IWU Students Win Regional SIFE Competition
By Alan Miller
4/15/05

The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team from Indiana Wesleyan University won the SIFE regional competition April 7 in St. Louis, bringing home five trophies and $3,500. The team now advances to SIFE national competition May 22-24 in Kansas City.

In addition to being named the overall champion, the team also won trophies in four individual competitions: Entrepreneurship, Business Ethics, Free Market Economics and Personal Financial Success Skills.

"I was very pleased with the professional presentation of our team," said Dr. Harriet Rojas, an IWU professor who is the Sam Walton Fellow of the SIFE team. "We were thrilled to have the team garner $3,500 in prize money for their efforts this year."

The awards were determined by a panel of 18 business leaders who listened to a report from IWU students on their community outreach projects. During the 2004-2005 academic year, the IWU team organized 18 projects in the Marion community, including:

• The digitization of the $ta$h or Da$h game, which received a copyright in July 2004.
• The Currency Exchange project, which was done in cooperation with McCulloch Middle School math students.
• The micro-enterprise programs in Peru, South America.
• And the Java and Jazz Partnership with McConn Coffee Co. on the IWU campus.

Members of the IWU team are Marci Wingler, Gwen Doherty, Lindsey Buchanan, Dani Weaver, Brandon Liles, Matt Marquez, Phil Jackson, Rick Fletcher, Jordan Reichmann, Chad Hathaway and Jared Ringenberg.

SIFE is an international organization that is active on about 1,800 college campuses in more than 40 countries and is supported by businesses around the world. SIFE offers students the opportunity to develop leadership, communication and teamwork skills through learning, practicing and teaching principles of free enterprise.

Alan Miller is the University Relations Director at Indiana Wesleyan University.