March 22, 2007

by Heather Miller

The La Sierra University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team was named a Regional Finalist at the 2007 SIFE Los Angeles Regional Competition held March 21 in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Regional is one of 17 Regional competitions hosted across by SIFE across the United States between March 19 and April 5. Regional Finalist teams win $1,500 and a trophy, and qualify to advance to the SIFE USA National Exposition and Competition May 6-8 in Dallas.

La Sierra SIFE's presentation featured five of this year's 12 projects at the Regional Competition, including Kalaala Scrubs, Project Dilemma, Financial Literacy (including Turning Silver to Gold, and Get A Clue credit seminars), Project Harambee, and Build-A-Village. The La Sierra team was represented by a six-person Presentation Team made up of Karin (Carrie) Byner, Kimberly Miller, Adam Phillips, John Razzouk, Deisy Ruiz, and Warren Sturt. The Tech Team included Jeremy Ramos and Jared Herling.

Teams are allotted 24 minutes to give their live/multi-media presentations, and also distribute a four-page printed annual report summarizing their projects and activities for the year. Judges are made up of executives from SIFE sponsor companies. Both Regional and National competitions also feature a career fair.

The La Sierra University SIFE team was also named a Top 20 National Finalist in the Individual Topic special competitions in the category of Entrepreneurship, sponsored by Sam's Club, for the team's Kalaala Scrubs project. This award comes with $1,000 and a trophy. The top three US teams in each of the individual topics will be announced at the SIFE USA National Expo in May.

The La Sierra University SIFE team competed in League 1, along with four other schools: Azusa Pacific University, Vanguard University of Southern California, Chapman University, and DeVry University-Phoenix. Azusa Pacific was the other school from League 1 named as a Regional Finalist. The other four-year schools that advanced from the other leagues were: California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, Pepperdine University, California State University-Bakersfield, and California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.

A total of 15 four-year colleges and nine two-year colleges competed in five leagues at the Los Angeles Regionals, with two schools from each league being named finalists.

Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)