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SIFE Team to Compete in Region Impact
Fairmont State News

SIFE Team to Compete in Region

Mar 21, 2007

The Fairmont State University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Team will compete for cash prizes at the Cleveland, Ohio, SIFE USA Regional Competition on March 28. The event is one of 17 SIFE USA Regional Competitions being held across the United States.

Dr. Jack Kirby, SIFE Sam Walton Fellow and FSU Assistant Professor of Business Administration, leads the FSU SIFE Team.

"This year's SIFE Team members exemplify the winning characteristics of hard work and dedication to the goals of SIFE and have demonstrated leadership skills that create success," Kirby said. "I am anxious to accompany this year's team to the Cleveland competition, where they will have the opportunity to present their many outreach projects delivered this academic year."

SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on more than 1,400 university campuses in 48 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. Their projects are judged at competition on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.

SIFE encourages students to take what they are learning in the classroom and apply it to real-life situations, using their knowledge to make life better in their communities by teaching the principles of free enterprise. The FSU SIFE Team touched the community this year in several ways: teaching elementary school students about market economics; providing success skills workshops; teaching business ethics at the FSU Student Leadership Conference; and teaching at-risk high school students about entrepreneurship in a year-long program sponsored by SIFE through a $5,000 grant from the Marcus Foundation.

"While our goal is to win at the Cleveland competition, I firmly believe that the FSU SIFE Team members are already winners in a broader sense," Kirby said. "They have made a lasting, positive impact on the lives they have touched through this year's outreach projects. They have grown within themselves and have truly made a difference in the community."

Regional champions named at competitions held around the country will present their projects at the 2007 SIFE USA National Exposition in Dallas, Texas, on May 6-8.

For additional information, contact Dr. Jack Kirby at (304) 367-4223.