Cal Poly Update | May 2007 | SIFE Team Headed to Nationals

Cal Poly Business Students Headed to Texas for Nationals

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- The Cal Poly SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) Team is competing in Dallas, Texas, May 6-8, in the 2007 national SIFE competition.

Photo of 2007 student SIFE team in hotel meeting room The Cal Poly SIFE team returned to San Luis Obispo as winners after participating in the SIFE USA Regional Competition in March in Los Angeles.

"Regional competition was intense," said Cal Poly SIFE member Christopher Petro. "The teams came from all corners of California, flooding downtown Hollywood to give presentations to business, industry and philanthropy leaders."

All competing teams gave 30-minute presentations discussing their projects. Cal Poly received immediate honors, winning regional competition award for entrepreneurship. The win came because of the Orfalea College of Business's annual Business Plan Competition.

Sweeping its league, the Cal Poly SIFE team greatly impressed the judges with other projects including a business skills workshop for inmates at the California Men's Colony. In that project, Cal Poly SIFE students worked one-on-one with prison inmates about to reenter society

Internationally, the team helped provide funding for Seeds of Hope, which works to dig water-well for African tribes in Zambia.

The judges had only one question for the Cal Poly SIFE team before handing them the prism-shaped trophy: “With so much going on in your lives, when do you have time to do your school work?”

The team president, Jenna Bogard, replied with “SIFE for life, sir. SIFE for life.”

“I’m very excited about this opportunity to share with the business community the progress our team has made this year with our projects," Bogard said after the Los Angeles competition. "The dedicated students that joined this organization are futures leaders. We’ve already won this competition by doing something few students have the opportunity to do in college: make a difference," Bogard stressed.

SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on more than 1400 university campuses in 48 countries. The SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their communities by organizing projects that teach market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills, and business ethics. Their projects are judged at competition on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.

During the 2006-07 academic year, the Cal Poly SIFE team organized 14 projects in the San Luis Obispo area. Other 2006-07 SIFE projects included an educational event dealing with biodiesel, an investment workshop, and a business skills workshop for local artists. Cal Poly’s SIFE team comprises students from all majors and backgrounds.

"This is just the beginning," said team member Christopher Petro. "We’re hoping to expand further next year, taking our talents even farther abroad, hopefully working hand-in-hand with groups like Engineers Without Borders. It’s a very exciting time to be involved in SIFE.”

The Cal Poly SIFE team advisor is OCOB Professor Norm Borin.

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