SIFE a reputable and charitable club that helps students get jobs

Students in Free Enterprise club is more than meets the eye. SIFE creates and executes projects that are designed to help the community achieve economic success. 

The club, which is one of 1,200 different SIFE organizations around the world, is in its 17th year at Wilkes and is advised by entrepreneurship chair Dr. Jeffrey Alves.

Globally, SIFE has tens of thousands of members who contribute hundreds of thousands of hours each year to various outreach projects.

According to Wilkes SIFE President Raina Connor, most community outreach programs are created by individual SIFE teams, but one can also partner with organizations to help them out. This year SIFE teamed up with two community volunteer centers that are in need to financial help.

SIFE also took over the Money Matters club on campus this year and created a whole series of projects for them, one of which was the financial planning seminar for college students. Their intent in taking up Money Matters was to not see the club disappear.

"We are a successful club on campus and we want there to be other clubs and this was another business club that we were acquainted with and you don't want to see them just go away," SIFE Vice President Alison Drake said. "We try to bring some leadership into (the club) and keep some of the members that were in it and just keep it going."

Each year, dozens of SIFE organizations from around the country compete in national and regional competitions, one of which will be occurring during finals week.

SIFE teams compete with one another through verbal and audio presentations of the projects accomplished and how many people one affects and the impacts they have made in the community.

"We have 24 minutes to talk about whichever projects we want. We usually try to pick a good handful of about five or six projects that highlight the different areas of our SIFE team because all of our projects address different needs in our community," Connor said.

There are six teams that compete in one league and three of those teams are selected to go onto nationals. Those teams then advance to the SIFE World Cup.

One important part of regional and national SIFE competitions is the ability to attend a large job and career fair for internships for SIFE students only.

This May, students involved in SIFE will have the opportunity to compete in this year's national competition in Minneapolis, Minn. They advanced to the national competition after winning the regional competition on April 6.

"You really get to connect with the other SIFE teams being there for almost a whole week. And you feed ideas off each other and really get to know what other teams are doing and maybe set up stuff with them or just bring ideas to bring back to your team to talk about," Drake said.

All of the projects presented and judged at the competitions must target people in need and has to have considered economic, social and environmental factors.

One also has to apply business and economic concepts and an entrepreneurial approach. The outcomes of the projects are an improved standard of living and quality of life for the people that one is helping.

"I think that's where a lot of people have a misconception that we're a business club," Connor said. "We're a community service club first, business club second."

Both Connors and Drake encourage students who are interested in community service and getting involved in a very reputable organization to join and are open to project suggestions as well as helping students start their own projects.

"No matter what your major is, if you are involved in a club like SIFE that is heavily focused on community service and hands-on (activities) then it's going to help you in your future career, in getting (and) attaining a job and just living a good life," Connor said. "Giving back feels good."