Bowling Green, Ky. - In only its second year, Western Kentucky University’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) program has again won regional and national honors.

For the second consecutive year, WKU’s SIFE team was named “Best in the U.S.” in a national competition involving educating middle school students in the areas of entrepreneurship, market economics, ethics, financial literacy and personal success skills. 

WKU’s SIFE team won the regional championship for the second straight year and won five of the six national specialty competition awards – business ethics, success skills, program sustainability, market economics and entrepreneurship – at the April 7 event in Cincinnati.

WKU competed with 29 other universities, including the University of Tennessee and Indiana University. The competition is based upon a calendar year’s performance in numerous projects that are completed in the region by each team designed to teach the principles of free enterprise to targeted groups. 

At the regional competition, the 14 projects completed by WKU SIFE were presented to a group of corporate executives serving as judges in a 24-minute presentation with video and picture technology in the background. In addition, a detailed annual report summarizing each project was presented to each judge. 

WKU SIFE put in more than 5,000 hours in the projects completed this year. The team advanced to the National SIFE Competition in Kansas City in May.
In the “Best in the U.S.” competition, WKU SIFE team members traveled to Franklin-Simpson Middle School from Feb. 27 to March 13 to aid students in understanding vital concepts in today’s business world. An experiential learning approach was utilized as the students designed and created their own ice cream business, “Frankvegas Ice Cream Company.”

Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Company sponsored the competition and donated the ice cream for the program.

Students were shown how to develop a business plan, obtain a loan from the SIFE team for toppings, carry out business operations, manage assets, and use checks and balances to maintain ethical behavior. After the first of two sales, performance was assessed by an extensive evaluation providing constructive feedback. This resulted in greater company productivity as the second sale resulted in an increase in sales of more than $100. 

The students at Frankvegas Ice Cream Company gained in-depth knowledge of the skills needed to succeed in the current business environment. The students also were taught that when you benefit from a business in a free enterprise society, it is a responsibility to give back. The students donated $200 of their $645 in sales to the American Cancer Society.

To learn more about WKU SIFE, contact Leo Simpson at (270) 745-6174 or visit http://www.wku.edu/sife/

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Leo Simpson at (270) 745-6174.

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