The Coastal Carolina University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Team matched their educational outreach projects against the programs of other SIFE Teams at the 2000 SIFE Regional Exposition and Career Opportunity Fair held recently in Charlotte, N.C. In its first year, Coastal's SIFE Team captured First Runner-Up and Rookie of the Year awards at the event.

SIFE encourages students to take what they are learning in the classroom and apply it to real-life situations, and to use their knowledge to better their communities through educational outreach projects. The projects presented by Coastal's SIFE members included career development projects with other CCU students and a Teach A Child About Business Week activity involving first, second, and fourth graders at Carolina Forest Elementary School and sixth and seventh graders at Myrtle Beach Middle School.

Coastal business majors participating this year in the SIFE programs included: Joshua Barr, a senior from Reston, Va.; Matt Bowman, a senior from Myrtle Beach; Jill Brogdon, a senior from Nichols; team leader Melissa Brumble, a senior from Dillion; Angela Buffkin, a senior from Murrells Inlet; Elanit Hasas, a junior from Myrtle Beach; Mary Anne Kisselburg, a senior from Hudson, N.Y.; Christopher Langley, a senior from Alexandria, Va.; Nathan McBee, a senior from Swanton, Md.; Misty Pendergraft, a senior from Lake City; Elizabeth Tilley, a senior from Myrtle Beach; and Shellie White, a senior from Myrtle Beach.

Regional champions will present their projects at the Hallmark/ SIFE International Exposition and Career Opportunity Fair in Kansas City, May 21 to 23.

Darla Domke-Damonte, adviser to the group and assistant professor of management at Coastal, was named a Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow in recognition of her leadership and support of the SIFE program at Coastal.

SIFE is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with business and higher education to provide college students the opportunity to develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise.

For more information contact, Domke-Damonte at 349-2129, or visit www.SIFE.org.