April 14, 2008

FAIRBANKS, AK - Junior libero Hannah Armstrong of the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team earned an important victory away from the hardwood with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team, which captured the SIFE USA Regional Competition in Seattle, WA earlier this month.

"Being a part of an athletic team teaches you how to perform under high pressure situations and successfully work with others," said Armstrong. "I definitely feel that my experience as a Nanook has been an asset towards my contribution to the UAF SIFE team."

A business administration major, Armstrong is the Associated Students of Business representative, the newest addition under the "SIFE umbrella". She spoke for three minutes about ASB and how they work to better a student's professional and personal abilities through leadership roles, teamwork, and networking opportunities. Each of the 11 teams in the regional competition gave 24-minute presentations, which were followed by a five-minute question and answer period with the panel of 40 judges, representing a who's who of corporate America, who listened to each presentation.

The event, held on April 4, 2008, was one of 16 regional SIFE competitions across the United States in March and April. In May, Armstrong and her teammates will advance to the national competition in Chicago, Illinois.

"Being a part of the competition during regionals allowed us to network, improve our professional abilities, and gain a better understanding of what we want in our future careers," she said. "The national competition in Chicago will provide even more opportunities and also give us a great idea of how we measure up to other teams, and how we can collaborate to improve our organization as well."

During this academic year, the UAF SIFE team, housed under the UAF School of Management, organized 13 projects in the Fairbanks community including Alaska Economic Lecture Series, Learn to eBay, Kids for Conservation, Project Burma, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) project conducted by the Great Alaskan Accounting People (GAAP) and events organized by ASB such as Business Career Week and the Business Leader of the Year Banquet. Examples of the projects include Learn to eBay, which taught senior citizens how to be successful entrepreneurs on eBay, and Kids for Conservation, which plans to expand by distributing a curriculum to several public school districts.

Armstrong was joined by Sitara Chauhan (biochemistry), Krishna Ganapuram (M.E.E. and MBA finance), Jessica Guritz (forestry), Delight Kennedy (political science major/global studies), Jenny Miller, Michael A. Penland (junior accounting), Michael Schulte (political science/Alaska Native studies), Hosanna Tolman (Japanese), Samuel Vanderwaal (electrical engineering), Paul McDonald (business administration), and Camilla Kennedy.

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