Five representatives return from the SIFE World Cup

By: Maria Rettinger
Posted: 10/14/09
The Mirror

This past Saturday, October 10, the Drury Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team returned from a successful week-long trip to two locations in Germany where they attended the SIFE World Cup and taught German students about micro-loan investment.

Five members attended, including Valerie Abbott, Yacine Chettouh, Jordan Fry, Kaitlyn Vaughan, and Josh Jones (Director of Drury SIFE). The opening ceremonies for the World Cup were held on Sunday, October 4, and competition commenced the following day.

The primary purpose of the trip was to attend the Cup in Berlin. SIFE advisor and Drury professor Dr. John Taylor said, "We learned a lot about SIFE programs in other parts of the world; we're going to use what we learned for mid to long-term planning." Drury students took a personal role in this learning as they were each assigned five to six different countries' presentations for observation.

Valerie Abbott, current senior and a SIFE team member since her sophomore year, watched the presentations of groups from Singapore, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Vietnam, and Korea on Monday.

Egypt was announced the winner a few days later. Abbott enjoyed the World Cup, but her favorite part of the entire experience was the second portion of the trip, during which she and her SIFE teammates served as teachers in German schools.

The team traveled to Nuemunster, Germany to work with secondary school students on a program in investing and microloan financing. Although the presenters were serious about getting their message across to students and teaching them valuable financial lessons, the students and SIFE presenters still found humor in their lessons.

"We expected blank looks when we said we were from Springfield," Abbott said, "but all of the [German] kids already knew about it because they watch The Simpsons."

Abbott also noted that she gained a lot from her teaching experience, including an understanding of Germany's three-tiered school system, which differs greatly from that of the United States. Drury SIFE plans to remain in contact with the German students that are currently raising funds for Springfield microloan investment. SIFE's trip to Germany was clearly a success and they will continue to strive for excellence in their goals.

As Dr. Taylor said, "The mission of SIFE is to create economic opportunity for others, and the group that went to Berlin came back with a clear understanding of the kinds of projects that were especially effective in fulfilling that mission."