SIFE Waikato off to the World Cup

It seems winning national titles is all in a day's work for the Waikato SIFE team.

The group of students have taken out the New Zealand SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) National Awards for the second year running and are heading to Washington DC this month to represent New Zealand at the SIFE World Cup.

SIFE is a global umbrella for tertiary students to work as a club to use their learning to enhance their local community through economic, social, and environmental initiatives.

Eight students from the 44-strong Waikato University SIFE team presented the group's three key projects for 2012 at the awards in Auckland in July, beating other finalists AUT and Massey University to win the national title.

The winning projects were Easy Rider; in which students assisted a local transport company for the disabled and elderly to run more economically, the Phoenix Project; assisting Hamilton's Richmond Centre and Kauri Centre to gain better access to grants and sponsorship to allow at-risk youth to continue education, and the Ripple Effect; an environmental initiative encouraging Waikato farmers to plant native trees around waterways to reduce nitrogen leaching into the water, together with the research into the eradication of the pest koi carp.

The SIFE World Cup, held this year in Washington DC from 30 September to 2 October, brings the national champions from universities around the world to compete against one another to determine a SIFE World Champion.

SIFE team member and Waikato Management School student Gina Milicich says representing New Zealand will be a great honour.

"The Olympics have proven that New Zealanders, especially those from the Waikato, can punch well above their weight on the world stage. We will be up against the top teams from some pretty big universities, but I think we are up to the challenge."

The team will have to complete a series of challenges at the event, as well as showcase New Zealand at a cultural exhibition. Gina says the real challenge will be finding the funding to take a team of 10 to the States.

"We are looking for sponsorship from willing businesses to allow Waikato to take on the world."

If you are interested in sponsoring the team to go to Washington please contact SIFE: sifewaikato@gmail.com