SIFE SALFORD IN SEMI-FINALS OF THE SIFE UK NATIONAL COMPETITION

University of Salford first time represented in prestigious entrepreneurial showdown

London, 23 April 2009

Earlier today, SIFE Salford, the University’s of Salford most entrepreneurial students, made their way to Semi-Finals of the SIFE UK National Competition, after investing more than 3500 hours into the community projects and achieving, thereby, an undisputable success as a barely one-year-old SIFE team to go through the competition’s Opening Round.

The accolade is a ‘dream coming true’ for the SIFE Salford, the competition’s first-timers team, that was selected to represent the University of Salford for the first time in its career earlier in March this year, during the Regional North-West round of that prestigious tournament.

“Our team is honoured to be awarded a place in the Semi-Finals”, said Lukasz Szczekala, Communications Director. “We could not be happier, because we proved ourselves and the other teams that it doesn’t matter how many years of the experience the team has, but it is the true passion and cooperation between students that matters the most”.

In order to win over the competitors from such universities like Sussex, Swansea or Birmingham, the Salford University team presented the results of their 5 entrepreneurial projects, including: ‘Northwest Student Enterprise Conference’, ‘Business Game’ and ‘St Sebastian Community Centre’ to the panel of nearly 100 judges representing UK’s most renowned companies: HSBC, KPMG, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and ASDA, to name but a few. The students chose their projects carefully to match the needs of Salford’s residents with an aim to empower them, educate and increase employability within the region. Mariusz Andreasik, Vice President of SIFE Salford summarized: “Judges appreciated the most the way we created economic opportunities for more than 400 people from our local community and that is SIFE Salford’s prime goal.” The team’s efforts were also intensively covered by the local media, thanks to whom students reached nearly 600 000 people.

“I believe our first success in the National Competition comes down to our 60 great members representing 15 countries with different backgrounds and cultures. But this variety is what actually makes our team unique”, continues Andreasik.

The SIFE UK National Competition recognizes students’ hard work during the academic year, enabling them to meet business leaders, speak to the potential future employers and network with each other. The award in the Finals means prestige and the secure place in the SIFE World Cup, this year in Berlin, where the team will compete against the National Champion teams from all over the globe.

Debuting SIFE Salford was also nominated to three awards during the National Competition, including: Rookie Champions for new teams and those sponsored by Wilkinson and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The team has now even more ambitious plans – to introduce new project – ‘Loaves & Fishes’, a drop in advice centre for homeless people, while carrying on with existing aid given to the local community. The ‘big dream’ is to represent their University again in the next year’s World Cup.

Press Release by Marta Karas

www.sifesalford.org