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Kirkwood SIFE Team Wins Regional Competition

By March 27, 2008January 21st, 2019No Comments

Students now prepare for national contests May 13-15

The Kirkwood Community College Students in Free Enterprise Team matched its educational outreach projects against other SIFE Teams at the 2008 SIFE Regional competition and Career Opportunity Fair. In Chicago competitions in late March, a panel of 19 judges honored Kirkwood SIFE as Regional Champions.

The Kirkwood team will now advance to the SIFE USA National Competition, also in Chicago, May 13-15.

Students in Free Enterprise teams encourage students to take classroom learning and apply it to real-life situations, using their knowledge to better their communities through educational outreach projects. At competition, SIFE teams are judged on how their projects teach others the principles of market economics, personal success skills, ethics, entrepreneurial skills and personal financial success skills.

The Kirkwood SIFE team was founded in 2002 and has earned regional champion titles four of the past seven years. Business & IT faculty members Bob Walker and Todd Saville serve as advisors for the SIFE team.

This year’s Kirkwood team had an international dynamic, with students from Turkey, Egypt, South Africa and Indonesia sharing tasks with Midwest students.

“It is great to see a diverse group of students work together to better their community by teaching principles of free enterprise,” Walker said. “Our saying is ‘We work hard and play hard. We have a lot of fun and get things done.’ I am very proud of our students’ success.”

Kirkwood SIFE touched the Cedar Rapids and surrounding communities this year in several ways, including “Ethics Awareness Days” featuring Dorene A. MacVey, Sr. Director, Ethics and Business Conduct of Rockwell Collins. MacVey presented a professional ethics training seminar to more than 75 Kirkwood students.

Founded in 1975 and active on more than 1,500 college and university campuses in 47 countries involving over 38,000 students world-wide. SIFE is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with business and higher education to provide students the opportunity to make a difference and to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise.

For more information, contact Bob Walker, Advisor at Kirkwood Community College at (319) 398-5526 or SIFE World Headquarters at 417-831-9505 or visits www.SIFE.org