S.I.F.E Team Fuels Tourism

(posted 10/25/04)

by Alexis Franklin, senior journalism major

 

SWAU students are active in the community once again. Projects are on-going for the Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team. Recently, the team completed a project to increase tourism in Cleburne. “After JC Penney pulled out of the Cleburne mall, the Cleburne Chamber of commerce became nervous about sales in the city,” said Jerry Chi, professor of business and SIFE sponsor. “They wanted to be able to retain business and were looking for ways to do this.”

About ten SIFE students searched the yellow pages and randomly selected 220 people in the Cleburne area to survey by phone. They called Power Analysis to make sure the sample size was an accurate representative of those living in Cleburne. Also, while choosing customers, students made sure the demographics were equally distributed whether by male or female, nationality or location. Students also randomly interviewed people shopping in the Cleburne mall. In these interviews students asked questions about shopping location and merchant preferences. They also asked what new stores and restaurants consumers would like to see in Cleburne. After the interviews, students transformed the qualitative information, people’s beliefs and feelings, into quantitative data, how many people felt the same way about each topic, in a computer. Once the results were tabulated, SIFE students presented the information to the Cleburne Chamber of Commerce. Along with their presentation, students made suggestions as to how Cleburne could improve its attractiveness to tourists and retain their regular shoppers.

 “SIFE is good for more than just business majors,” said Mairilise Pothin, SIFE project manager vice president. “I advise more people to get involved cause it’s worth it. It’s an opportunity to help people, gain a community service network, and improve on your resume. It’s definitely worth it!”

Chi founded the SIFE program at SWAU in 1997. After one year away from SIFE, Chi is back in action. Chi says companies with a human relations department want students to be mature, show leadership capabilities, and to have a community service record. SIFE was set up for students to learn these qualities. Business students are required to take SIFE for credit towards graduation, and other students choose to take it not just for credit, but also for the experience.           

SIFE is a national program of on-campus internship opportunities for colleges and universities. SIFE is a world-wide organization with teams based on 1600 university campuses in 40 countries. It was established to give students the experience they need to be successful in the working world.

            At SWAU, the students are separated into teams such as the president’s team and teams focused on: minorities, businesses, international projects and educational endeavors. Each team comes up with a project related to their section. Then they create a plan, write a proposal, get it approved, and then set the plan in motion. The object is to learn how to start and maintain a business as well as get experience in community service.

            During the summer the SIFE team worked on several different projects. Each was created and managed by students.  SWAU’s international project took place in the Ukraine. One SIFE student, Tetyana Derepa, traveled to her home to teach children about money management and building businesses. She and three to four local volunteers led a two week program to educate children about how to save, spend, invest, make and donate money. While there, Derepa and volunteers taught children how to manage their money so they could make a profit off of their earnings. They used Monopoly and other investment games to get their point across. Another focus Derepa made was on individual talents. She and volunteers put on a puppet show and led a group discussion about how talents can be transformed into useful services to others. Through these services the kids can make a consistent income to help their families and the church. The Ukrainian children were also taught the value of auction, and what value to place on objects for sale.

SIFE President, Peter Taylor says, “I’m very excited about the projects this year. They are giving us a taste of the real world, and help us give back to the community while we are learning how to market ourselves into the career world.”

Plans have been made to start a cookie baking business, teach children in Keene about ethics and business, offer online investment seminars, and an international project to help a Filipino farmer export his crops to a Japanese market.

 

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