PITTSBURG, Kan. — Twenty years ago as a cub reporter, I wrote a news article telling the community about a new group at Pittsburg State University that said it would teach its student members the real world of business by letting them get their hands in it.
After that article was published, members of Students in Free Enterprise gave me a thank-you — a glass pitcher with my name etched on it — which, despite such a thing being a newspaper industry no-no, I kept.
I mean, it had my name on it.
I still use it, but more importantly, that group still is going strong.
This week, SIFE members are celebrating their 20th anniversary, and they have a lot to show for it:
n In the past two decades, the group has given untold thousands of fourth-graders a real-world economic simulation called Just Imagine Nation.
The experience allows students to take on the role of entrepreneurs, of managers, of product designers, of accountants — all while learning basic market principles.
n In the past two years, the group has joined with Citizens Bank to design field trips and curriculum for third-graders in an effort to improve their knowledge of personal finance.
The experience introduces students to vocabulary words, how to begin a savings account, how to borrow money and more.
n Last April, the group teamed up with students at Lakeside Elementary School to begin saving the Earth one soda can at a time.
SIFE members spent several hours on Earth Day carting a week’s worth of recycling from the school to the Southeast Kansas Recycling Center for a weigh-in.
The school’s 400 students kept an average of 30 pounds each of otherwise raw material out of the landfill.
n Each February, SIFE members are the hosts for a Business Ethics Week and panel discussion featuring local business owners, something they say is especially important in trying economic times.
“Ultimately, these are things that we can learn to prevent in the future,” said Brittany Squire, a member of SIFE. “Ethics is a part of why some of these failures have occurred. It’s definitely something that we should give attention to.”
n Several members, under the direction of adviser Robin Hess, competed last year in Philadelphia, Pa., against the best and the brightest — and certainly most goal-oriented — students from 110 teams in a national SIFE contest.
Hess said the PSU students had success before even boarding the plane: By applying what they’ve learned in the classrooms to experiences in the Pittsburg community, they have gained an edge when it comes to future employment.
And by taking on community-based projects that have touched on economics, financial literacy, business ethics and the environment, they have improved lives while serving as role models to countless younger students.
Here’s wishing them another 20 years.
