May 8, 2007

La Sierra University’s Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team won the National Championship at the 2007 SIFE USA National Exposition finals held in Dallas, Texas, May 6-8. As a result of their victory in Dallas, La Sierra University students will represent the United States at the SIFE World Cup competition in New York City in October. SIFE national champion teams from more than 40 countries will participate in that event.

This is the sixth time that La Sierra has won the championship at the USA National Exposition, with previous wins coming in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2002. La Sierra University SIFE also won the International Championship in 2002, representing the United States at the SIFE World Cup in Amsterdam.

La Sierra was joined in the final four round by Heritage University, Drury University, and University of Arizona.

“I had the pleasure of accompanying Dr. Randal Wisbey, our new president-elect, to Dallas on Sunday to honor School of Business Dean John Thomas as he was inducted to the National SIFE Hall of Fame, and then to see our own LSU SIFE Team compete in the national competition on Monday,” says Lawrence T. Geraty, La Sierra University president. “We were so thrilled to see them win a place among the top twenty teams in the country! 

“Unfortunately, Dr. Wisbey and I had to return to Riverside today to prepare for board meetings Wednesday and Thursday. But we followed their progress this morning:  one of the four top teams, and then this afternoon:  national champions! Beating the University of Arizona with its endowed SIFE organization is quite an achievement for a small, faith-based university.  It shows the quality of a La Sierra University education as well as the teamwork of a supportive dean, of two terrific SIFE faculty fellows, and especially the dedicated and persistent work of John Razzouk, this year's SIFE team student leader, whose vision and hard work, supported by his team and an array of LSU staff and advisory board members, ‘brought home the gold’ for the sixth time! 

“We are so proud of our team who will now be representing the United States in the international competition to be held in New York City in October,” Geraty adds. “GO LA SIERRA SIFE!”

La Sierra’s SIFE team presented a summary of their projects and activities designed to make a difference in the Riverside community and internationally. During the competition, each SIFE teams develops a 24-minute live/multimedia presentation, and distributes a four-page annual report summarizing their projects. Judges are executives from SIFE sponsoring companies. For the final four round of competition in Dallas, all judges must be at the chief executive officer level within their respective companies. Judges evaluate projects for creativity, innovation and effectiveness. 

For its presentation the LSU SIFE team focused on seven projects.

2007 La Sierra University SIFE Projects:

Kalaala Scrubs
Three years ago, La Sierra University’s SIFE team began developing economic opportunity for the people in Kalaala, Ethiopia. The effort started with a solar oven that currently feeds 500 school kids a day, and animal bank (including bees, goats, and cows), a computer lab with internet access, and a vocational training center to give the village women sewing skills.

This year, LSU SIFE is teaching the women how to apply their sewing skills to the market by helping them launch a sewing company to manufacture medical scrubs. At present, 250 women have completed an 18-month sewing skills curriculum on 20 sewing machines. Through local partner organizations, the women are learning the basics of supply and demand. LSU SIFE is also helping them set up an assembly line system, calculate production capacity and pricing, and identify buyers for the scrubs in both Africa and the United States. In addition, in conjunction with project partner, the International Medical Aid Association, a 1500-square foot facility for the women to begin manufacturing the scrubs is being built.

This new business is creating 60 new jobs, providing a constant stream of income to the village, and demonstrates the strategic approach to creating multi-phase projects that create sustainable results. The project  is funded through the sale of La Sierra University’s SIFE Water and through private donations.

SIFE Water
La Sierra University SIFE launched private label water bottle in the spring of 2006 that raises funds to support outreach projects. First profits are going toward the Kalaala Projects. More than 85,000 bottles have been sold so far, and contracts have been signed to reach a million bottles in two years.

Success Skills
LSU SIFE teams members taught 232 Inland Empire high school and college students how to prepare a resume, dress for success, and give a professional interview.

Turning Silver into Gold
SIFE students presented a series of workshops at a low-income senior housing center to help senior citizens see how they could make the most of their existing resources. Topics included: understanding credit and avoiding financial blunders; preventing identity theft; and maximizing Social Security and Medicare benefits, among others. La Sierra University’s SIFE team also received a $20,000 Community Development Block Grant to begin July 1, 2007 for the continuation of the project in ten more senior centers in Riverside.

Harambee
LSU’s SIFE team is connecting with students from Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe to share free enterprise in this project. Harambee is a Swahili word meaning “Let us come together.” Thanks to the help of the Small Business Administration, the Global Trade Center, and the LSU School of Business, SIFE students have launched a curriculum on our www.sifelink.com/harambee website that teaches students how to identify a market need, how to write a business plan, and how to launch an entrepreneurial business in their local market. The web site also includes mentor communication, a Q&A page, access to student network blogs, and an ideas and articles section. Students are encouraged to go out to villages in their area to find a need and come up with a business plan idea.
Once they have completed the curriculum, they are eligible to submit their ideas for a business plan competition, which are reviewed by judges here in the U.S. The best plans are awarded $300-$500 micro-loans for start-up funding. Colleges in the Phillipines and Japan are waiting to enroll, along with student groups in the U.S.
Finally, the SIFE team also collected and shipped 275 Pentium III computers to Ghana that are being used to open Internet cafes, thanks to a generous donation from Jaguar Computers, Riverside, California, and the help of Global Operations and Development. One Internet café has already opened in Ghana with just 7 computers. The project is being funded by a $12,000 grant from Versacare and a $1,000 endowment from the DeLaurier Fund.

Sisters around the World
SIFE partnered with Women of Worth and Club 4 Real, two on-campus clubs at La Sierra University, to collect 32 pairs of new shoes and 1,036 new undergarments and socks for the 1,000 students at Emmanuel High School in Lesotho, most of whom have been orphaned by AIDS. The items will be shipped this spring 

Build-A-Village
La Sierra University SIFE students are constructing a demonstration village on campus using the eco-dome superadobe technique developed by world renown architect Nader Khalili of the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture in Hesperia, California. Our village consists of a classroom dome (and other structures coming later this spring) that will serve as a learning lab and demonstration site for world agenda topics. The eco-friendly treeless construction transforms the tools of war into tools of change using local, existing resources made primarily of dirt, cement, barbed wire and polyurethane tubing. The result is a structure that is among the most inexpensive and durable in the world, able to withstand heat, cold, wind, fire, water, earth-quakes and bullets, among other environmental hazards, making it an excellent choice for reconstructing sustainable villages in parts of the world where all vegetation has been used or destroyed and entire villages burned down with nothing remaining but the earth where they once stood.

For the second phase of this project, LSU SIFE will develop an economic stimulation plan for new communities in Sudan. In preparation for this phase, we are also developing our own agricultural experimentation site on the plot of ground next to our village on campus, which also includes water catchment and irrigation.

SIFE will use this project to teach K-12 and college students how the global economy works and how the principles of free enterprise can be used to transform communities. SIFE has also launched a lecture series called "Fire in the Hole: From Conflict to Community," to discuss our economic development plan and how it can be applied to significant world issues. And several volunteers from Wells Fargo branches around California’s Inland Empire region are joining us twice a month in the construction!

For more information on the La Sierra University Students in Free Enterprise program, visit their website at www.sifelink.com.

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