Jenna Wixson & Javier Detrinidad in the final four

Team reflects on a year of successful projects & member development

Drury University's Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team finished third overall at the SIFE National Exposition on May 8 in Dallas, Texas.

La Sierra University of Riverside, Calif. and the University of Arizona, took first and second places, respectively. Heritage University also competed in the final four, finishing just past Drury.

Drury was named the national champion in 2001, 2003, and 2005 and World Cup champions in 2001 and 2003. The team qualified for national competition after being named regional champion in April in Minneapolis.

This marks the sixth win for La Sierra SIFE since 1994.

A five-member presentation team presented a summary of the team's more than 9,000 hours of work over the past year to judges who rate the team on creativity, innovation and effectiveness in implementing projects that serve to create economic opportunity and spread the concepts of free enterprise.

The 44-member team completed 31 projects this year and highlighted their best projects in a 24 minute audio/visual presentation. Some of these projects include:

* DSIFE - Social Enterprise, an expansion of DSIFE-Inc., the nation's first completely student-run business incubator focusing on assisting local nonprofits.

* Laredo, a yearly trip bringing the entire Drury SIFE team to a Texas town on the Mexican border. SIFE members teach students at a local middle school the basics of business over three days in the classroom.

* Domicile Mpumi (Faces of Change), where team members traveled to Zambia, Africa, to construct a water filtration system, providing clean water and economic opportunity to an African village in this developing nation.