Mount Students Win Regional Competition

BY RICK FULTON

Gettysburg Times Staff Writer

The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) chapter at Mount Saint Mary’s University prevailed at a regional championship April 9.

The Mount SIFE team is made up of 14 of the university’s students. The group traveled to Philadelphia where they presented a report of their year-long community outreach projects to a panel of 16 judges.

Mount students participating in the competition included:

- Seniors: Katie Bushong, Abby Diffenderfer, Alyssa Goodman and Jack Lynch;

- Juniors: Jennifer Cooper, Devin Hollenbaugh, Martin Muller, Ashley Wolk, Lindsey Arnold, Claire    Ellsworth, Victoria Budosh and Jimmy Horton;

- Sophomores: Christian Toth and Jessica Sauers.

Christian Kendzierski, Mount communications consultant, stated that, as a result of the regional victory, the team will advance to the national level of SIFE competition.

The SIFE USA National Exposition will be held May 13- 15 in Chicago. Winners of the national competition advance to the SIFE World Cup competition to be held in Singapore later this year.

Mount President, Thomas H. Powell said, “The entire Mount community is proud of the continued excellence of the SIFE team.  The students and faculty involved with SIFE are an excellent representation of our strong business program here at the Mount. We wish the SIFE team great success at nationals,” Powell stated.

Sandra D. Sjoberg, Mount professor and SIFE team’s faculty advisor, said, “The students effectively communicated their projects and their impact on the community.”

“As a second year SIFE team, this is an outstanding accomplishment to be a regional champion and it is a result to the SIFE student’s commitment, dedication, and abilities to bring classroom experiences into the community,” Sjoberg stated.

Kendzierski noted in a release issued Friday, SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on more than 1,400 university campuses in 48 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.

For more information on the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), visit the organization’s home page at sife.org.

Rick Fulton may be contacted at rfulton@gburgtimes.com.