Texas State Students In Free Enterprise
By Meagan Singletary
September 20, 2007
Unless you are a business student, chances are you probably aren’t savvy on many business based organizations here on campus. As a mass communications major I had never even heard about an organization called Students In Free Enterprise until a friend of mine recently joined. “SIFE is really cool because it focuses on community service and will probably get you some really good contacts after graduation. Anyone who can should join,” said Carly Black.
SIFE is a not-for-profit organization supported by individuals, foundations, and corporations whose mission is to build collegiate SIFE teams who teach free enterprise in order to better individuals, communities, and countries. SIFE’s purpose is accomplished through the SIFE team’s outreach projects. In these projects students and faculty involve the community in the free enterprise system, providing the students with an opportunity to teach others what they have learned. “My favorite part about SIFE is the teaching. I love helping people and getting the chance to show them something that will probably improve their lives somewhere down the road,” said Brandi Byrdlon.
SIFE students working on an upcoming project.
Started in 1975 and headquartered in Springfield, Mo., SIFE’s mission to teach free enterprise is supported financially by Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, and AT&T to name a few. In 2006-2007 alone, over 1,400 SIFE teams were fielded, many of them being international teams.
One of the projects that SIFE currently has underway is Operation: Build a Future. For this project, SIFE partnered with the Kingdom Flight organization and Robles International in Santa Theresa, N.M., to create a unique entrepreneurial opportunity for the Tarahumara American Indian community. The goal for this project is for SIFE to supply the funds to build a store where low cost food and other goods will be available to people in the community. SIFE will secure vendors for the store, train the Tarahumara women to stock and operate the facility, and also teach lessons to both the adults and children in becoming self-sufficient and successful. Through learning about financial responsibility and ethics, SIFE hopes to ensure that this entrepreneurial operation is sustainable.