Drury's SIFE team headed to nationals

Drury University's Students In Free Enterprise team is headed to the SIFE USA National Competition for the 15th straight year.

Drury was one of six teams that moved forward following a March 26 regional competition in Rogers, Ark. Evangel University was a runner up, and Missouri State University-West Plains was named Rookie of the Year. Bentonville-based Northwest Arkansas Community College; Warrensburg-based University of Central Missouri; Clarksville, Ark.-based University of the Ozarks; Siloam Springs, Ark.-based John Brown University; and Pittsburg, Kan.-based Pittsburg State University also qualified for nationals during the competition, according to the SIFE Web site.

Drury was one of 15 teams made up of two- and four-year universities and colleges from throughout the Midwest to win at regionals.

The national competition is scheduled May 22-24 in Kansas City at the Kansas City Convention Center. SIFE estimates 160 competing teams comprising 1,915 students, and 252 faculty and administrators, 800 judges and business guests and more than 50 career fair companies will participate.

During the competition, teams will report the results of their various community outreach projects to panels of business leaders serving as judges. The teams are evaluated based on the success of their projects in improving the quality of life and standard of living for those in need.

Drury's SIFE team has worked on several projects, including:

• the launch of Renew, a business in downtown Springfield that provides document disposal and paper recycling, art studios for rent, a crafting station for educational outreach and a sales place for innovative products - started with $450,000 in funding from the board of Abilities First;
• providing women from Harmony House with employment at Drury's Panther Pride store; and
• Sugar Rush, a dessert-sampling event that raised $8,000 for Care to Learn.

Drury's SIFE team has won the national competition three times in 2001, 2003 and 2005, and it won the SIFE World Cup in 2001 and 2003, according to the release.