Caribbean students lead New York college team to national academic victory

Photo: Team Captain Cecil Wright is pictured holding the national trophy with fellow SIFE member Tishma Donastorg of U.S. Virgin Islands. Also pictured are, left to right, row one: Millicent Burke, Jamaica, Prof. Max Torres, Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow and faculty advisor to Monroe’s S.I.F.E. team, Prof. Tilokie Depoo, Chairman of Monroe’s Business Administration Department, Donastorg, Wright, Sherman Browne, St. Croix and immediate past-president of SIFE/Monroe Chapter, Sushamma Gutherie, Jamaica, and Stacia Borke, Antigua. Row two: Ayanna Henry, Trinidad & Tobago, Lynissa Jordan, Trinidad & Tobago, Anita Luckette, U.S.A., Melissa Baptiste, Haiti, Kristal Frances, U.S.A., Sylvia Aguaguilar, Mexico, Adrian Foster, Jamaica, Denise Senderston, Jamaica, Nodia Hay, U.S.A., and Karian Wright, Jamaica. 
Row three; Mark Sonnenstein, Director of Student Services, Monroe College, Jose Vargas, Puerto Rico, Cavwell Edwards, Jamaica, Oral Seymour, Jamaica, Staceyann Henry, Jamaica, and president of Four-Year/Bachelors Degree S.I.F.E. Team at Monroe, Kendall Grey, Belize, and Julio Perez, Puerto Rico.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

NEW ROCHELLE, USA: Caribbean students studying at Monroe College in New York led their college’s Two-Year/Associate Degree S.I.F.E. Team to a first place victory at the 2005 U.S.A. National Championship at the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) National Tournament held in Kansas City, MO, May 25.

The team president is Jamaican resident Cecil Wright, who earned his Associate degree at Monroe and is working towards a Bachelors degree in Business Administration, also at Monroe. Wright’s wife, Karian, is also from Jamaica and a SIFE team member.

The team’s First Place victory on the regional level, in Hartford, CT, advanced it to the national competition. Along with the championship title, the Associate team received a $4000 prize and championship trophy. Monroe’s Four-year SIFE Team was first runner up on the regional level.

CEOs from some of the country's top companies evaluated more than 200 team competitions. The teams were judged on how well they taught others the principles of free enterprise through year-long community outreach projects. Monroe’s projects included:

• Children Making Sense – Teaching the value of financial savings to six to 17-year-olds

• Cupid in Business-- Teaching entrepreneurship to residents of a Bronx women’s shelter

• Hispanola -- Providing both food and online career assistance to flood victims in the Dominican Republic and Haiti 

• D.R.I.V.E. (Developing Responsible Innovative Vibrant Entrepreneurs) - - Teaching high school students about business ethics and its effect on the national economy

• Uganda Initiative – Developing a Web site for Kogere Bagg, Inc. which sells traditional Uganda-woven to support children orphaned by HIV/AIDS or malaria

• Business District Improvement Project in the Bronx -- Organizing 600 merchants focusing on marketing, financing, customer relations, and resource management.

SIFE is a nonprofit organization that gives students the tools to learn the free enterprise system in a real working situation. SIFE challenges students on more than 800 college campuses nationwide to take what they're learning in the classroom and use their knowledge to better their communities. 

Founded in 1933, Monroe College offers bachelor’s degree programs in accounting, business management, computer information systems, criminal justice, general business, and health services administration, and associate degree programs in accounting and finance, business administration, business technologies, computer information systems, criminal justice, culinary arts, hospitality management, medical administration, and medical assisting. It has campuses in the Bronx and in New Rochelle, NY

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