The UNL Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) group which recently competed in a national competition to promote their entrepreneurial efforts at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are at it again. They have applied for a grant from True Hero Inc., a nonprofit organization that awards grants to youth and student groups.
The grants are awarded based on an online voting system at the True Hero, Inc. web site.
The group plans to use its grant to continue efforts installing garden kits in the Pine Ridge community. The activity helps promote self-sufficiency among residents in the community where economic opportunities have been hard to come by.
Ben Tiggelaar, student president of UNL SIFE, hopes to inspire entrepreneurial seeds through the work the student group is doing.
“Right now there’s no extra income for people to create opportunity so money has to initially come from outside the community,” said Tiggelaar. “Some of these families have about 20 people living in a double wide trailer so providing basic nutrition is huge.”
Tiggelaar, who grew up in Sioux Falls, SD, wants to help residents empower themselves through educating them about their economic opportunities including applying for grants.
“We just got the idea that we wanted to focus on an area where we could really bring some change.”
The SIFE group's chances were recently boosted by appearing in an article in the Lincoln Journal-Star. The group activities along with videos are also promoted on the True Hero, Inc. web site. Online voting for the grant competition ends on June 30.
Published: June 29, 2011