IVCC’s Students in Free Enterprise team will be competing in the SIFE Regional Competition April 7.
Wendy Bockelman, Jamie Lemmer, Tina Easa, Julie Funfsinn, Nicole Johnson, Amanda O’Connor and Deb Prostko will be presenting a report about their projects to a panel of judges, executives from top corporations around the Midwest. They will be competing against teams from six Midwest states.
The team’s major projects included:
- Cookie Jar,
- Stock Market Game
- Credit Debt
- Customer Service Seminar
- Make a Difference Day
- Children’s Book
For the Cookie Jar project, team members taught fifth graders how to run a business. The students went through the process of securing a loan to buy raw materials, cost to manufacture, production of the products, marketing of the products, pricing and profit, sales, and overall positives and negatives of running a business.
The fifth grade students sold their Cookies in a Jar at a school dinner and they "made a handsome profit," said SIFE advisor Bob Reese.
For the Stock Market Game, SIFE members taught fifth grades about the stock market using a game they created. The fifth grade students received $100,000 to buy stock, competing against each other and against members of the SIFE Advisory Board from Union Bankcore.
"We don’t have the results back yet," said Reese, "but I hope the fifth graders beat our experts on the Advisory Board."
In the Credit Debt project, SIFE members created a brochure about credit card debt that was featured in the Ottawa Daily Times.
In their other projects, team members sponsored a customer service seminar that was open to the public, collected food for the Illinois Valley Food Pantry for Make a Difference Day, and created a book to teach children about money and how to save.
Winners in the Regional Competition will advance to the SIFE International Competition in Kansas City, Missouri. Last year, IVCC’s rookie team won the Regional Competition and competed, but did not place, in the international contest.
Reese said, "Not too many rookie teams win the regional competition."
He also has high hopes for this year’s team.
"We have a great SIFE team this year with some excellent projects."
SIFE advisors Mike Sankovich and Alice Steljes will also accompany the group to competition.