Students earn 2nd runner-up in national SIFE competition

For junior Annie Cornett, the days of May 6-8 were full of excitement and brought her great rewards for her accomplishments.\nDuring that time, Cornett, along with six other members of Students In Free Enterprise, headed to Dallas to compete in the National Exposition competition, where the team won second runner-up in the “4-Year Division Opening Round Competition.” \nSIFE is an international, nonprofit organization active on more than 1,400 university campuses in 48 countries. These teams create economic opportunities in their communities by organizing outreach projects that focus on market economics, entrepreneurship, personal and financial success skills and business ethics.\nThe teams are awarded prizes for reports on their yearlong community outreach projects. \nMary Embry, a lecturer in the IU Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design and the SIFE faculty adviser, said that teams have anywhere from 10 to 30 projects. \nCornett said the 10 area projects the IU team developed touched different categories of people. Some projects, she said, involved working with groups of students in high school. For example, one group’s project involved helping high school students who were considered homeless to finish school and find jobs. \nServing as the president of the group, Cornett said that it is the second year the team went to the national competition. Last year, the team attended but did not place. \n“It’s really rewarding,” Cornett said, adding that, next year, SIFE will be developing a lot of new projects and looking to “push new avenues” to expand on campus.\nNot all members presented in Texas, however - only Cornett and six others went.\n“It’s very huge. ... It’s a chance to meet so many recruiters,” Cornett said. “To look back and realize how much work and hours you put in, it’s really, really exciting to see the difference you make in the lives of (members of) the community.” \nA project that the IU SIFE team worked on was the Fair Trade Bloomington project. Embry said this project involved students working to start a nonprofit store to support economic development opportunities in the world’s most poverty-stricken areas through business cooperatives. \nIn addition, SIFE students were involved the “Traveling T,” in which elementary students learn how a t-shirt is produced. \n“We were amazed, completely amazed,” Embry said of the competition results. “It takes a lot of time and resources to place (in nationals). It is very, very competitive, and the top teams have had programs that have been around for a long time. It is intimidating, as their presentation skills are at the top level.”\nEmbry said she honestly had not expected to place so soon and thought it would take a couple of years before it would happen. \n“We’re very pleasantly surprised,” she said. \nEmbry said through SIFE, students learn time-management and leadership skills, as the projects require creating something new and inspiring others to work toward the same goals and achievements. \n“You have to keep time schedules and motivate volunteers to put something together that really contributes in some way to have results that are measured so we can present on the projects,” Embry said.