UMC SIFE Students Earn Regional Champion Status at Business Competition in Minneapolis
A team of University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) students involved in Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) earned SIFE Regional Champion status at the organization’s annual regional conference, held April 6 in Minneapolis. This is the fifth consecutive year UMC’s team has earned the title, making it the only college in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North and South Dakota to achieve that feat. UMC’s team will now advance to the 2004 SIFE U.S.A. National Exposition on May 23-25 in Kansas City, Missouri, to compete against other regional champion teams from across the country.
Front Row (from left): Jana Hodgson,
Kelli Barnes, Melissa Martin, Claire Rhode, Jamie Wolff, Erica Stroot;
Middle Row: Jay Tupa, Josh Jaeger, Ben Perkins, Anthony Wagner; Back Row:
advisor Eric Burgess, advisor Steven Shirley, Steve Kongsjord, Dustin
Barton, Ryan Tripp, David Ounchith, Abdul Alam
The students traveled to Minneapolis to present their program of projects to a panel of judges at the conference. During a 30-minute multimedia presentation, they outlined a year-long series of educational and outreach activities which they planned and implemented. They were judged on the presentation, a written annual report, and their portfolio of free enterprise service projects.
Their project list consisted of organizing the Second Annual Crookston Job Fair; coordinating the annual Red River Valley regional Arts & Crafts Show; planning and opening a student-operated business—University Corner, a coffee shop located in the lobby of Crookston’s RiverView Hospital; staffing a booth and participating in the Marketplace for Entrepreneurs event held in January in Grand Forks, ND; and offering personal finance workshops for regional high school students, among other projects.
The presentation team consisted of (alphabetically) Abdul Alam of Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Kelli Barnes Courtenay, ND; Dustin Barton of Jamestown, ND; Jana Hodgson of Warroad; Josh Jaeger of Devils Lake, ND; Steve Kongsjord of Talmoon; Melissa Martin of Crookston; David Ounchith of Warroad; Ben Perkins of New Brighton; Claire Rhode of Crookston; Erica Stroot of Euclid; Ryan Tripp of Alexandria; Jay Tupa of Fargo, ND; Anthony Wagner of Warsaw; and Jamie Wolff of Rosemount. Steven Shirley, assistant professor of marketing, and Eric Burgess, management instructor, the group’s advisors, also attended.
“The UMC students involved with SIFE this year have been very active in the community working on a wide variety of free enterprise educational projects,” said advisor Steven Shirley. “This Regional Champion designation is a culmination of their many efforts throughout the year. Advancing to the National Competition for the fifth straight year highlights the quality of students at UMC. We look forward to competing at the National SIFE Competition with the elite universities from across the United States.”
Other collegiate SIFE teams from throughout the Midwest that attended the regional competition but did not advance included Minot State University, Luther College, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, South Dakota State University, North Dakota State University, Winona State University, and the University of Northern Iowa.
Posted 04/08/2004
Contact: Andrew Svec,
218-281-8435