Friday's Internet Edition, July 04, 2008.
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| SIFE members are (front row, left to right) Dr. John Firth, Christine Luciano, Lisa Chappell, Steve Mireles, (back row left to right) Juanita Hall, Anahi Sandoval, Janis Nye, Alex Samuel, Marlvis Awusah and Les Ledger. While SIFE has placed in the regionals for the past eight years, this is the first trip to the national competition. – Courtesy Photo |
The CTC team competed against total of 191 Regional Champion teams, which were made up of 45 two-year and 146 four-year institutions, from 44 states.
In the final round, the CTC SIFE team was selected by a panel of 53 judges as third runner-up among two-year colleges. This gives CTC a ranking of first in Texas and fourth in the nation among the 256 community college SIFE teams. The distinction came with a $2,500 cash award and trophy. CTC was represented by President Lisa Chappell, Vice President Steve Mireles, Marlvis Awusah Junita Hall, Christine Luciano, Janis Nye, Alex Samuel and Anahi Sandoval.
The CTC team also took home the SIFE Spirit Award. This award is voted on by the 191 teams at the competition and recognizes the one SIFE team that ‘has dedicated itself to helping others and spreading the message of free enterprise in a unique or especially enthusiastic way.’
The CTC team’s winning project was based on its participation in the Fort Hood Adopt-a-Unit program and the organization of “Financial Readiness for Deployment” orientation by Becky Sickel, branch vice president of Eisenhower Bank, for 13th Signal Battalion soldiers and their families.
Six members of the CTC team earned the SIFE Service Leadership Award and the President’s Student Service Award, signed by George W. Bush, for completing 100 hours on SIFE projects during the school year.
Those recognized were Awusah, Chappell, Luciano, Mireles, Nye and Samuel.
Dr. John Frith, faculty advisor for the CTC SIFE team, was named a Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow for the eleventh year in a row for his leadership of the SIFE program.
CTC Business instructor Les Ledger was awarded the Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow, for the first time, for his outstanding support to the SIFE Team.
The SIFE team complied a written report and multi- media presentation that described 24 free enterprise education projects reaching 2,379 schoolchildren, college students and citizens this year. SIFE students worked over 3,000 hours on SIFE projects during the school year.
The CTC SIFE Team is one of more than 1,600 similar teams at colleges across the United States and in 43 countries around the world. SIFE’s mission is to foster free-market economic education through programs in schools, on college campuses and in the communities. The objective is to give America’s schoolchildren, collegians and citizens a better understanding of and a greater appreciation for the free enterprise system that makes America so strong. The unique SIFE experience enables team members to strengthen communication, team building, and management skills; while making a worthwhile contribution to the community and building their resumes.
An example of the CTC SIFE team’s projects is the “Chickenomics” program. It is an oral and video presentation using the career of the San Diego Chicken sports mascot to teach the five characteristics of a market economy. The team presented this one-hour program 41 times to 771 school children in 19 local schools.
The team also translated the “Chickenomics” program into Urdu and exported it to Pakistan where it was presented to two fifth grade classes (150 students) in the Islamabad City School and Model School for Girls.
Another project is the “Cookie Factory” conducted this year for Copperas Cove Junior High students.
Eight SIFE Team members guided Eddie Thompson’s eighth grade classes, a total of 179 students, in forming a corporation to purchase and sell cookies. This 40-hour project allowed SIFE to help guide students in forming a corporation, selling stock, negotiating a bank loan with National Bank’s Tom Creek, conducting a market survey, producing a video-taped advertising jingle and purchasing and selling cookies.
The entrepreneurs made a profit of $536 while learning and practicing free enterprise.
CTC has participated in the SIFE program for the past 12 years. In addition to winning national honors this year, CTC SIFE teams have been Regional Champions in each of the past eight years.
As a result of these competitions, SIFE has earned $16,000 in prize money. That money along with profit from a candy business has allowed the CTC SIFE teams to donate $18,000 to the CTC Foundation for a SIFE Endowed Scholarship since 1996.
The CTC SIFE team is currently seeking new and innovative ways to educate school children, college students and the public about the free enterprise system that makes America strong. For more information or to suggest projects contact the Business Administration department (254) 526-1248.