Tomsk: A cold winter, a warm people and a very welcoming Enactus team

In December, we received an offer from Enactus France to participate in international winter school, in fact Enactus Tomsk state university (in Siberia) organised this event !

As soon as i received the invitation, I told myself: “I can’t miss this opprtunity to visit Russia especially Siberia! in order to meet new people from all over the world and learn new things about social entrepreneurship”

So we were three Enactus students from France, we talked a lot on Facebook to prepare the visa, the clothing … And we finally met at the airport. Lena and Kaan were both coming from Neoma business school, the national Enactus champion team and i was coming from Bordeaux university .

AND THE JOURNEY BEGAN

I played the role of the parent during the flight :) I was waking them for meals, landings, making sure that they was ok… We finally arrived to Tomsk, unfortunately the company lost my luggage back in Moscow. Beautifull Sophia, the Enactus TSU team-leader was waiting for us and she helped me to fill in the forms… (I got my lauggage back two days later)

It was fucking -26 degrees out there! we went to the dormitory and met with the other participants and member of the local team… we were nearby thirty , from Canada, Brasil, Morocco, India, England, France, Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries. at the end we were one big internationnal family, I love you guys and miss you so much!

For 12 days, we worked at the incubator during the day, and had fun in some extra activities the evenings!

We were dispatched on 6 teams and had to work on a different SDG (Sustainable Developpement Goals) and create a social entreprise in that field, each team contained people from different countries, and it was great to work all together, share our views and work on business! At the end each team introduced the project that they created, and the results were just amazing!

We also had a lot of fun, we visited the region, we did some traditional local dancing, went dog-slidding and for sure drank a lot! Russian vodka baby :D

It was an amazing experience, meeting all this engaged students from all over the world, working together, sharing our experiences and having FUN.

I think tomorrow’s world will be wrought by such ChangeMakers, the world needs more of this meetings. Promote social entrepreneurship all over the world by sharing different visions and experiences …