SIFE Team is a finalist for Kansas City nationals

“The best SIFE team I have seen all day,” one judge commented after seeing the presentation by eight Fredonia students at the Students in Free Enterprise USA Regional Competition in Cleveland, OH recently.

After the Fredonia students described the goals and achievements of six of their year-long community outreach projects to a panel of business leaders at the competition, Fredonia was selected as a SIFE USA Regional Champion for the ninth year in a row.

The group is now preparing for the National SIFE Exposition in Kansas City May 21-24, where Fredonia is a finalist for three special competitions: market economics, success skills and entrepreneurship.

The team consisted of eight seniors:  Drew Dipaolo (Penfield, NY, marketing); Andrew Fedczuk (Fredonia, NY, marketing); Marisa Pennetta (Rochester, NY, marketing), Ian Pope (Scottsdale, AZ, marketing);  Adam Riemer (Rochester, NY, marketing); Amanda Teugeman (Rochester, NY, marketing); Anne Wenck (Corning, NY, marketing); and Jennifer Zaso (Perry, NY, public relations). 

Professors Franklin Krohn and Charles Emery accompanied the student representatives to the competition.

The central theme of SIFE, which is a course taught in the Fredonia School of Business, is to teach university students the basic elements of the free enterprise system.

By creating real free-market projects, they are required to learn how a market-based economic system operates, to compete in a dynamic, global economy; to practice business ethically; to achieve financial independence; to succeed as entrepreneurs; and to sustain projects for the long-term.