Carthage's Students in Free Enterprise team will compete at the SIFE National Expo May 10-12 in Minneapolis, after taking first place in their league at the 2011 SIFE USA Regional Competition in Chicago March 28.

Team presenters at the regional competition were Sarah Caselli, '12, from Deerfield, Ill.; Christina Chervenak, '12, from Des Plaines, Ill.; Meghan DeNamur, '13, from Appleton, Wis.; and Catherine Rogers, '12, from Fridley, Minn. Brendan Connolly, '11, from Schaumburg, Ill., is president of SIFE. Faculty advisor is David Schlichting.

Students in Free Enterprise describes itself as an "international non-profit organization that works with leaders in business and higher education to mobilize students to make a difference in their communities, while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders."

In just seven years since it was established, Carthage's SIFE chapter has met those goals well enough to advance to the national competition three times.

"We'll have 200-plus schools" at the national competition, said Prof. Schlichting, associate professor of business administration at Carthage. "There will be one winner. They have no divisions or categories; we're not just competing against small liberal arts schools."

At regional and national competitions, Prof. Schlichting explained, teams from each SIFE chapter make a 20-minute presentation on their accomplishments during the past academic year. Presentations are evaluated by a panel of businesspeople who serve as judges.

"The focus of Students in Free Enterprise is to empower people," Prof. Schlichting said, adding that the Carthage chapter's presentation featured projects involving homeless people and children that were intended to do just that. SIFE members worked with student government and Omicron Delta Kappa to hold food and clothing drives to assist Kenosha's First Step shelter and Urban Outreach, and Milwaukee's Family House. But students went a step farther, showing the homeless served by First Step how to market themselves to get back into the job market.

"We took some computers to teach them basic computer skills, we worked with them to create resumes, and had a session on job interviews," Prof. Schlichting said. Students held a workshop offering advice on how to dress for and conduct oneself in an interview, and what kind of questions to expect and how to answer them. SIFE members also worked to help the homeless prepare resumes, and discussed how to handle credit and balance checkbooks.

A second project sought to prepare teenagers at the Racine YMCA for college. SIFE members brought teens to the Carthage campus to meet an admission representative, and sit in on mock classes.

"We had students talk to them about college life from a student perspective," Prof. Schlichting said. SIFE members are also planning Saturday study sessions to help prepare teens for college placement tests, and will cover the test fees for 30 teens.

SIFE members have not neglected their fellow Carthage students. They created a video on responsible credit card use to show to incoming freshmen, and hold a program for graduating seniors on establishing credit and dealing with student loans.

Prof. Schlichting said the chapter has received outside grants for some of its projects, including a three-year renewable grant for $150,000 from the Brady Corp. Foundation, administered through Carthage's Clausen Center for World Business. A smaller grant from Sam's Club paid for an energy evaluation for a restaurant near campus that saves the restaurant $221 per year.

Finally, the SIFE chapter presented programs on nutrition, exercise and savings to pupils at two elementary schools.

"We teach them the difference between a need and a want," Prof. Schlichting said. "You need food and shelter, you want a video game. We teach them that sometimes they need to save their money for future needs and wants, rather than an immediate want."

Prof. Schlichting said the chapter had 57 members this school year.

"We have a lot of business majors, but we are actively trying to recruit majors from education and other disciplines," he said. "A lot of our projects are educational in nature."

— Bill Kurtz, Carthage College