UNK SIFE president, 308.529.2173 OR brockcl@unk.edu
UNK- The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team at the University of Nebraska at Kearney placed second in the nation in the HSBC Financial Literacy Individual Topic Competition that took place in Chicago earlier this month.
Three SIFE team members–Chelsey Brock of Gothenburg, Keith Stritt of McCook and Kelsee Sharpe of Table Rock— traveled to Chicago to accept the award, consisting of a trophy and $2,000 prize money.
Last month, the team took part in regional competition in Seattle. There the team won a trophy as second runner-up in the league competition, and received a $1,000 prize and an additional trophy as a national finalist for the financial literacy individual topic competition. Dr. Susan Jensen, a faculty member in the Department of Management, is the SIFE adviser.
“This distinction is only given to 20 teams out of the more than 800 teams nationwide,” Brock said.
After returning home from Seattle, the team learned that they had placed in the top three for this competition and would be honored at nationals. While at nationals, the students attended various events, including the opening ceremony, career fair and final round of competition. The executives and CEOs of several large companies, including Campbell’s, Sam’s Club and AIG, attended the event and gave the students words of inspiration. The team accepted their award at the closing ceremony. Hilbert College of New York received third place in the financial literacy individual topic competition, and Texas State University – San Marcos received the top honor.
“UNK SIFE was involved in nine projects this past year that addressed the financial literacy component, including seven offered as part of $martMoney Week, three “Dollars and Donuts” workshops, two versions of Financial Jeopardy, a $martMoney Kid essay contest and the “Spend or Save” workshop,” Brock said. The team also addressed financial literacy in a New Venture Adventure project and through involvement with global entrepreneurs in the KIVA lending program.
“These events educated people of all ages regarding the use of money and helped the SIFE team prepare for the financial literacy competition,” Brock said.
SIFE is an international, nonprofit organization active on more than 1,500 college and university campuses in 47 countries. SIFE students form teams that serve their communities by developing projects that take what they are learning in classrooms about business and use it to solve real world problems for real people. The SIFE program concentrates on five areas: entrepreneurship, market economics, success skills, financial literacy and business ethics. Each year, the teams present their projects at competition where they are judged on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.
