by JIM CULLEN
Tom Green Hornets (front, left to right) Destiny Rocha, Veronica Barcenas, Brianna Vasquez, Felisa Garza, Melissa Rodriguez, Sanely Esinosa and SIFE’s Denise Worley took part in the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) City. They were backed by Texas State SIFE students (back, left to right) Jennifer Fancett, Robert Frary and Katherine Johnson. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
In a rush of entertaining creativity and commitment, a group of Texas State University students brought life to economics for an enthusiastic band of fifth-grade Tom Green Elementary Hornets this spring. Calling themselves the “SIFE Green Team,” the representatives of Students in Free Enterprise constructed SIFE City in the Tom Green gym and made it a fun, educational place to learn.
Tom Green Elementary instructional strategist Ann Ybarbo sponsored the campus group and arranged for the partnership with the Texas State students. Denise Worley, the SIFE vice-president of finance for Free Enterprise City, served as the university’s lead person for the project.
For a casual visitor, walking into the Hornets’ gym during the culminating activity was a treat, as students were just celebrating the end of their Global Gurus competition that utilized economic questions from material they’d learned.
Spread out around the gym were large, decorated plywood cut-outs representing the SIFE Retail Store, the courthouse, a recycling station, the Global Marketplace, a police station, a bank, Texas State (of course) and local businesses McCoy’s and J.C. Penney’s. On the back of each Texas State student’s t-shirt was the slogan, “Texas State Students in Free Enterprise, 2010, Going GREEN in our Business.”
Small groups of students rotated into each of these stations and spent time with their Texas State mentors in learning specifics about that station’s role in the economic fabric of the community. Sponsor Ybarbo explained that the students actually learned how to start and run a business called “The Fly Buy.” That enterprise had earned more than $500 in profits by the project’s end.
Texas State project director Denise Worley said Fly Buy taught the students principles and concepts of free enterprise, including personal responsibility, reward for work, math concepts, specialization of labor, profit, products and services, spending and saving and the sales process.
The SIFE website describes itself as a global, non-profit organization utilizing highly dedicated student teams on more than 1600 university campuses in 40 countries. It offers its students opportunities to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills – and through that process to help improve the standard of living for many.
