A Lincoln Navigator helped Baylor business student Joshua Curlett teach money management to Waco eighth graders last spring.
Although Curlett laughs as he remembers the incident, he quickly saw how the SUV helped to illustrate an abstract idea. One of his young students frequently mentioned the Navigator as Curlett and others discussed the concept of financing a car. Once the young boy equated a figure, Curlett showed him how far it would go toward three different Navigators.
"We were talking about normal cars, explaining what interest is," said Curlett. "Our bigger goal was anything to let them understand. The concept of money is very important, and if they can understand a vehicle is going to cost a certain amount of money that they have to save for, that's even better."
Using materials provided by Extraco Banks, which sponsored the Baylor program at University Middle School, Curlett and others taught the life skills class as part of a program called Students in Free Enterprise.
SITE is a nonprofit organization that helps university students connect with their communities by using their free enterprise knowledge to address a need or problem. It's been operating since 197S, (bunded by a Texas lawyer, Sonny Davis. The first SIFE teams were invited to attend fall leadership training programs where they learned the principles of free enterprise and developed leadership skills. Then they would return to their campuses and create projects in their communities. In the spring, they detailed the results of their programs in competitions. Judges evaluated how well they conveyed their knowledge to others.
The program has changed and grown, but its mission is essentially the same. It puts students and communities together for the benefit of both. Student projects generally focus on the four areas of market economics, cntrcprcncurship, personal finance success skills and business ethics.
Last spring was the first time Baylor formed a SIFE team, but that didn't prevent students from winning honors at the regional competition in April. Team members earned Rookie of the Year status and came in second overall.
"I was very proud of the Baylor team," said Lisa Ramirez, one of eight SIFE directors for university relations in the United States. "They started in Januar)'... and not only did they get Rookie of the Year at regional, but they placed. They were second runner-up in regional competition. There were teams that had been there for several years and (Baylor) advanced before them."
The Baylor team succeeded because its projects fit community needs, she said. "They got a grasp of identifying a need and developing a project to fill that need, and putting the project together."
With teams on 1,600 campuses in 40 countries, SIPE pushes students to design activities that make a difference in the lives of others. In addition to the United States and Canada, SIFE programs now operate in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Oceania.
Ramirez learned how to make the program work in her own university community when she was a student at University of Texas-Pan American. Many poor people lived in the area, Ramirez said. She and her SIFE colleagues helped high school students create resumes and showed them that attending college was a realistic goal by pointing them toward financial aid.
SIFE came to the Baylor campus courtesy of Dr. Mitch Ncubcrt, who integrated it into his leadership and change classes. Students taking the class didn't have to participate, but about half the students in each of two classes did.
Senior Sarah Carter, who was involved in a program for the faith-based ministry Mission Waco, joined the SIFE team because she is from Waco and she liked the idea of doing something for the community. Mission Waco serves the poor and homeless from downtown offices in a low-income part of the city, and this is where Carter's team focused its efforts. Students worked with the Community Development Corp., a nonprofit agency under Mission Waco's umbrella of programs.
"They wanted to develop a franchise in a low-income area," said Carter. "We were looking at fast food restaurants, something small and profitable. We did a lot of research and development for them, and made contacts with people in the community."
One of the major lessons her team learned was that starting a franchise takes up a lot of time. "It took longer than the six weeks we had," she said, but she has kept up enough with the project to know that the agency was still talking with a franchisee months after the semester ended.
Senior Jenny Kelly, who will graduate in December, taught with Curlett at University Middle School. "They already had a career class, so we incorporated our lesson plans into their classes," said Kelly. The Baylor team visited the middle school twice a week and spent 20 to 30 minutes in each of two classes.
"We touched on subjects like good and bad credit and health and auto insurance. We talked about job interviews and job opportunities," she said. The importance of good credit to getting a loan also surfaced, as did interest rates and retirement plans.
The students came to class with a good background already, said Kelly. "They were very interested and wanted to learn. They asked good questions."
One of the events Curlctt enjoyed most came just hours before the Baylor team competed at regionals in Dallas, when the students attending hustled to put their program together. "We were in our hotel room and were cracking down," said Curlctt. "We didn't get to work together at school a lot, so we finalized a lot of our project the night before. It was exciting to see. I thought it was good that we were able to come together and do well in competition."
Five students and Neubert attended. Participants gave a timed presentation that summarized their mission and what they did in each area. The Baylor students created a slide show put to music, with students commenting on their projects and detailing how it tied into one of SIFE's areas of focus. They tried to make it personal, and different from everyone else's, said Neubert.
"Getting Rookie of the Year was a great compliment and second runner up was icing on the cake," Curlett said. New students interested in SIFE will find that it pays off, said Curlett, who graduated in May with a double major in management and management of information systems. "I'm a big believer in giving back to the community. It shows the true character of who you are. It gives you a purpose and makes you feel like you are actually doing something."
Kelly, too, recommends the program, even for students who are quiet or shy. "Even if you're afraid to talk to people, you still have a chance to work with someone one-on-one," said Kelly, an cntrcprcnourship and management major. "You can develop a lesson plan, be behind the scenes."
Joining will be easier this fall, because SIFF, won't be tied to a class. Neubert wants to get the project going yearround, with students planning and negotiating projects in the fall and executing them in the spring. He envisions that students who haven't graduated and new volunteers will keep it going.
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