Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Macquarie is a non-profit student organisation that aims to create entrepreneurial and educational projects to create social change. One of these projects is the Innovative Youth Challenge (IYC), it aims to provide business and entrepreneurial skills to students. Offering a practical experience for the students and a chance to put theory into practice, participants attend an informative conference followed by a competition. This year Bankstown Girls High School was invited by ex-student Joanne Truong to participate.
The first day of the SIFE competition was held on the 27thof March on campus at Macquarie Uni. This day was an information day, where we were briefed about the task we had to complete. We also had lectures by members of Macquarie University staff about aspects of the task that needed to be considered. Our task was to create a way in which a local not for profit organisation could appeal to corporate businesses in the area, and would in turn result in a partnership between these two parties. We were given information about the business, briefed about how to make a budget and we were also given tips on how to communicate effectively when giving a presentation. Throughout the duration of the day, we also participated in fun little activities like trying to sell strange objects. Our strange object was a keyless keyboard!
The second day of the competition was on the 3rdof April after school. This day was the most important day of the SIFE competition as it was the day we had to present our solution to the problem to a panel of judges. After two weeks of hard work we had come up with a business plan which involved the creation of a family and corporate friendly expo that was to be held at a local hall. Unfortunately, we did not win (Baulkham Hills took the title!) but we had a great time listening to all the other team's ideas and we were praised by the judges for an innovative solution.
The SIFE competition was a fantastic experience through which we were able to learn many valuable skills that we will use throughout life and in Business Studies.
Thank you to Joanne who was our mentor for the project and also an ex-student from Bankstown Girls high school, the HSIE department and particularly to Mr Dalton who was willing to spend his time to allow us to complete the project and attended the days. Your assistance and support is greatly appreciated.
Contributed by Anna Ly, Angela Nguyen, Kristina Korunoska and Marwa Ayoubi
