Roberts Wesleyan winners headed to nationals

The Roberts Wesleyan College Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) recently placed first in their league at the SIFE Regional Competition and Career Opportunity Fair. The team has qualified to compete in the national competition May 11-13 in Kansas City.

RWC-SIFE competed April 7 at the New York Marriott Financial Center Hotel, New York City, against 19 teams from the Northeast. SIFE encourages students to take what they are learning in the classroom - principles of business and market economics - and apply it to real-life situations through educational outreach projects, which students develop and implement throughout the year. The teams present summaries of their projects to top business and community leaders, who judge the projects' effectiveness, creativity and innovation, as well as the teams' success in utilizing resources and documenting their activities.

RWC-SIFE projects included the beginning of a video-training series for small business owners in Arad, Romania (leading to a certificate in Small Business Management from RWC); the establishment of a used-car business to benefit the Cross Roads Youth Center in Spencerport; the planning and hosting of a fund-raising dinner to benefit Alternatives for Battered Women in Rochester, and the formation of BizWorld at Charles Finney Elementary School in Penfield, in which SIFE students helped Finney students start their own businesses designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling friendship bracelets.

Ervin Starr, assistant professor of business and management and Sam Walton Free Enterprise Fellow, serves as advisor for the Roberts Wesleyan SIFE Team, the only chapter of the national organization in Greater Rochester. This is only the third year RWC-SIFE has participated in the competition.

The presenters were RWC SIFE President Kevin Stoebling (Lyndhurst, New Jersey), Stephen Rapp (Avon), Karen Schlaefer (Churchville), Catherine Seifert (Caledonia), and Russell Toth (Vancouver, British Columbia).

Other students who supported the team and went on the trip were: Megan Bowen (Athens, Ohio), Kevin Buhr (Gasport), Sara Diaz (Rochester), Thomas DiJohn (Lake View), Dawn Estes (Lockport), Adam Leidhecker (Montoursville, Pennsylvania), Andrew Meservey (Ewing, New Jersey), Patrick McKallagat (Bradford, Massachusetts), Karyn Monfort (Kingston), Jennifer Pelham (Maplecreat), and Heather Solberg (Lewiston).

Regional champions named at twenty-two competitions held around the country will present their projects at the 2003 SIFE USA National Exposition, hosted by the Kansas City Business Community, May 11-13 in Missouri. The national champion in the four-year division will travel to Frankfurt, Germany, to compete at SIFE World Cup 2003, October 12-14.