Giving the Rumba Roast project over to Conexion Americas isn’t SIFE’s only recent activity. In March, at the SIFE competition in Atlanta, they added a third regional championship to their awards, marking the third consecutive year they will attend the national competition since the Belmont SIFE chapter began in 2005. 

SIFE is judged based on their work in six categories: business ethics, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, market economics, success skills and sustainability. Besides Rumba Roast, the service projects they are involved with include 100 Kings, a college preparatory organization for black high school students; Thistle Farms, a group that focuses on the rehabilitation of women with a history of  addiction or prostitution; and the Refugee Resettlement Guide, which helps new refugees entering Nashville transition to the new environment.

The SIFE team was also awarded a $1,500 prize at the regional competition for winning their league. Additionally, they were the only school in the Top 20 project competition to win for three projects, including their work with Burundi refugees, Thistle Farms and the Nashville School for the Blind. They received $1,000 per project win.

“I’m overwhelmed it’s come so quickly to this place,” John Gonas said of SIFE’s growth. The group, which provides service opportunities to students interested in business, began “as a hobby” with 12 members and five service projects and now includes more than 30 members from various majors and 16 service projects. 

“We think service-learning should be an important part of the college experience,” said Gonas. “It’s part of your personal outreach, and it’s not only serving, it’s teaching.“My goal is for [service-learning] to be a culture on campus.”

According to Gonas, SIFE follows the idea of “teaching a man to fish, not just giving him a fish.” The group teaches others with the ultimate goal of the students understanding the material so well that they can teach it to others. 

Johnson, a junior accounting major, has been in SIFE since her sophomore year. “SIFE is an amazing organization,” she said.  “Everybody’s so excited about the people they serve that it makes me excited.  I didn’t know such amazing people existed.”

Gonas, who said he is honored to be involved, echoed the sentiment. “I enjoy seeing the transformation [service learning] does in students,” he said.

Belmont’s SIFE team will attend the national SIFE competition in Chicago in May. In the 2007 national competition, Belmont SIFE was ranked No. 8 and received the grand prize for an anti-piracy public service announcement they made to discourage illegal music downloads among college students.