USU’s rookie SIFE team becomes regional champ
Though organized just this year, the Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team at Utah State University proved it’s a force to be reckoned with at a recent regional contest in Seattle, Wash. where it won both a Rookie of the Year and Regional Champion award.
The world-wide SIFE organization is “a collaborative effort between business and education. SIFE teams improve the quality of life and standard of living around the world by teaching the principles of market economics, business and entrepeneurship,” according to the official Web site at sife.org.
To this end, SIFE members at USU volunteer at a Lifetime Learning Center where they teach income management to low-income families and individuals, said Shannen Thurston, SIFE member.
“The club has volunteered over 1,000 hours at the Center,” Thurston said.
USU’s SIFE team has done similar work at an orphanage in Russia, teaching marketing and exchange rates to promote economic education and entrepeneurship, Thurston said.
The contest USU’s SIFE team participated in involved a presentation made by several of the team’s group leaders, Thurston said. The presentation included an annual report of the team’s efforts, successes and a power-point presentation, Thurston said.
The double victory meant a lot to the club.
“It’s a good boost for our team to continue next year,” Thurston said.
The contest brought SIFE not only recognition of its success as a team, but $1,500, Thurston said.
The cash prize was welcome, since the SIFE team plans to attend the national competition in Kansas City in May, Thurston said. If the team is victorious at the national competition, it will compete in an international contest in London, England, Thurston said.
Until then, the USU SIFE team will polish its presentation and continue its volunteer work at the Lifetime Learning Center, Thurston said.
For 25 years, the SIFE organization has been teaching marketing skills to the community and giving business students an edge and a link to the business world, Thurston said.
“Every day, out of their own initiative, SIFE students make a difference in their community by helping people develop a better understanding of how our free enterprise system works, and how to use this information to empower themselves and achieve new success,” according to the SIFE Web site.