Renée Horster
Name: Renée Horster
Degree: phycology and management
Year: 4th year
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Star Sign: Aires
Sophie Jones
Name: Sophie Jones
Degree: English literature
Year: 4th year
Hometown: Manchester
Star Sign: Aries
Life in St Andrews
What do you enjoy about St Andrews?
Renée: The proximity of everything within St Andrews, creating a smooth atmosphere for both working and social sides of life. It has helped to facilitate the setting aspects of Enactus St Andrews.
Sophie: I enjoy how beautiful Scotland is and how lucky I am to live here.
What’s your favourite night out in St Andrews?
Sophie: Minimood – although I couldn’t get in last week.
Renée: Wine and dinner with friends.
What is your favourite St Andrews tradition?
Renée: May dip is always really fun.
Sophie: Raison, particularly my second year. I’m not so keen on keen on Sunday pier walk.
What do you enjoy about the summer semester?
Renée: The fact that it is finally getting lighter; spring break; the dynamic mood for semester as everybody begins to get excited for the summer.
Sophie: I enjoy not having to wear a jacket.
Where is your favourite place in St Andrews?
Renée: My back garden – it’s fairy-tale like.
Sophie: I love the sunrises on the beach.
Sophie and Renée are both project managers of Enactus St Andrews, with Sophie heading PR and disABILITY project; Renée is project manager of reharvest. Enactus St Andrews is a social enterprise venture they describe as ‘a student organisation under the umbrella of Enactus HQ which facilitates students to set up their own enterprises’. They emphasise their role as empowering and supporting others, revealing – very philosophically – that Enactus St Andrews is ‘not a charity; it’s deeper than that’. Together with four current ongoing projects, they have a think tank in operation – researching and generating new projects while collaborating closely with Fife Council.
Both are enthusiastic, confident and articulate in the importance of social enterprises – establishing solid and sustainable business models for a productive and proactive end. They insist social enterprises really engage with vulnerable people in a more effective and sustainable method rather than throwing money at the problem. Renée reminds us that ‘you can teach a man to fish, or you can give him a fish’, and highlights the amalgamation of problems that can be assisted by these enterprises: a combination of – for example – reducing food waste, creating work opportunities and improving food diets can all be combined in the same project.
In addition to the local sphere of the St Andrews branch, Sophie emphasises the growing trend and increase of social enterprises both internationally and within big companies. Sophie suggests that this could be a reaction against capitalism and the fallout from the global economic crisis. This world knowledge in combination with frequent smatterings of technical vocabulary such as ‘greenwashing,’ ‘gleaning’ and ‘discosoups’ – demonstrates their passion for the concept of social enterprises. This enthusiasm is extended to propositions of future endeavours that have worked elsewhere enterprises such as big public community lunches – called ‘feeding the five thousand’ events in Edinburgh; they are trying to replicate in combination with Transition St Andrews.
Renée’s project, reharvest, attempts to physically recover food that – for a variety of reasons – cannot be sold in the market. The business model revolves around recovering the food, turning it into something and then proceeding to sell it. The plan is to supplement women’s income who are deprived for a variety of reasons – including those suffering from domestic abuse and homelessness. Last semester they achieved considerable success for a prototype – recovering kale, turning it into chips, and then selling the product outside the library; the next initiative has been to make Sauerkraut from cabbages. Renée points out that once they had found willing famers from around Fife – for example Bellfield Organics or Pittormie Fruit farm, they have been incredibly supportive – happy that their hard effort to produce produce has not gone to waste.
Meanwhile, Sophie projects manages employABILITY, a scheme designed to create opportunities for the disabled people around Fife to find employment. She mentions that disabled people are often exclude both socially and personally from employment – that ‘ableism’ is strong in the work force. However, Sophie is working hard to reverse these trends, working closely with a number of individuals who have come forward wanting assistance – providing interview skills, gardening workshops – specific to each person’s needs. Moreover, Sophie reveals that the long term plan is to organise an individual mentoring program that can be specific to individual requirements for a sustainable relationship. Furthermore, the project also has a partnership with Ryman’s stationary to provide work experience, which they hope will become a national initiative.
The success of these projects can only be attributed to the motivation and enthusiasm of Sophie and Renée and their teams. They describe the most important characteristic concerning entrepreneurial ventures as simply being very proactive, and not giving up. The other important factor is believing in your idea and being passionate about it – people will eventually come around. They also emphasise the importance of building personal relationships – for example with individual farmers. These stotic qualities include calling 200 farmers around Fife, and the persistence to keep calling, emailing, and flyering to get a favourable outcome. Luckily, these girls have motivation in the bucket loads.
Not only are Renée and Sophie obviously motivated, enthusiastic and active; Enactus St Andrews has a large volunteer pool (100 on their mailing list) involved in a variety of different positions – from researching articles to driving volunteers to the cabbage fields! Sophie and Renée attribute this to their professional image and reputation as well as their intense publicity campaign. Students are additionally enticed by the pragmatic and, as Renée describes, ‘real world nature’ of the society, with close ties to the local community in Fife, as well as (of course) the potential for CV boosting transferable skills.
As Renée said when referring to her dream dinner party guest Niki de Saint Phalle, both these girls are undeniably, ‘feminist, but in a really cool way’, proving the cliché that a handful of bright, engaging and passionate people really can shape and improve the world around them.
Rapid Fire Round
Guilty Pleasure Food:
Sophie: Cheese and onion pasty from Greggs.
Renée: Fish and chips (despite being vegetarian).
TV show you’re most addicted to:
Renée: Breaking Bad.
Sophie: Girls.
Best music to dance to:
Renée: Happy electro music – ‘deep house’.
Sophie: Soundcloudy ‘house music’.
Favourite coffee spot:
Sophie: Taste does the best coffee. The Aquarium café – it’s the best experience in the world.
Renée: Taste for the taste. I also love Cottage Kitchen.
Dream travel destination:
Renée: South America.
Sophie: South island of New Zealand.
Dream dinner party guests:
Sophie: Emile Hirsch. Also Lena Dunham.
Renée: Niki de Saint Phalle – a French sculptor, painter and filmmaker.
Enactus St Andrews is a fantastic organisation with lots of opportunities to get involved in. Check out their Facebook page and their website for further information.