Longhofer Heads To Entrepreneurial Championship

Wellington resident and Flagler College honor student Dean Longhofer will be a key member of the St. Augustine-based institution’s winning team going to Cancun, Mexico this month to compete for the coveted Enactus World Cup. They will be challenging teams of aspiring young entrepreneurs from colleges and universities representing 37 other nations.

Enactus, which stands for Entrepreneurs In Action, is a prestigious, nonprofit global organization of student, academic and business leaders that promotes entrepreneurialism and social responsibility.

Longhofer sparked the Flagler College team that outclassed 500 other American college entries to walk away with the U.S. National Enactus Championships for the third time.

This year, Flagler’s Enactus chapter took top honors in the national competition by launching and implementing five instructional programs for youthful prison inmates in St. Augustine at the St. Johns Juvenile Correctional Facility and the Hastings Youth Center. The unique, successful effort was designed to combat recidivism and enable the young offenders to transition upon their release to meaningful employment.

Enactus teams, like those at Flagler, seek to create authentic economic opportunities in their local communities by organizing effective, practical outreach projects focusing on market realities, entrepreneurship, financial skills and business ethics that can pave the way to good-paying jobs.