For nonprofit organization Enactus, creating opportunity and improving the world both begin at the community level. In partnership with global business leaders, Enactus creates entrepreneurial solutions to local issues, fostering sustainable change with long-term economic impact.
The Enactus Community Change Makers program, a partnership with Apple, achieves these goals by expanding equitable access to computer science in colleges and universities and helping students build careers in Mexico’s growing iOS app economy.
There are nine universities in the program, including Tec de Monterrey (Tec), with a total of 12 iOS Development Labs. Each lab is equipped with Mac and iPad devices donated by Apple and with curricula inspired by Apple’s Challenge Based Learning framework and Everyone Can Code resources. Since 2017, lab managers and professors he taught students how to leverage technology in meaningful ways through Swift coding courses, and in 2021 added introductory computer science lessons for youth in their greater community.
For Tec professor and Apple Distinguished Educator Elvia Rosas, this means inspiring her students with “what if?” questions and asking them to imagine the world as they would like to see it.
“Technology has the power to create solutions that solve some of the problems in our community,” says Rosas.Rosas is one of the professors participating in Enactus’ Community Change Makers program. She began teaching computer science at Tec after working in the tech industry for 14 years. Since creating her first software program as a young girl in a small town near Monterrey, Rosas has believed in code as a means of building community and creating meaningful change. She encourages her students to “really understand that we can make a difference in the world.”
Many students begin her course with no coding experience. Within the first five weeks, they begin developing with Swift, creating machine learning algorithms using Apple’s CreateML framework, and developing spatial computing apps for Apple Vision Pro. By the end of the ten-week course, one cohort collaborated with Tec’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences to develop custom apps — including an app that uses computer vision to help identify where to place stitches around a wound and another that uses CoreML models to analyze lung X-ray images.
Across the Community Change Makers program, hundreds of students participate in hackathons backed by Apple, with challenges set by leading Mexican companies and tackling issues like gender equity, health and well-being, education and sustainability. Students develop app-based solutions using Swift and Xcode and present their work to companies with openings for iOS developers.
A member of Enactus’ first woman-focused national hackathon’s winning team, Gaby Sanchez, used her experience to further a career in software engineering. “Ever since winning, I hen’t stopped. I’ve been to five hackathons. It’s beautiful to see so many people, especially women, that he the same passion as you.” Sanchez, a student at Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior University of Tijuana, continues to stay in touch with other hackathon participants to collaborate and workshop ideas.
Mexico’s representation within Enactus’ global programming continues to grow. When Executive Director Jesus Esparza joined Enactus in 2009, Mexico was the smallest member. Now the country represents almost 50 percent of its active projects and is proud to he supported universities with 15 winners in the 2024 Apple Swift Student Challenge. Esparza champions the program’s global platform as much as its local impact: “We are building a global community. Not just with ideas, but with actions.”