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UNL SIFE Team Named Champions of Their League in Regionals

The UNL Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) presentation team were named Champions of their League at the 2012 Regional Competition on April 16 in Chicago, Ill. The team will now advance to the national tournament in Kansas City, Mo., in May.

SIFE World is an international organization with programs in 42 countries and mobilizes 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.

The competition focuses on SIFE teams from throughout the country giving presentations that explain the project work that their individual school has undertaken during the past year. The Nebraska team uses an engaging mix of multimedia and theatrical storytelling to convey the importance of the work they have accomplished.

“We think our presentation tells a compelling story about our project's successes,” said Ben Tiggelaar, who is a past member of the UNL SIFE presentation team. “When it comes down to it, we are striving to become the best we possibly can.”

Tiggelaar, an accounting, computer science and finance major from Sioux Falls, S.D., is helping to coach the team this year after helping the team advance to the national tournament in 2011.

“Of the five Big Ten schools that competed at the Chicago tournament, only two of us advanced,” Tiggelaar said. “The University of Illinois is also going to Kansas City but three others didn’t make it.”

Some of the projects that UNL SIFE has worked on during the past year include helping Native American communities grow their own crops, helping the local non-profit organization, Community Crops, become more entrepreneurial in the Lincoln area and reaching out internationally to assist women in Sri Lanka.

The 2012 SIFE presentation team members include:

Beth Barmettler, junior management major, Omaha, Neb. 
Karen Madera, senior advertising/political science major, McKinney, Texas
Venny Alub, senior hospitality and tourism major, Manila, Philippines
Jordan Bates, junior English major from Spencer, Iowa
Mikayla Schultz, freshman psychology/philosophy major from Hastings, Neb.
Jiajun (Abe) Xu, junior economics major from Yucheng, China
Zachary Bock, senior advertising major from Gretna, Neb. (technical team)
Muhammad Aizat, freshman computer science major from Penang, Malaysia (technical team)
Published: May 8, 2012