SIFE team finishes in nation's top 10

Each team gave a 24-minute presentation about the projects they completed during the year that teach financial management, entrepreneurial ability, market economics and success skills. The presentation was judged by representatives from some of the top companies in the nation. The Expo also features one of the largest career fairs in the nation and several Chadron State Students received an internship or an interview for a job.

This is the 10th year Chadron State has had a SIFE team and the ninth year it has competed. The team has qualified for the expo each of the nine years and has qualified in the top 20 in seven of those years. This is only the second time that the team has made the top 10 list. In addition to qualifying in the top 10 the team also placed as a top 15 national qualifier in the Financial Markets Education special topic competition.

Some of the projects completed by the team this year: helping middle school students raise funds by making pizzas for Super Bowl Sunday, development of a special newspaper edition that features content by children, developing a booklet to promote saving money and teaching saving skills to middle school students. With the assistance of Chadron sixth-graders, the group also has developed a children’s coloring book titled “Clark Starts a Business.” The book has been translated in Portuguese and sent to Brazil for learning practice.

The team members are Cody and Sierra Gullickson, Newell, S.D.; Jeff Casselman, Chadron; Barrett Hahn, Aurora; Ashley Heidemann and Drew Blessing, Ogallala; Sonja Painter, Ainsworth; Dallas Korus, McCook; Doug Liewer, Butte; Marco deSouza and Felipe Cecilio, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Dr. Rick Koza and Dr. Tim Donahue sponsored this year’s team.