Kelsee Sharpe
SIFE Team president, 402.852.6298; Dr. Susan M. Jensen, SIFE Team faculty adviser, 308.865.8189
The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team at the University of Nebraska at Kearney recently hosted an all day competition on the campus for high school students interested in entrepreneurship.
More than 130 students from 13 schools registered for the event. Among the schools attending were Amherst, Blue Hill, Callaway, Centura, Hastings, Kearney, Kenesaw, Ord, Pleasanton, Sandhills, Sandy Creek and Shelton.
The students began their “new venture adventure” by creating a retail, service or manufacturing business within their teams. From there they formed a mission statement and business card for their company. Teams also identified financing requirements, met with local bankers to obtain the funding needed and met with a local realtor to discuss a lease for their business. Teams also analyzed an ethical dilemma and created a jingle to promote their new business.
Each team presented their overall business concept to a panel of judges. The Grand Champion team members and their high schools included Dylan Kenney of Amherst, Clinton Fauss of Callaway, Bradley Van Winkle of Centura High School-Cairo, Cara Lyon of Centura High School-Cairo, Stephen Rousseau of Hastings, Josh Powell of Kenesaw, Armando Tapia-Casados of Pleasanton, Taylor Marten of Sandhills, Zach Stiner of Sandy Creek and Bryan Palmer of Shelton.
The following students were named “league winners.” Team members included Joe Ostendon of Amherst, Ben Lawrence of Acardia, Kalen Pfeiffer of Amherst, Riley Bonifas of Blue Hill, Alicia Potter of Callaway, Peter Jenkins of Callaway, Angelica Young of Centura High School-Cairo, Hailey Garcia of Centura High School-Cairo, Shelby Christensen of Centura High School-Cairo, Traci Turek of Centura High School-Cairo, Anie Dillman of Hastings, Scott Sunders of Hastings, Asa Stansburg of Kearney, Logan Bohl of Kearney, Bryant Els of Ord, Colin Janitscheck of Pleasanton, Kelli Bauer of Pleasanton, Chance Giles of Sandhills, Amanda Fike of Sandy Creek, Maggie Urbanek of Shelton and Jarrod Chavez of Shelton.
Sponsors for the event included the UNK Center for Rural Research and Development, UNK College of Business and Technology, Barney Insurance, Domino’s Pizza and Intellicom. The following bankers, realtors and judges who worked with the students were Joey Cochran and Troy Brockmeier, both from Wells Fargo, and Mike Meister from Coldwell Banker.
Founded in 1975 and active on more than 1,500 college and university campuses in 37 countries, SIFE is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with business and higher education to provide college students the opportunity to make a difference and to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise.
For more information, contact the UNK SIFE Team faculty adviser Dr. Susan Jensen at 308. 865.8189.
