SIFE Team Wins at Chicago Regional Competition
Sife Team Members back row from left, Kelly Schwartzkopf, Kimberly Hoeltzel, Terra Teague, Nathan Hoffman, Kimberly Sinclair, David Kohn, Professor Ron Lemmon, Brandon Fry, Jesse Ramirez, Chelsey Foster, Shirey Nault, William Lambert, Samantha
Lazarowicz, Mark Lavengood.
Front row from left, Cairn McNicholas, Katie Boyer, Jamie Jakubik, Robin Reynolds, Rachel Pelton, Amanda Zielinski, Kristina Fuehring.
The Alma College Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Team returned to Alma as champions after participating in the Chicago, Ill., SIFE USA Regional Competition on March 27.
This is the fifth consecutive regional win for the Alma College SIFE team, qualifying the team to represent Alma College at the national SIFE competition in Kansas City, MO, May 21-23. The Alma SIFE team was also awarded "best overall" in 4 of the 6 special individual competition categories including: Market Economics, Business Ethics, Financial Literacy, and Success Skills.
The Alma SIFE team, consisting of 33 Alma College students, competed with 39 teams from campuses throughout the Midwest after pre-qualifying, based on project criteria and team member participation. The event was one of 17 SIFE USA Regional Competitions held across the United States. A win at the national competition would allow the team to advance to the SIFE World Cup, to be held in Paris, France September 11-13.
SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on over 1,800 university campuses in more than 40 countries. SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their communities by organizing outreach projects that teach market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills, and business ethics. Projects and presentation skills are judged by senior executives from fortune 500 companies, who base their decisions on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.
During the academic year, Alma College SIFE organized several projects on campus and throughout the Gratiot County community. On one noteworthy project, SIFE Café, Alma College SIFE members worked with the Alma College Library Renovation Committee to establish a student-operated café in the underutilized Colina Wing of the library. The new café will be managed by SIFE members, employing other campus organization members for daily operations. Profits from the café will be split between the SIFE team and participating campus organizations. The Alma SIFE team plans to open the new café in the Fall Term 2006.
The mission of Alma College SIFE is: “To raise the standard of living in Mid-Michigan by teaching the principles of free enterprise through a variety of educational outreach programs developed and implemented by dedicated Alma College students.” Ronald Lemmon, associate professor of business administration, has advised the team for the past five successful years.
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Posted: Fri, March 31st, 2006 at 8:56PM
