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UWA Business School

The University of Western Australia Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team has won the Qantas SIFE Australia Championship for the third year running.

Led by the team's president, Hayden Teo, 15 UWA students travelled to Melbourne for the competition. The team competed against 28 other universities, making it through three rounds to finally emerge as the national champions. In the final round, the team delivered their presentation in front of almost 50 judges, most of whom are executives or CEOs from leading businesses such as Woolworths, KPMG, HSBC and Fonterra.

In addition to winning the national championship title, SIFE UWA was also recognised with an award from Campbell Soup Company for collecting the most food donations of any Australian SIFE team.

Professor Tracey Horton, Dean of the UWA Business School, congratulated the SIFE team. ‘It's an amazing achievement to win the national championship three years in a row, and we're all very proud of our students,' she said.

SIFE UWA was represented by Calvin Coyles (Commerce), Catherine Mah (Law/Commerce), Ajay Malhotra (Law/Commerce), Sonia Paris (Commerce), and Hannah Berdal (Commerce). Calvin, who is also the SIFE UWA vice-president, was ecstatic upon learning of UWA's win. ‘I was so thrilled for the team and am excited about representing Australia at the world championships in LA,' he said.

It was a well-deserved victory, earnt after the team put in many long hours of preparation. ‘The team will generally camp out at university from when exams are over to when we do the national championships,' explained Calvin. ‘Sometimes we work for 12 to 14 hours a day to get everything perfect.'

Dr. Doina Olaru, who works with the SIFE UWA team, praised the students' efforts. ‘Clearly, it was a difficult competition with numerous outstanding SIFE teams, and having a new, young team still winning the nationals is a great achievement. Our team demonstrated clearly the impact of their work and showed that by applying their knowledge in real working situations they can obtain benefits for the WA community.'

These benefits are evident across the portfolio of six projects that SIFE UWA is currently running. The projects address a variety of issues, including poor health and nutrition, lack of financial literacy, barriers to higher education, and climate change. The projects also address the SIFE criteria of market economics, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, personal success skills, environmental sustainability and business ethics.

‘One of the most successful enterprises in the last few months was the Let's Can Hunger Challenge, a partnership with several local businesses which resulted in the donation of 8,236 food items to Foodbank WA and Victoria Park Youth Accommodation,' said Dr. Olaru.

SIFE's impact extends beyond local communities to reach individual SIFE members. Calvin described his favourite SIFE moment: ‘It was my second trip to Jigalong where I spent a lot of time playing with the kids in the community. I'll always remember running through the creek with about 15 little boys. It confirmed to me the reasons why I'm in SIFE and why I want to be a part of the Balya project.'

While the team relishes the positive impact that they are having on the wider community, there is always room for some healthy rivalry with other SIFE teams. After winning the national championship in 2007, the University of Melbourne team has been runners-up to SIFE UWA for the past three years. Melbourne is the only other team to also have won three national championships.

‘We both have great projects and there is always a big focus from the other teams on who will win,' said Calvin. ‘I'm looking forward to some healthy rivalry over the next few years!'

The SIFE UWA team is assisted by Dr. Doina Olaru and Dr. Donella Caspersz, both from the UWA Business School. Calvin was full of praise for the two faculty advisors. ‘You cannot begin to quantify the work that Donella and Doina do; they are the real champions of the team,' he said. ‘They work as mentors and facilitators to the team and donate so much of their time and energy to give us the best possible chance of success.'

In the longer term, Calvin hopes to not only win a world championship, but also integrate SIFE UWA further into the community. ‘I want to make SIFE UWA into a learning organisation that freely shares and receives knowledge from its members and external sources,' he explained.

As eBiz went to press, the team was expected to compete at the world championships, which are being held from 10-12 October in Los Angeles. ‘We'll work as hard as we can to get some great results from our projects so that our team can have the best chance of success. It'll be a lot of long nights and very few weekends but we'll get there,' Calvin confidently predicted.

Another priority is expanding SIFE UWA's membership. ‘I would encourage every student no matter what faculty or passion to get involved in our team,' said Calvin. ‘We have a tiered involvement system so you can participate to whatever extent you are able and we'd love to have a huge team with huge projects and be making an amazing difference to our community!'

SIFE was originally established in the United States in 1975 by Robert T. Davis, a lawyer acting on behalf of the National Leadership Institute. It now operates across 2,000 campuses in 48 countries.

SIFE UWA is in its sixth year and has a current portfolio of six projects. These include helping to educate school children, strengthen local family businesses, and assist indigenous communities to develop sustainable business practices.

Students wishing to participate in SIFE can contact Calvin Coyles on 0438629911.

Media Reference
Heather Merritt
Director, External Relations
UWA Business School
T: +618 6488 8171
E: [email protected]

Verity Chia
Communications Officer
UWA Business School
E: [email protected]