Students in Free Enterprise Participate in Regional Competition

Tarrytown, NY — The Washington College Students in Free Enterprise (WC SIFE) team participated in its seventh SIFE Regional Competition in Tarrytown, New York. SIFE Regional Competitions afford qualified SIFE teams the opportunity to present the projects they have completed in the areas of market economics, entrepreneurship, personal success skills, financial literacy, business ethics, and environmental sustainability to a panel of judges. Eight of the twenty-five active members made the four-hour trek with sophomores Claire Bond, Michelle Moore, Josh Tex, and Liz Vares making the presentation, accompanied by sophomore media specialist Alketa Tanushi. Seniors Megan Jasion, Danielle Sica and Tori Weitzel helped out during the question and answer segment. The team came away from the competition with the Second Runner Up Award for their league.

View photos from SIFE competition

This year's WC SIFE team has contributed over 550 hours to 18 projects, impacting over 900 people. The team continued successful projects such as the Career Expo and working closely with the Center for Career Development to host the Washington College Career Fair (which just had its fifth anniversary), as well as starting new projects helping people in Chestertown, Kent County, and Ghana. Students presented a budgeting workshop to participants of the Kent Family Center, and collected athletic shoes to help the Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation support Ghanaian villagers pursue environmentally sustainable farming techniques. In addition, in a project designed and proposed by the team, sixteen families from the Community Food Pantry will receive Earth Box® container systems and tomato plants so that they can supplement non-perishable food received from the Food Pantry with fresh vegetables they will grow themselves this summer. The WC SIFE team has partnered with a host of organizations to make these projects happen, including the Center for the Environment and Society, Master Gardeners, HomePorts, the Kent County Chamber of Commerce and S.C.O.R.E.

Students of all majors who want to make a measurable difference in the lives of people locally and globally are welcome to join anytime. Meetings are held Monday evenings at 7 p.m. in Daly 108. For more information, contact Megan Jasion, WC SIFE president, at mjasion2@washcoll.edu.

Washington College SIFE Team Wins At Regional Competition

Chestertown, MD, April 27, 2004 — The Washington College SIFE Team matched its educational outreach projects against other SIFE Teams at the 2004 Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Regional Competition and Career Opportunity Fair, April 7, 2004, in Philadelphia. A panel of judges honored Washington College SIFE with a Regional Champion award, making the team eligible to advance to the SIFE USA National Exposition, hosted by the Kansas City Business Community May 23-25.

Students In Free Enterprise encourages students to take what they are learning in the classroom and apply it to real-life situations, using their knowledge to better their communities through educational outreach projects. Washington College SIFE touched the Kent County community this year in several ways, including: educational outreach to two elementary schools, participation in two Kent County High School Opportunity Fairs, and seminars for Washington College students covering topics such as job search techniques and principles of investments. Washington College SIFE students both developed the materials for these programs and conducted them. Members of the Chestertown business community were also involved in a mock interview session. Additionally, the WC SIFE team brought experts to campus such as Lee Colan, author of Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence.

At competition, teams are judged on how well their projects taught others the principles of free enterprise. Susan A. Vowels, assistant professor of business management, serves as advisor for the SIFE Team and was named a Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow in recognition of her leadership and support of the SIFE program at Washington College.

“The Washington College SIFE team exemplified the principles of teamwork, communication, leadership and improving the lives of others as they interacted with fellow WC students, elementary school students, high school students, and the business community,” Vowels said.

Founded in 1975 and active on more than 1500 college and university campuses in 37 countries, SIFE is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with business and higher education to provide students the opportunity to make a difference and to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise.

For more information, visit www.SIFE.org.

Success And The Art Of Adherence, Lecture March 29 At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, March 16, 2004 — Washington College's Students in Free Enterprise, the Sigma Beta Delta Business Honor Society and the Campus Events and Visitors Committee present “Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence,” a lecture by Lee J. Colan, president of the L Group, Inc, Monday, March 29, at 7:00 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The lecture is free and open to the public, and the first 50 people to arrive will receive a free copy of Colan's companion book, Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence.

Have you ever thought that business success is not just having talent, a popular product or a great idea, but a method? Lee J. Colan, Ph.D., author of Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence, believes in the simple maxim that the game of business is won by those who execute their strategies. While the challenges today's leaders face are always changing, the formula for winning remains the same: a focus on “how” more than “what.” Having a strategy gets you in the game, according to Colan, but execution gets you in the winner's circle. Sticking to It teaches the methods for follow-through, keeping a team on track and the practical steps that lead to business success. Joseph A. Bosch, Chief People Officer of Pizza Hut Corporation, said: “Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence will work in any company because Colan's strategies are grounded in real organizations and in the reality of human nature—not the theoretical. His passion for ‘keeping it simple' gives leaders confidence they can successfully create positive change.”

Founder and president of the Dallas-based consulting firm, L Group, Inc., Colan has more than 20 years under his belt as an organizational effectiveness consultant. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from George Washington University and has built a track record of successfully managing rapid organizational change and helping leaders and their organizations to grow.

For up-to-date information concerts and events at Washington College, visitcalendar.washcoll.edu.