Public Relations

NWACC SIFE team second runner up at Regional Competition

ROGERS (Thursday, March 27, 2008) – NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Students In Free Enterprise team was the second runner up in the community college division of the Rogers Regional competition held Thursday at the Hammonds Center.

The team was competing for a berth at the May 13-15 SIFE USA National Exposition in Chicago. NWACC's SIFE team won its regional championship last year.

NWACC has a 35-student team, its largest ever. A total of 31 colleges and universities were scheduled to present at the competition.

SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their communities by organizing outreach projects that teach: market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills, and business ethics. The 14 projects presented by NWACC SIFE were judged by business leaders on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.

NWACC SIFE team Sam M. Walton Fellow Becky Hudson she was proud of the team and its accomplishments.

“Our presenters did a fantastic job,” Hudson said. “I am extremely proud of them. However, it isn’t presentation that wins this competition. If it was, I guarantee you our team would have won the championship. They are and will continue to be winners.

“Our team has great projects and made a lot of impact in our community, the two teams that placed ahead of us though made more impact and impact is what the judges are supposed to look at,” Hudson said.

The NWACC team was paired against three other community colleges. Ozarks Technical Community College at Springfield, Mo., placed first; Crowder College at Neosho, Mo. was first runner up and Kansas City Kansas Community College also competed.

NWACC team president Stephanie Archer entered some of the 14 projects into individual topic award contests earlier this year.

This is where you can enter any or all of your projects into a special competition and the top three in each of the five criteria areas—Market Economics, Success Skills, Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship, and Business Ethics—will be announced at national competition.

“For these awards, there is no division between two and four year schools,” Hudson said.

The team’s Project Unwritten was chosen as a finalist for the Success Skills category.

“We will have a few representatives at the national competition in Chicago—Stephanie will certainly be one of them,” Hudson said. “This is a huge accomplishment and I am very proud of the team for their dedication to this important project.”

SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on more than 1,400 university campuses in 48 countries.

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