What is SIFE?
Written on September 23rd, 2009 at 01:26 pm by Ryan Ellingworth.Ahh. This is both my favorite and least favorite question to answer. It is my favorite because I could talk about it for days, and therefore also my least favorite. SIFE has often had the reputation of being just a business club. Now comes the part where I squash all the rumors: SIFE is more than just a business club! There. SIFE is an acronym for Students In Free Enterprise.
(On of life’s harshest lessons: just because you know what an acronym stands for, does not necessarily mean that you understand it.)
SIFE is a worldwide organization with teams in over 40 countries. There are about 1000 teams in the United States. At Keuka College, you will find one of the 48 best teams in the country (results per 2009 national competition). The great thing about SIFE is that every team is different. I will tell you a little bit about what the Keuka SIFE team is all about.
Our team has around 62 members this year, and 16 projects. Essentially we have one goal: to make the world a better place, beginning with our own backyard of Yates County, NY. We have a variety of educational projects that we target to youth in our area. Our team spends time in local classrooms promoting the principles of Free Enterprise. Some of these include ethics, financial literacy and environmental sustainability among other things. Most people will agree that these are all issues where education is vital. You don’t have to be a business person to understand how to manage your money or be ethical. We are all consumers in the long run, right?
And of course our other main goal is to help local entrepreneurs succeed. We accomplish this by providing and marketing seminars, developing marketing plans for local businesses, and sharing what we learn in the classrooms with business owners. The relationship we have with local businesses benefits all parties involved. They are able to receive assistance from an outside source, and we as students get to take what we learn in the classroom and apply it in real life scenarios. Experiential Learning at its finest? I think so.
I wish I could tell you all of the advantages of being on a SIFE team, but they won’t let me write forever. But I can tell you that it is the most important part of my resume. I will be sure to update you more about what our team is doing this year.
