Campus Celeb: Deeya D’Souza

What is your role as Vice President of the Enterprise society?

My role as Vice President is basically to support the rest of the committee. I help ensure events run well, allocate budgets, contribute to the big decisions and ensure their implementation. As a committee, we would like to reach as many people as possible, so at events like the Fresher’s Fair, our job was to market the society really well.

Could you tell me a bit more about the Enterprise society?

We’re called Inc. for short and we focus on social enterprise, which is basically business ventures for society’s greater good. We host events where we have entrepreneurs speak about how they started their business and how it benefits the community. For example, we hosted the founder of the Wriggle Bristol – an app that offers discounted food and drinks, which a lot of students are using at the moment. We even showcase local breweries that not only come to market, but also inform us on how they started and where they are headed in the future. We really do try to support local businesses and host an event every fortnight. Essentially, we’d just like to provide students with information at the forefront of innovation, which may help them think more creatively and show them what’s out there.

What does Inc. have lined up?

On the 21st of November, we have the RISE Social Enterprise Conference. It’s a joint event with Bristol Hub and we’ve gotten speakers from many of the social enterprises that helped Bristol gain the ‘Green Capital’ title. It’ll be a great day of workshops, networking and inspirational talks!

If you’re interested, tickets are still available here.

What is your plan for the future?

I’m hoping to get into a career in finance, whether that be in asset management or investment banking. After this, I want to use the skills I’ve cultivated to start my own business, which I feel will be more manageable later in life. I’d just like to reach a position where I’m in a rewarding career.

How does being in the Enterprise society relate to your employment prospects?

A committee role in any society is very beneficial because it gives you the obvious skills of team work, organization and negotiability. You often have to sit in meetings where you have to succinctly get your view across to other members. It’s definitely given me a greater degree of entrepreneurial knowledge because I’ve been exposed to so many different business practices that all have such diverse backgrounds. I also feel that it has helped me approach situations from different angles, which is a key skill in finance.

• Inc