Campus News

SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise)



Many students participate in extramural activities. They usually do activities by themselves or with a team. One extramural activity is SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise). Most SIFE teams are in capital region universities, and there are few teams in regional universities. In Keimyung University, there aren’t any teams for SIFE yet. The Gazette will introduce SIFE.


What is SIFE?
SIFE is a global nonprofit organization. It was established in the U.S.A. in 1975. More than 48,000 students, 1,500 universities, and 40 countries participate in SIFE. In Korea, there are 30 universities participating in it. SIFE is a global club with students making real business projects. Students plan a business project with enterprises and social organizations and put the plan into practice. Students make a team to plan business projects, and they try to solve problems of the community.
SIFE Projects
SIFE projects help to improve the quality of people who are socially unprivileged and minority groups. Students plan a business project which can give a good influence socially, environmentally, and economically. Furthermore, students develop their community and they feel social responsibility through SIFE. For instance, the team Alternative Farm in Kyrgyzstan wanted to help farmers who couldn’t earn much money from traditional crops because the land didn’t have enough nutriment. They found another crop which grows well in impoverished soil, and then farmers earned 4000 dollars per hectare of land. In addition, they helped farmers who had reservoirs to earn extra income by raising fish. They gave farmers chemicals which promote fish breeding but do not harm the environment. As a result, the project helped farmers, the environment, and the country.


National Competition and SIFE World Cup
Every SIFE Korea team competes every year. It is a national competition. Their projects are evaluated by executives of companies and representatives of organizations which support SIFE Korea. The judges check if students’ projects will have social, environmental, and economic effects. Furthermore, they score entrepreneurial spirit. The winner in the national competition participates in the SIFE World Cup as the Korean representative, and they compete against teams from 39 countries. The 2012 SIFE World Cup will be held in Washington, D.C., in the U.S.A. from October 30 to December 2. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend the SIFE World Cup, and she announced that the U.S. government will support the 2012 SIFE World Cup. It will be the largest ever.


Making Teams
If you want to make a Keimyung University team, there are some requirements: a professor for advice, a business project which is feasible, and about 5 or 10 students. If you want a SIFE team, you must follow the process for making a new team. Documents are provided by SIFE Korea. First, you should analyze SIFE projects which have done. There are hundreds of projects in SIFE. Through these SIFE projects, you can learn what to do or not when you set up a project. Second, you should analyze project needs. Third, you should report on the project. In this step, you show your project’s aim, expected course and expected result. Finally, you should report the personal information of the crew and their positions in the project.


Interview
The Gazette interviewed Jeong Da-un, who is a member of the ATIATO team which is one of Myongji University’s SIFE teams. She has worked for 2 years in Myongji University’s SIFE team and she is the manager for her project now.

Q: Please introduce Myongji University’s SIFE teams.
In Myongji University, there are 3 SIFE teams: F.O.R. (For Our Refugee), Hae-Dream, and ATIATO.
Hae-Dream’s project is for middle school students from low-income families. The students learn about business, and then Hae-Dream helps them to do real business production, distribution, and sales.
F.O.R., a business incubator center for refugees, tries to solve refugees’ economic problems and improve awareness of refugees. They helped a Myanmarese to open AMIERAN, a restaurant, in 2011, and they have trained Kyaw Kyaw, who is the owner of AMIERAN, to manage and to maintain the restaurant.
ATIATO means giving presents (ato) to friends (ati), North Korean defectors. Their object is to solve North Korean defectors’ economic problems and improve awareness of them in Korea. The project promotes North Korean defectors’ economic activity and recycling by making handmade bags and wallets with abandoned fabric and selling them.

Q: What is the most difficult thing in the project?
Finding someone for the project is the most difficult thing. A project can start only after understanding the participants’ trouble by talking and establishing trust. The most important thing is the participants’ will and their relationship with us. For this reason, ATIATO has met many North Korean defectors to find someone who is suitable for this project.

SIFE team members plan a business to help society and communicate with companies, but they are university students just like us. The different thing is that they have a passion to help others who need help to be financially independent. The most important thing in the project is not knowledge or the idea, but passion for the project. I hope that as SIFE becomes better known and as the participants increase, the activities of SIFE will have a more positive influence on the world.