FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2006
Contact: Marle’ M. L. Murphy
(662) 329-7119

MUW’s SIFE team receives $5,000 grant to help at-risk teens

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Mississippi University for Women’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team recently hosted a two-day program for at-risk teens at Camp Seminole in Starkville.

The camp was funded with half of a $5,000 “I Choose!” grant received from the Marcus Foundation (created by the founder of Home Depot) at the beginning of the year. SIFE’s national organization and the Marcus Foundation established the “I CHOOSE!” grant program to focus on at-risk teens to help them make a choice to stay in school so they can choose to turn their life around by making good life decisions.

SIFE, with the help of high school guidance counselors, selected up to 18 students from local counties who have had economic or social problems throughout their lives, hindering their educational growth, to be a part of the “I CHOOSE!” camp.

Students from Noxubee, Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties, participated in the camp’s COPE program, which included a ropes course focused on leadership and teamwork skills. SIFE partnered with MUW students in the Hearin Leadership Program to conduct the camp. SIFE’s 30 members and their faculty advisor, Dr. Janie Gregg, assistant professor of management at MUW, planned several events for the camp that focused on staying in school, building leadership qualities and discovering entrepreneurial ventures to help them make money to supplement their income.

Examples include a fellowship time where the “I CHOOSE!” participants gathered around a campfire as teenage mothers and other speakers from Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous talked about the economic, social and emotional impact their poor choices have had on their lives. These students also met with businesses owners in the fields of carpentry, baby-sitting, design, housekeeping and basic lawn care to discover ways that they could begin their own businesses.

SIFE received additional donations from Wal-Mart and Jubilations to support the camp and plan to contact other business organizations for the second camp to be held in about six months. The MUW SIFE and Hearin students will mentor the high school students until the next camp and some of the students who participated will be invited back to bring a person they can mentor through the camp.

Tim Fields, SIFE president, said, “We see it as a way that we can reach these students on a more personal basis by acting much like big brothers and sisters. We will be there for them to discuss problems and listen when they really need it.”

Recently the team competed in Memphis at the SIFE Regional Competition against universities from across the United States for monetary awards and the right to compete in the National Competition in Kansas City, Mo., in May and the world finals to be held in Paris in June.

MUW did not garner any awards, but the students “learned just how competitive the job market is by observing other students’ presentation skills and professionalism. Also, the students were able to interview with 16 different companies who are committed to hiring SIFE graduates,” Gregg said, noting the competition was hard because most of the other universities’ SIFE teams were much larger. “We have hope that we can follow suit in the future.”

The students also set up networks with universities in Arkansas and Nashville and plan on working with those groups on a project next year called “Entrepreneurial Swap.” The goal of the swap is to invite other SIFE teams to tour Columbus area businesses, and for MUW’s team to tour businesses in Arkansas and Tennessee.