DAWSON SCHOLARS PARTICIPATE IN S.I.F.E. COMPETITION posted 4/29/04

The Adrian College Dawson Scholars participated in the S.I.F.E. (Students in Free Enterprise) competition this year for the first time ever.

The Dawson Scholars are the recipients of the John Harper Dawson scholarship. Between two and five Dawson Scholarships are awarded to the top business students each year. The scholarship pays for tuition their junior and senior years. There are currently six Dawson Scholars and four new members. In return for the scholarships the students are required to do activities and services related to business to benefit the campus and community.

This year their advisor, Patrick Quinlan of the business department, recommended that the students compete in the S.I.F.E. competition for the first time ever. The organization is established to help reach the community through free enterprise. In this educational based project, students form teams to promote free enterprise. In April, they met at the national competition in Cleveland to see who most improved the quality of life and standard of living in its community.

One of the projects for the Dawson Scholars was to work with the Junior Achievement Program, which is a non-profit organization that helps to improve MEAP scores and to improve the overall education of students. For 10 weeks the six students went into schools in the Lenawee, Jackson and Hillsdale areas and taught the eighth graders and helped them with image problems. The Scholars did a great deal of work to benefit the community through Junior Achievement.

In total the Dawson Scholars completed seven projects to present at the S.I.F.E. competition. They taught a budgeting program to students for Campus Leadership Day, and taught a Principles In Marketing class where they did a project to help the students to better understand perceptual mapping. The Scholars also did a program for Women’s Leadership Day explaining the importance of volunteering in the community.

They also created a survey, and then administered it to businesses in the area. Finally they analyzed the data they had collected and made a communications plan, which they presented to the Junior Achievement board of directors.

Since this was the first year that Adrian College participated in the competition, the team did not bring back any awards, however they did receive some very good feedback and ideas for future years. With the results that the Dawson Scholars received this year, they plan on continuing in the S.I.F.E. competition for years to come.

Release by Rebekah Hoffman '07