The UNL Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) will showcase their local and national projects from this year on Tuesday, April 10 at the Van Brunt Visitors Center Presentation Room at 5:30 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a reception in the Great Hall at 6:30 p.m.
 
The main purpose of the SIFE World, an international organization with programs in 42 countries, is to mobilize university students to make a difference in area communities while developing skills to become socially responsible business leaders. UNL SIFE, based in the College of Business Administration, has more than 50 student members with different majors from all over campus and is currently ranked in the top 60 of over 700 national teams. 
 
“We worked on a wide range of projects this year from helping women in Sri Lanka to improving the lives of people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. At the event, we will explain how these projects got started, our goals and what we accomplished and we want those attending to ask us questions,” SIFE External Vice President Karen Madera said.
 
SIFE students were also mentors for 6-12^th graders in Lincoln at The Lighthouse Community Center and helped refugees grow food for themselves and for market through Community CROPS. They also took over a previously established business called, LisaMom Foundation, that assists cancer patients in Africa with basic needs.
 
To fund these projects and their travel to competitions, SIFE students run two businesses, The Daily Drip and SIFE Sales. The Daily Drip is a snack shop located on the first floor of CBA and the SIFE Sales is an online inventory resale business where UNL departments can liquidate their unused or older equipment.
 
“Featuring our work at this event will get others educated about these programs and how they can help. It will also make us better at presenting the information and we have some SIFE competitions coming up,” Madera said.
 
Advisors of UNL SIFE are Dr. Sam Nelson and Rose Graves from the Center for Entrepreneurship at CBA.
 
The SIFE Regional Competition to be held April 17-19 in Chicago. If the students place high enough at regionals, they will have the opportunity to compete in the National SIFE Competition held May 17-21.
 
RSVPs to attend the SIFE Showcase event and reception are encouraged. Please call Sarah Stephens in Communications and Marketing Office at the College of Business Administration at 402-472-3382 or email her at stephens4@unl.edu. Published: March 29, 2012