SIFE Team Wins Another Regional Title
The Alma College Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team claimed its
eighth consecutive regional championship after presenting its yearlong
community economic and business outreach projects to a panel of
business leaders March 24-25 in Chicago.
The regional win qualifies the team to represent Alma College at the
national SIFE competition in Chicago May 13-15. The national winner
advances to the SIFE international competition in Singapore in October.
The Alma SIFE team, consisting of 45 students, competed against teams
representing 38 colleges and universities throughout the Midwest. The
event was one of 16 SIFE Regional Competitions held across the United
States.
“This was our best year with the number of students and the quality of
our programs and presentations,” said Monroe senior Terra Teague, SIFE
president. “SIFE has worked on 16 projects involving more than 4,800
hours both on and off campus throughout the past academic year.”
Alma also received recognition as a national finalist in the Business
Ethics Competition for its project with the Michigan Department of
Corrections. The team developed an ethics game and related curriculum,
teaching at-risk youth at the Saginaw Juvenile Center about moral
choices using business ethics as a focus of the game. The team also set
up an interactive Web-based version of the game, which was accessed by
more than 2,000 students on the Internet, including students from as
far away as Germany.
“Because are partnership with the Department of Corrections was so
successful, we have been asked to expand the project next year to
include three additional sessions in juvenile department facilities,”
said Teague.
The project team was led by Alma senior Don Easlick and Greenville
sophomore Laura Kohn and supported by Alma sophomore Nina Beckman,
Midland freshman Marcy Gilstad, Orchard Lake sophomore Brad Gray,
Vestaburg sophomore Luke Grover, Haslett junior Dave Korte and Harbor
Springs senior Kaitlin Logan.
SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on more than
1,400 college and university campuses in 48 countries. SIFE teams
create economic opportunity in their communities by organizing outreach
projects that focus on market economics, entrepreneurship, personal
financial success skills, and business ethics.
SIFE has grown to become one of Alma College’s most active student organizations, said Teague.
“We had 10 members in 2004, and now we have 78 members, representing 6
percent of the total student body. We are the largest student
organization on campus,” she said.
At regional and national competitions, SIFE teams present the results
of their educational outreach projects and compete to determine which
team was most successful at creating economic opportunity for others.
Projects and presentation skills are judged by business executives, who
base their decisions on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.
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,” said Teague.
Posted: Fri, March 28th, 2008 at 10:37AM
