Members of the Tusculum College SIFE team named regional champion in the 2002 SIFE Regional Competition and Career Opportunity Fair in Charlotte, N.C., on April 12, display the award presented at the event. From left are Rebecca Collins, Advisor Richard Eddy, Neal Dixon, Ryan Tolman, Ryan Munson, and Amber Schappacher. (Tusculum College photo)

Tusculum College's Students in Free Enterprise team was named regional champion in the 2002 SIFE Regional Competition and Career Opportunity Fair held in Charlotte, NC, on April 12, and will go on to the national competition in Kansas City in May.

The competition, one of 21 such regional SIFE competitions held all across the nation in April, allowed the five-member Tusculum College team to match their educational outreach projects against those of other schools.

Among the colleges and universities Tusculum's team competed against was the University of South Carolina, which has approximately 30,000 students, noted team member Amber Shappacher, a business management and mass communications major from Greeneville.

Other members of the team were Rebecca Collins, an accounting and personal financial planning major from Morristown; Neal Dixon, an accounting major from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; Ryan Munson, a business management major from Ogden, Utah; and Ryan Tolman, a psychology major from Greeneville.

"Tusculum College is proud of the outstanding showing made by our SIFE team," said Dr. Dolph Henry, president of the college. "The success of this group at the regional competition itself proves out one of business's basic principles: hard work pays off. We congratulate these students, their advisors and teachers, and wish them further success when they go to Kansas City."

Students in Free Enterprise encourages students to apply classroom learning to real-life situations and to use their knowledge to better their communities through educational outreach projects.

Tusculum College's projects during the 2001-2002 academic year included a "Stock Market Game," an economic survey, ethics symposiums, a credit survey, an educational event held in conjunction with Greene County's Doak Elementary School that taught children about business, a project conducted with the Mutual Investment Club of Greeneville, meetings with the SIFE team's Business Advisory Board, and other projects and activities.

Teams were judged on the effectiveness of their projects during a 24-minute presentation and were evaluated on creativity and innovation, results of educational programs, success in utilizing resources and documentation of activities.

Tusculum College SIFE students also met with dozens of corporate representatives from the Charlotte business community to discuss job opportunities.

Regional champions named at the 21 competitions held around the country will present their projects at the 2002 SIFE USA National Exposition, sponsored by the Kansas City Business Community, May 12-14 in Missouri. More than 150 teams are expected to take part.

The national champion in the four-year division will travel to Amsterdam in September to compete at the second annual SIFE World Cup event.

Richard Eddy, assistant professor of business administration, serves as advisor for the Tusculum College SIFE Team, along with Dr. Jerry Gehre, professor of business administration. At the competition, Eddy was named a Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow in recognition of his leadership and support of the SIFE program at Tusculum College.

Founded in 1975 and active on more than 1000 college and university campuses in 28 countries, SIFE is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with business and higher education to provide college students the opportunity to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise. The SIFE World Headquarters is located in Springfield, Missouri. Information about SIFE is available at the organization's Web site, www.SIFE.org.