UW-Whitewater Enactus earns national championship

May 30, 2025

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Enactus team, an organization that uses business as a force of good to improve people’s lives and their communities, was named the 2025 Enactus USA champion last week at the Enactus United States Expo in Kansas City, Missouri.

This group of Warhawks will now represent the country as Team USA at the Enactus World Cup, set for this September in Bangkok, Thailand. They’ll compete alongside the top teams from more than 30 countries around the world.

UW-Whitewater last claimed the Enactus national title in 2021. The team is supported by the College of Business and Economics and advised by Choton Basu, professor of information technology and supply chain management.

Basu said the chapter’s two primary collaborations — an existing international project that empowers women, and a new project focused on supporting rural America — set the UW-Whitewater Enactus team apart from others in the nation and propelled it to win the 2025 national championship.

ProChapina

Students and faculty have been working with ProChapina, a nonprofit organization that serves to support, educate, uplift, and empower women in Guatemala through professional training programs and other services, since 2019.

Last year, Enactus teamed with UW-Whitewater’s American Marketing Association chapter — the 2025 International Chapter of the Year — to build a sustainable business plan with marketing and fundraising services for ProChapina. Two students from each group, along with AMA faculty advisor Lauren Drury, visited Antigua, Guatemala, for one week last summer to discuss product development and sales and to immerse themselves in Guatemalan culture.

 

 

The team turned its focus to marketing this past year, working with the university and businesses in the area to gauge interest in selling ProChapina products, which include hand-crafted goods and other services.

RenewTowns

Over the last year, UW-Whitewater students and faculty have worked with three Wisconsin cities as part of Enactus’ RenewTowns project.

The goal of the project is to drive sustainable economic growth and revitalization in communities. Enactus has teamed with organizations and business leaders in Fort Atkinson, Cambridge, and Wauwatosa to build business pitch competitions that offer free rent and other incentives to small businesses who set up in the downtown areas of those communities.

For example, Enactus worked with Collaborative 532 on the Cambridge Storefront Competition to bring a small business to one of the vacant spaces in downtown Cambridge. In Fort Atkinson, the latest winner of the RenewTowns storefront competition was Tidy Tails, a dog grooming business that captured the community’s heart.

As with other participating towns, the winning entrepreneur received a year of free rent — a powerful incentive designed to jumpstart small business growth on Main Streets across rural America.

The student-led initiative is more than just the prize. RenewTowns is sparking a movement that unites community members, unlocks local resources, and creates a ripple effect of sustainable growth by bringing life back to vacant storefronts. It’s an economic — and emotional — revival.

“What’s unique about this project — and what continues to impress the Enactus judges — is its unwavering focus on rural America,” Basu said. “The direct beneficiaries are the small towns, the mom-and-pop stores, and the wonderful communities that are the country's beating heart. We’re using cutting-edge business tools to support the places and people we care about. We’re working to uplift the folks you hear about in a Springsteen or Mellencamp song.”