SIFE honors best outreach programs

Discount Store News, June 8, 1998

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- The 20th annual Students In Free Enterprise International Exposition and Career Opportunity Fair took place here May 10 to May 12, honoring collegiate teams with the best community educational outreach programs.

Sponsored by Hallmark, this year's event brought together 300 top business executives to judge 88 four-year division team finalists and 25 two-year division team finalists. The champions of the competition were:

* Four-year division: First Place - Pittsburgh State University (Pittsburgh, Kan.); Runner up - Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, Ariz.);

* Two-year division: First Place - Bucks County Community College (Newton, Pa.); Runner-up - Somerset Community College (Somerset, Ky.).

One of the projects that helped the PSU team win the competition was entitled "Just Imagine City." It was designed to teach fourth and fifth grade students about the economic system through a miniature city that fits inside a school gymnasium. The creation allowed kids to live in and operate a working city.

The BCCC team won for the second year in a row based on one of its key projects called "Young Entrepreneurs Day." It was designed to teach grade school students the skills needed to start a business. By working with four local business people, the students developed their own products, promotional plans and pricing policies.

In addition to the SIFE winners, Marcia Bullard, president, ceo and editor of USA Weekend was honored as Revlon Business Woman of the Year.

June Freund, faculty advisor for the PSU team, and Joan Weiss, faculty advisor of the BCCC team, were each named a Sam Walton Free Enterprise Fellow.

Each of the winning teams was awarded $4,000. The SIFE com petition began in March with a field of 293 teams competing regionally in 16 U.S. cities and three countries in central Asia.