OTC SIFE team places first in regional competition

The Students in Free Enterprise team from Ozarks Technical Community College placed first at SIFE USA Regional Competition, held last week in Chicago, Ill.  This is the seventh Regional Championship for the College’s team.  In addition, the team was recognized as a 4.0 Team, a designation given for high quality projects and team operations, and a Club 44 Team, a designation given for excellence in membership recruitment efforts.

This year’s team members include Ekaterina Semenova, Diane Wynn, Walker Boldman, Julia Garcia, and Heather Christy from the OTC Branson Center; Tonya Campbell from the OTC Springfield Campus; and Kimberly Underhill from the OTC Richwood Valley Campus. The assistance of faculty and staff, including SIFE Advisors and Business Instructors Bera Nichols and Luise Bird, was instrumental in preparing the team for competition.  In May, the team will travel to Kansas City, Mo., to compete at the SIFE National Exposition.  

The group’s presentation at the regional competition consisted of a 24-minute presentation/video highlighting their yearlong community outreach, education, and business projects.  The projects centered on SIFE’s core philosophy of community involvement by student members to help individuals, groups, and businesses to improve standards of living and quality of life.  Some of this year’s projects included the Holiday Bazaar, Let’s Can Hunger food drive campaigns, and “Poverty to Prosperity: A Women’s Event.”

SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on more than 1400 college campuses in nearly 50 countries.  SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their communities in their communities by organizing outreach projects that promote free enterprise, market economics, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, success skills, environmental sustainability, and business ethics.  Each college’s projects are judged in competition on creativity and effectiveness.