Smith's SIFE Team Advances to National Championships

Ten members of the Smith chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) will be going to SIFEs national championship after winning in the Washington, D.C., area regional competition. The competition was held in Crystal City, Va., on April 13, 2005.

SIFE is a global, non-profit organization. It gives students the opportunity to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise. SIFE teams carry out educational outreach projects through which they teach important concepts such as; market economics, entrepreneurship, personal and financial success, and business ethics to communities around them.

Every year SIFE holds a national competition that gives members a chance to showcase their projects. Teams present oral, audio-visual and written summaries to judges comprised of top business leaders who determine which teams did the best job teaching and equipping others with the tools necessary for success.

The University of Maryland chapter of SIFE was founded in 2003 and has gone on to win in both the 2004 and 2005 regional championships. Under the tutelage of faculty advisor, Dr Kelly McQuery, the club has been carried out various presentations to high schools students in the area including; an introduction on entrepreneurship to Prince George's County high school students, a talk about tips on buying a car to Flowers High School students and a financial aid workshop to Gaithersburg High School students.

In addition to winning the top spot in the regional competition, the team also received awards for entrepreneurship, business ethics and free market economics. The national competition will be held at the Kansas City Convention Center, Kansas City, MO, from May 22-24, 2005. Should the team win there they will go on to the global competition: SIFE World Cup, that is slated for October 5-7, 2005 in Toronto, Canada. [Editor's Note: The team did not advance to the final round at the national competition.]

▓ Priscilla Mwangi, MBA Candidate 2006, Smith Media Group