June 22, 2005

The Brigham Young University-Idaho Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Team placed in the top 12 in the Semi-Final Round of the SIFE USA National Exposition May 22-24 in Kansas City, Missouri. The team was one of more than 200 SIFE Teams from across the nation competing for the SIFE national championship.

SIFE is a non-profit organization active on over 1,800 college and university campuses in more than 40 countries and territories. SIFE works in partnership with business and higher education to provide students the opportunity to make a difference and to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise.

Daren Kingi, an observer and employee of Marriott, wrote:

“I was invited to watch BYU-Idaho’s SIFE team compete in New York City. The day of the competition, I invited one of my associates, who is our “trained recruiter,” to join me. We ventured over to the Hyatt and found our way to the teams “speaker ready room.” After only a few minutes, my colleague looked at me and said, ‘what caliber, you never see this!’ He repeated this to himself a few times.

“I was blown away by the professional power the six young people exhibited in front of the judges that day.”

Brigham Young University-Idaho SIFE advanced to the 2005 SIFE USA National Exposition by winning at the regional level in early spring. At regional competition, the team was judged best at teaching people of all ages the principles of free enterprise. Brigham Young University-Idaho SIFE not only taught free enterprise, but team members made a difference in the Rexburg community by developing projects to meet specific needs of community members. Some of those projects included: The BYU-Idaho Career Fair, BYU-Idaho Women’s Entrepreneur Breakfast Series, Polsky Investing Strategies and the El Salvador micro-credit and square foot gardening project.

Drury University of Springfield, Missouri was named The RadioShack SIFE USA National Champion at the 2005 SIFE USA National Exposition. As champion, the team will represent the United States at the 2005 SIFE World Cup in Toronto, Canada in October.

For more information, contact BYU-Idaho (208) 496-1846, or Michelle West, Director of Public and Media Relations, SIFE World Headquarters at (417) 831-9505 or visit www.SIFE.org.