| Students In Free Enterprise |
Penn State Abington SIFE Team helps others thrive in a free market
A woman in the Dominican Republic is fantastic at crocheting handbags, but not so savvy at how to market them. College students are great at applying for, and receiving credit cards, but not always the best at managing their finances. So what do they have in common?
Both are being helped this semester by the Penn State Abington Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team, a group of 12 regular participants and dozens of other students whose mission is to help entrepreneurs and regular folks thrive financially in a free market system.
SIFE is a global non-profit organization active in more than 40 countries. SIFE is funded by financial contributions from corporations, entrepreneurs, foundations, government agencies and individuals. Working in partnership with business and higher education, SIFE establishes student teams on university campuses. These teams are led by faculty advisors and they are challenged to develop community outreach projects that reach SIFE's five educational topics: market economics; success skills; entrepreneurship; financial literacy; and business ethics.
Ana Melhor, a sophomore economics major and president of Penn State Abington's SIFE team, and Michael Rosso, a sophomore accounting major and vice president of SIFE, say their participation in the program over the past two years has helped them expand their horizons in many directions.
"I've become really comfortable giving public speeches, I've also had the opportunity to meet SIFE participants from all over the world, as well as business executives," said Melhor, of Huntington Valley.
Rosso, of Langhorne, said he's always found business interesting, "especially how you put in so much time to make everything perfect, and if one think doesn't work, you have to fix it before you can become successful."
