About Us

Truman SIFE Receives $2,000 Grant

April 3, 2012- Truman’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) was recently awarded a $2,000 grant from Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation (LCEF) as part of their Community Improvement Challenge. This grant was established three years ago as a means for SIFE teams across the United States to further aid community partners in need of assistance.

Truman SIFE applied for this grant in order to help the La Plata Christian Ministries Food Distribution Center (LCM). This non-profit organization provides food and clothing to the needy in the La Plata, Missouri area. Up to now, they have been solely supported by local Christian churches and individual sponsors; however, this support is not always adequate to fully meet their challenging mission.

Through this grant, Truman SIFE intends to help the LCM purchase a new chest freezer and additional shelving units in order to be able to assist even more people in need in the La Plata area. Currently, the LCM provides food for around four hundred people per month. However, after these improvements and additions they will be able to help even more people in the community. Additionally, SIFE plans to help the LCM improve their storage capabilities of their inventory for their clothing store. The LCM stores clothes for the holiday seasons; unfortunately, they do not currently have the necessary supplies to properly store this inventory. With this grant, they will be able to make the additional purchases and changes to improve this program for the community. Stephanie Allen, the director of the LCM, expressed her excitement about receiving this grant from SIFE: “We are blessed that we have the opportunity to work with SIFE and LCEF to improve the LCM to better serve the community.”

Truman SIFE is thrilled to be able to have the opportunity to assist this great organization with their efforts to help those in need in the La Plata area. In the future, SIFE intends to continue helping the LCM and hopefully help them acquire even more financial support.

Want more information about SIFE and their upcoming events?  Click here.

Truman SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) has established a partnership with BEMM (Because Every Mother Matters), an international organization whose purpose is to assist women in Eastern Africa. BEMM provides supplies to pregnant women, sponsors women for educational training and developing trades, and establishes maternal health centers for emergency care.  SIFE is creating informational brochures and packets to help promote the goals of BEMM and is also assisting the organization in writing bylaws and obtaining nonprofit status.

A Kirksville business, Blink of an Eye, has agreed to sell “Tacky for Africa” headbands.  The headbands, made by Burmese refugees living in southern Missouri, are just one of BEMM’s products.  Anna Elzein leads the project team for SIFE, in cooperation with Steffany Boster, the founder of BEMM.  SIFE hopes to expand their efforts through sales of t-shirts and canvas bags, and by encouraging more small businesses to sell and promote BEMM products.

State Farm agents from Kirksville joined Truman students and the Dean of the School of Business on campus to recognize the company’s financial support of the SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) program. Pictured left to right are agent Brian Maijala, SIFE vice president Jessie Eubank, agent Chad Davis, agent Racquel Schempp, SIFE president Cody Hagan, and School of Business Dean Deb Kerby.

State Farm has awarded a grant of $5,000 to Truman State University to assist SIFE, a student organization that conducts financial literacy programs in the northeast Missouri region.

The grant was awarded to Truman’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization to provide support for a series of financial programs, including Hablidades Economicas, a bilingual financial literacy workshop designed to benefit the Latino community in Milan, Mo., and Planning for Success, college preparation workshops for students in La Plata High School. Some of the topics covered in the workshops include how to open a bank account, writing and recording checks, balancing a checkbook, use of debit and credit cards and instruction of basic financial terminology.

Truman’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team is a student organization within the School of Business that develops and implements projects that teach the principles of free market economics, entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy, personal success skills and business ethics with a vision of changing the world. Overall, Truman’s SIFE team has impacted more than 2,000 individuals and volunteered over 3,200 hours toward improving the quality of life in the region. Last spring, the team captured the regional SIFE USA championship in Chicago and advanced to the national competition in Minneapolis, Minn.

Seth Jackson and Tom Norton make the MIAA squad….read more here

Sophomore Ryan Maus is headed for the NCAA championship!

Read more here

The Truman State University SIFE team was recently named the third place winner at the ConocoPhillips Ethics Case Competition held in Manhattan, Kansas February 2 – 4. The event was developed and hosted by Kansas State University SIFE Team.

Cody Hagan, Truman SIFE President, said, “ The competition was an extremely rewarding experience; it allowed Truman State SIFE to compete against much larger, Division I schools and show just how successful we are. We are very proud to have placed third at this competition and cannot wait to return next year to improve upon this success.”

Along with a third place plaque, the team also received a check for $1000. The Truman State SIFE team plans to put this money right back into the projects that they are planning. Every year the team organizes and puts on numerous projects that benefit the University, local community, and surrounding area. Every penny goes back into the work being done to help those who need it most.

In this competition, participating students had 36 hours to utilize their business skills for analyzing, researching, and developing a solution to a case about an ethical dilemma. After developing a solution, they created a professional presentation which included a verbal script, visual slides, and a written executive summary. The presentations were evaluated by business leaders and university faculty serving as judges for the event.

The culmination of university coursework and extracurricular events such as this case competition, provide a forum for college students to utilize their educational knowledge and skills about ethics in a structured and formal environment. .

On October 23^rd, Truman State University’s chapter of Delta Sigma Pi received top honors nationally by being  selected as the Most Outstanding Chapter in the nation.  National officers presented the award to Matt Vennemen, the President of the Iota Nu chapter of Delta Sigma Pi at the LEAD (Leadership and Excellence Academy for Deltasigs) School in Indianapolis, Indiana. The National Most Outstanding Chapter award is given to the chapter that best exemplifies the purpose of Delta Sigma Pi.  The chapters are evaluated on professional activity, community service, fundraising, academics, and others. In addition to the National Most Outstanding Chapter Award, the chapter also won the national award for Most Outstanding Professional Activities, the Provincial award for Most Outstanding Chapter and Professional Activities and Outstanding Scholastic Development for the Gateway Region. The Iota Nu Chapter of Delta Sigma Pi continuously strives to improve its programs in order to represent Truman State University effectively and hopes to earn national recognition in future years.  The Iota Nu (Truman) Chapter of Delta Sigma Pi was founded December 9^th, 1978.  Since then it has claimed the National Most Outstanding Award nine times, which is more than any other chapter.  The International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi was founded at New York University, School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance on November 7, 1907.

Delta Sigma Pi, a Professional Fraternity, is one of Truman’s organizations open only to students majoring in Business, Accounting, or Economics.  They are involved in a number of activities across campus, including co-sponsoring the Career Expo, managing  the University’s concessions business that provides food service at all athletic events, providing speakers to students to encourage professional development, tutoring for the Junior Achievement program which teaches basic economic concepts to young students in Kirksville’s elementary classes, and participating in Relay for Life, to name a few.