Students In Free Enterprise
April 5, 2001
Contact: Heather Miller
Ph: (909) 785-2225, Fax (909) 785-2700
E-mail: sife@lasierra.edu
For Immediate Release:

Riverside, Calif.- The La Sierra University SIFE team (Students In Free Enterprise) was named a Regional Champion at the SIFE Regional Exposition and Competition held in Los Angeles on April 3.

The competition featured SIFE teams from schools in central and southern California, as well as a few in Arizona, and included both two-year and four-year school divisions. The La Sierra team competed against five other four-year schools, including: Fresno Pacific University; Woodbury University (in Burbank); the University of Arizona, Tucson; Pepperdine University; and Cal State Bakersfield. The University of Arizona was also named a Regional Champion.

The Los Angeles Regional is one of 20 held throughout the United States during April. Regional Champion teams qualify to progress on to the SIFE National Exposition and Competition, to be held in Kansas City, Mo., May 13-15, where approximately 110 four-year schools will compete, along with some 45 two-year schools. There are approximately 750 SIFE teams on college campuses throughout the U.S., and an additional 250 teams in 19 other countries.

SIFE teams create and implement free enterprise-based educational and service projects in their communities throughout the school year, and present them at the competitions. La Sierra SIFE's projects this year include: Soup-er Start-ups, a project that taught third and fourth graders how to start a bean soup business in their classroom; Stitching the Seven Seas, that taught seventh graders how the global market works through the example of the clothing industry; the Summer SLAM Day Camp; a CyberEthics project; Operation Safe House, a project that taught teens at a shelter how to write a business plan, and got their bathroom floor re-tiled; and a Welfare-to-Work Childcare business course. Another project accomplished by La Sierra SIFE was the Little Red Hen project, an egg-laying micro-enterprise business in a small town in Baja California, Mexico, that also included a bio-intensive gardening project.

La Sierra SIFE was also named one of 15 national finalists for two special competitions: the Make A Difference Week competition, for which the team implemented its Operation Safe House project; and the Teach A Child About Business competition, for which they implemented the Soup-er Start-ups project. The two special competitions also came with a trophy and $500 cash, while the Regional Champion title came with a trophy and $1500 cash.

La Sierra University SIFE students come from all business disciplines, plus 15 other majors on campus, and include freshman through seniors and graduate students. The SIFE organization, headquartered in Springfield, Mo., was established in 1975 by corporate America as a way to give college students hands-on experience in learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise. The La Sierra University SIFE team was started in the fall of 1991 and has won the National Championship title four times.

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