UA SIFE Team Named Regional Champion for Second Consecutive Year; Advances to Chicago

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – After presenting a report of its year-long community outreach projects to a panel of 16 business leaders, the Students in Free Enterprise team at The University of Alabama was named a SIFE USA Regional champion.

This is the second consecutive year UA’s Students in Free Enterprise teams, known as SIFE, have won the regional competition, held this year in Charlotte, N.C.

Charles Lowman, a senior majoring in finance, is president of the SIFE team. Other members are Meredith Hardegree, a senior majoring in finance and the vice-president; Nicolas Beecroft, a senior majoring in finance; Aaron Miller, a senior majoring in journalism; Patrick Fair, a senior majoring in finance; Austin Williamson, a senior majoring in construction engineering; and Audrey Sharp, a senior majoring in finance.

The team will advance to the SIFE USA National Exposition in Chicago May 13-15. This is the teams’ second appearance at the national competition. Last year, the team was awarded second runner-up at the competition in Dallas.

SIFE is an international non-profit organization that is active on more than 1,400 university campuses in 48 countries. SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their communities by organizing outreach projects that teach market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills, and business ethics. Their projects are judged on creativity, innovation and effectiveness.

The faculty adviser for the team is David M. Ford, clinical professor and Sam Walton Fellow in the department of management and marketing at UA’s Culverhouse College of Commerce.

The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was established in 1919, and, in 1929, it became the 38th school to earn admission into the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. The excellence of the UA business school has been acknowledged on a national level. The undergraduate program is ranked 29th among public universities by U.S. News, and the Culverhouse School of Accountancy is ranked 15th among public universities by U.S. News. The graduate accounting program is ranked 15th and the undergraduate program 14th by Public Accounting Report. The entrepreneurial program is ranked 18th nationally.