SIFE team wins regionals, qualifies for trip to nationals
May 5, 2005
The Students in Free Enterprise Team at Illinois Valley Community College was named a Regional champion for two-year colleges and a finalist in two special competition areas at the SIFE competition in Chicago recently.
The Regional win qualifies the team to compete at the SIFE national competition in Kansas City, Missouri, May 22–24 and netted the team $2,500.
This was the seventh consecutive year the IVCC team was judged best at teaching the principles of free enterprise and making a difference in their communities. The special topic/competition areas the team won were the Personal Financial Skills Competition, sponsored by HSBC, and the Business Ethics Competition, sponsored by Campbell’s and Sealed Air. Those awards were new this year.
Team members are Crystal Reed and Judith McComber of Tiskilwa, Cindi Brennan of Marseilles, Trudy Miller and Wayne Kaufman of Princeton, Judy Wood of Wyanet, Maria Sondgeroth and Jeremy Grubich of Peru, Dawn Twardzik of Streator, Laurie Farraher of Ohio, Laurie Delgado of DePue and Angela Balensiefen of Sheffield.
At the regional competition, a panel of business leaders judged a written report and a multimedia presentation on each team’s outreach projects. McComber, Brennan, Wood, Sondgeroth, Reed and Farraher gave the 24-minute multimedia presentation.
The IVCC team spent approximately 1,000 hours in 18 projects that reached over 80,000 people this year. They also mentored a new SIFE team at Rock Valley Community College, which also qualified for the national competition.
“I’m tremendously proud of our SIFE team and all they have accomplished this year,” said team advisor Alice Steljes. “We are looking forward to bringing home another trophy from the national competition in Kansas City.”
Last year’s team finished First Runner-up at Nationals.
Steljes, an IVCC business instructor, was named a Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow at the regional meeting in recognition of her leadership and support of the program.