Free Enterprise Student Team Heads to National Competition

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For the second year in a row, the Cal Poly Pomona Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team returned to Pomona as victors after participating in the Los Angeles SIFE USA Regional Competition on April 5.

After presenting a report of its year-long community outreach projects to a panel of business leaders, the university’s SIFE team was named a SIFE USA Regional Champion. The team will now advance to the national competition at the SIFE USA National Exposition, from May 21-23, in Kansas City, Mo.

During this academic year, the team developed more than 20 projects to meet definable needs within the Pomona community. For example, the group held an identity theft informational session for Cal Poly Pomona students and created a handy financial fitness guide for high school students.

The Cal Poly Pomona SIFE team received an additional award in the business ethics category, specifically for its on-campus Business Ethics Roundtable organized by the club in Fall 2005.

“SIFE’s motto is ‘Changing the World’ so it’s important to us to give back to the community, particularly an area like Pomona where a lot of needs have been identified,” says Parinda Shah, project leader and secretary of SIFE at Cal Poly Pomona.

SIFE is an international non-profit organization that mobilizes university students to create economic opportunity for others while discovering their own potential. It is active on over 1,800 university campuses in more than 40 countries.

SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their communities by organizing outreach projects that teach: market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills and business ethics. Their projects are judged at competition on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.