophomore business administration major, became a member because of the community service focus of Enactus.
“I’m really excited about the nonprofit stuff because that was one of the main reasons that I joined,” Moffett said. “I’m excited to see how we can get involved with local nonprofits, and how that opens up that kind of atmosphere to Union.”
Enactus is one of the many ways Union University encourages its students to plug in not just to campus but to Jackson as well.
“Something that Union presses is the importance of being involved in the community outside of just the Union community,” Thomasson said, leaning forward as she spoke. “So whether that’s getting involved in a church or volunteering at RIFA or somewhere else, I think it helps you to get outside of the ‘Union bubble’ and see the way other people are living, see things that you don’t see every day and to just learn from that.”
“There are tons and tons of nonprofits in Jackson who all have such great missions and causes,” Moffett said. “So I’m really excited because they all make such a big difference in our community. And I think the more that people know about them, the more that they can get involved too.”
It’s not just nonprofits Enactus is involved with. The club seeks to educate and help on campus as well. Ever heard the word atychiphobia? Or learned why Chick-Fil-A’s business model is so successful? If so, that’s probably because of Enactus’ “Stall Street Journals,” short articles they write and display in bathroom stalls around Union.
“One of the projects that I head up is Stall Streets,” Thomasson said. “I did this one article, and I tried to make it kind of fun and I talked about One Direction in it and some other stuff like that. And it was up over the summer, and I had a bunch of people from Fuge camp find me on Instagram and DM me, and they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love your article, thank you so much.’ Oh my goodness, I loved being able to see that the journal has a positive impact because yeah, they thought it was fun and interesting, but they also probably learned a little bit while they read it.”
Thomasson smiled. It’s cool to think of these Stall Streets intended for one audience to accidentally engage a different one, and to do it so well. I asked her why she thinks the Stall Street Journal exists in the first place.
“I don’t really know how or when it started,” Thomasson said mildly. “It’s been going on for a really long time. Mainly, our goal is to provide practical information for people to be able to learn something quick, and maybe if it’s something that interests them or something that they need to know more about, to encourage them to take time to go figure that out.”
It seems that is the ultimate goal of Enactus — to engage the community in a fun, helpful way, but one that will enable the community to help itself most of all. All of the Stall Streets are designed to grow the reader, whether through tips on leadership skills or bloviation on the success of our favorite fast food chains. And on each Stall Street Journal is a link to a request form.
“So we take old laptops, and then we give them to students on campus who don’t have one,” Thomasson said “We have a request form on our Stall Streets. There is basically like some kind of software or program that we have to where we’re able to, like, clean the laptops and refurbish them, and then they’re like a new working laptop. And you just fill out a form saying, ‘Hey, I need a computer,’ and then as soon as we have one available, we can get that.”
Enactus has been able to provide many students with a way to access their schoolwork because of this initiative. Whether Enactus is writing Stall Streets, helping nonprofits or refurbishing laptops, its priority is the same: To educate the community around it and help them find ways to help themselves. To teach the men to fish. But the biggest question lies unanswered. Isn’t Enactus just a club for those in the school of business?
Thomasson shook her head. “Enactus is through the school of business, but it’s not just school of business people, and we don’t want it to be. I think the best way that you can help people is by seeing things from different perspectives. And so when we’re able to incorporate people from all different majors, whether it be an art major or a communications major or whoever, we’re going to be able to help more people that way and be more effective. I think we just have a good time, and if anybody’s interested I would encourage them to come to one of our meetings.”
Here to help educate and serve the Jackson community, Enactus is an intentional club that seeks for ways to fill the needs of those around it.
Enactus is open to all majors and meets Wednesdays at noon in BAC 41.
