EOU's
SIFE team heads to regionals
By Dick
Mason
The La
Grande Observer
Published: March 29, 2004
La Grande -- These 16 Eastern Oregon University business
students hope to make an impression in Seattle -- and a quick exit.
The students are the members of the EOU Students In Free Enterprise
team. They will be in Seattle to compete at the Western Regional competition
of the Students In Free Enterprise program.
It will be a highly competitive event in which teams will give polished,
high-tech presentations to a panel of judges. Once a presentation
is over students cannot relax -- they must sprint. Teams have just
60 seconds to remove all of their materials and equipment from the
presentation floor. Teams lose points if they exceed the 60-second
limit.
Beating the time limit will be no small task for Eastern's team. It
has an array of speakers and computer equipment that will have to
be removed.
A.J. Baldwin, president of EOU's SIFE chapter, is confident that his
team will beat the time limit. He explained that the team has practiced
its exit and that members know their roles.
Eastern is in a David vs. Goliath situation, competing against larger
schools such as Montana State University, Washington State University
and Chico State University. Some of the universities have SIFE budgets
of $130,000. Eastern's team has an annual budget of about $5,000.
SIFE is a global, non profit organization. A total of 1,600 university
campuses in 40 countries have SIFE chapters. Students in SIFE teach
others about the principals of free enterprise market economics, entrepreneurship
and business ethics.
At regionals Eastern will be vying for a berth at the national SIFE
competition May 23-25 in Kansas City, Mo. The top two teams in each
division qualify. Eastern competes in the
four-year university division. EOU qualified
for nationals two years ago.
The presentation Eastern's SIFE team will give Wednesday will focus
on the 14 community service projects it has completed over the past
school year.
The students did things such as run a simulated grocery store for
kindergarten students at Island City and Willow elementary schools,
give presentations on international trade at La Grande High School,
and conduct a program on currency exchange at La Grande Middle School.
Baldwin said that it is critical that team members make it apparent
that they take pride in what they have accomplished.
"If you don¹t believe in what you are doing the judges will
see that," Baldwin said.
The presentation EOU's SIFE team will make will be in the format of
a news broadcast.
