Keisha Clay
Staff Writer

In its first year competing, the University of La Verne’s Students in Free Enterprise team is making a name for themselves both regionally and nationally.

The SIFE team won its regional competition in Los Angeles back in March and was also named the Regional Rookie of the Year.

The students competed earlier this week in the national competition in Dallas; they did not win, but they were honored with the National Rookie of the Year title.

“I am very proud of all the team members,” said Issam Ghazzawi, the team adviser and Sam Walton Fellow and assistant professor of management. “They put forth a lot of effort.”

“We did great for a brand new team,” said Phanny Lun a senior, international business and Japanese major from Stockton. SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on more than 1,400 university campuses worldwide. SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their respective communities.

“We focus on market economics, entrepreneurship, success skills, business ethics, and financial literacy,” said Lilian Ulloa, a sophomore business administration major. “SIFE is a branch of the Business Student Association.”

Beginning last semester a group of 10 ULV students trained and developed a Business Plan Contest for a senior economics class at Garey High School in Pomona. Garey is comprised of more than 95 percent of minority students, many who come from low-income families.

“I am also from a low income community, said Daisy Aguiar, a senior criminology major and business minor from Southgate. “I think it was a great opportunity for me to help get these kids on the right track.”

“It gave us a great sense of responsibility to give back to the community,” Lun said.

The high school students formed groups and came up with business plans for their future businesses.

“We were able to teach students the same things we had been learning in class,” Ulloa said. “I was really impressed with their business plans, they were really good.”

Seven of the 10 members of the team, along with their advisor, participated in the Dallas event, earlier this week.

There were 25 leagues with five schools per league. ULV was in league 19 and they presented on Monday. Their project consisted of a written report and a 37-minute live presentation. Each person spoke for at least two minutes.

“It was very nerve racking,” Ulloa said.

“We did very well even though we didn’t make it to the final round,” Aguiar said.

The SIFE team wants to continue to make a name for itself and would like to be more visible throughout the university.

“We would like to sustain it, make it bigger and to create more outreach programs for the community” Ghazzawi said.

Keisha Clay can be reached at kclay@ulv.edu.