Representatives from USM’s Students in Free Enterprise group won the regional SIFE competition in New York this month, allowing them to advance to the national competition taking place in Minneapolis in May.
Students in Free Enterprise is a student group that does outreach programs with a focus on finances and business in the Greater Portland area. John Voyer, SIFE’s faculty advisor and professor of business administration at USM, said the goal of the organization is to help people in need using principles of business, economics and entrepreneurship.
In New York, the group gave a presentation to a panel of judges explaining five projects that they successfully completed over the course of the academic year. The criteria for the competition stipulated that projects must empower people in need and improve their quality of life and standard of living.
The regional competitions allowed groups from university campuses all over the country to showcase the various projects completed within their communities throughout the year. Each team gave a 24-minute presentation covering the projects they completed and how successfully they met the the criteria of the judges.
Voyer said that the judges were middle and upper managers of SIFE sponsors such as Unilever, Sam’s Club, Walgreens and CVS, among others.
“Because we only have 24 minutes to speak about what we’ve done for the entire year we aren’t able to cover all the projects and all of our fundraising and recruiting efforts,” said Nevin Duffey, marketing major and president of the USM SIFE group. Duffey received a SIFE Service Leadership Award for contributing over 100 hours of volunteer work over the past year.
Duffey said that immediately before the group presents at the competition they provide the judges with an annual report that details all of their projects for the year, the students involved in the group and the number of volunteer hours contributed by group members. USM’s team had a total of six members, each one memorizing their own piece of the presentation for the judges.
The group has completed five major projects that have impacted communities in Maine, according to Duffey and Voyer. Members of the group volunteered at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, educating incarcerated youth.
Volunteers at Long Creek taught basic skills such as personal finance, résumé writing and job interview etiquette. Voyer said these skills will aid Long Creek youths in leading a healthy and productive lifestyle when released out into the community.
“We’ve had several people that we have worked with at Long Creek end up getting jobs and telling us that the mock interviewing we did with them helped them a lot when they went in for an actual job interview,” Voyer said.
Duffey said he is optimistic about the team’s performance at the national competition in May, in Minneapolis where 123 teams will compete. The winning team will attend the Students In Free Enterprise World Cup in Malaysia in October.
“It’s incredible what you can do with [SIFE] and the impact you can have and the rewards you can reap for every person that’s a part of it,” said Duffey.