PBU-SIFE Places Top 16 in the Nation

On May 24, 2012, PBU Students in Free Enterprise (PBU-SIFE) placed 3rd runner up at the SIFE National Competition in Kansas City. This places PBU-SIFE in the top 16 in the nation.  There were 150 SIFE teams competing at Nationals.
The PBU-SIFE presentation team consisted of students Elizabeth Burns (Sophomore, Education and Bible major); Adam Derus (Senior, Business Administration and Bible major); Rebecca Field (Senior, Bible and M.S. in Christian Counseling major); Amanda McDevitt (Senior, Bible and Master of Business Administration major); Noah Prickett (Junior, Business Administration and Bible major); Michael Rothermel (Sophomore, Business Administration and Bible major); Jacob Stott (Sophomore, Bible and M.S. in Education major); and Bridget VanCook (Sophomore, Discipleship Counseling and Bible major).
They were assisted by Mr. Ron Ferner, Dean of the School of Business and Leadership (PBU-SIFE Sam Walton Fellow 2011-2012); Mr. Yunn Kang, Part-Time Faculty (Sam Walton Fellow 2011-2012); and Dr. Bill Bowles, Professor and Chair, Graduate Programs in Business and Leadership (Sam Walton Fellow 2012-2013).
The team’s presentation consisted of a report on their major projects from the past year with media for each. The report addressed the impetus for each project, the methods implemented, and the results. This year’s major projects included Set Beautiful Free in which 7 PBU-SIFE students traveled to Mumbai, India with a goal of expanding the market of the business enterprise branch of Bombay Teen Challenge, an organization which rescues women out of forced exploitation; and Climb For Freedom in which PBU-SIFE partnered with New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey to raise money for Bombay Teen Challenge’s health clinic through the use of social media promotion of Dickey’s climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Other projects focused on PBU-SIFE’s local community and campus. Let’s Can Hunger was a project in which PBU-SIFE participated in Campbell Soup Company’s hunger awareness initiative for the fourth consecutive year. Partnering with Walgreens, the community, and the University, PBU-SIFE helped collect non-perishable food for the Penndel and Bristol Borough Food Banks. The Living Green Seminar provided community families an Activity Day which focused on learning to reduce the amount of waste a family produces. RIDE, PBU-SIFE’s annual two-day seminar, teaches the fundamentals of résumé preparation, interviewing, dress, and professional etiquette. Finally, PBU-SIFE presented the start of a new initiative to install hydration stations at water fountains across campus which transform them into ones that fill water bottles in their upright positions, working to reduce the amount of plastic water bottles that fill campus waste receptacles.
Watch a student-produced video recap of PBU-SIFE’s trip to Nationals.