Top students get chance at career opportunities

Discount Store News, June 23, 1997 by Eric Thorsen

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- More than 500 of the nation's top business leaders flocked to H. Roe Bartle Hall here last month to be judges in the 1997 Hallmark Cards/SIFE International Exposition and Career Opportunity Fair. The three-day event, which included 94 collegiate teams, brought together 1,200 students presenting oral and audio-visual summaries of educational outreach projects they created.

The participants were treated to a panel of retail speakers comprised of top industry leaders, who presented their views of the business world. The event was sponsored by SIFE, a non-profit organization founded in 1975, which works with 500 colleges nationwide in an effort to help students apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom to real life situations, as well as providing a benefit to the community.

Each student team spoke about outreach programs that its members developed, all of which are aimed at teaching young people the principles of free enterprise and the benefits of a market economy. This year's winning team in the four-year division was representing La Sierra University, Riverside, Calif. The two-year division winner was the team from Bucks Community College, Newton, Pa. Each team received $4,000, and the La Sierra SIFE team won two additional competition awards of $1,000 each.

Each of the collegiate teams at the national event had previously competed in regional events and won one of 47 competitions held in 12 U.S. cities and one Central Asian city.

"The greatest benefit of the convention was the fact that 75 to 100 students walked away with jobs," said Alvin Rohrs, president of SIFE. "These kids were very impressive."

Of the students who attained jobs due to the conference, Rohrs noted that more than 30 of them went to Wal-Mart, with an additional 30 going to Radio Shack.

"When you look at the caliber of people that took the time to be here, it's also very impressive," said Rohrs, referring to the judges who attended, including ceos and vice presidents. "They go to a lot of conventions. But they come back to this one each year because they feel they walk away with as much as they put in. It's a real educational program."

In addition to offering an outlet for the international championship and the Career Opportunity Fair, SIFE provided a panel of guest speakers. The panel included four industry execs who are heavy hitters in the retail world. The speakers were Susan Stanton, president and coo of Payless Cashways, Tom Coughlin, executive vp of Wal-Mart; Joe Hardin, president and ceo of Kinko's; and Gene Bicknell, chairman of the board and ceo for NPC International.

The La Sierra SIFE team won the international portion of the competition based upon a project called SKOOLnet. The program linked 12 schools from 10 countries through the Internet and provided eight circular lessons, which could be downloaded for class use. Students could then submit questions to the SKOOLnet Webmaster through e-mail. Answers could be viewed by way of a shared bulletin board.

An equally education-enriched project also helped the Bucks County SIFE team to reach success. Referred to as the Free Enterprise Lecture Series, their project was comprised of eight specifically designed programs aimed at teaching the college community about such topics as entrepreneurship, copyrights and trademarks, as well as marketing techniques and global marketing. Tapes of the program were also made available to the public through the Bucks County Free.