By SCOTT POWELLLedger Staff Writer

Limestone College’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team received good news twice last week while finishing another school year.

The SIFE headquarters invited three members of Limestone’s SIFE team to observe next week’s national competition at Kansas City. The college’s SIFE team also was awarded an $800 grant by the HSBC Education Trust and the Corporate, Investment Banking and Market Division of HSBC.

Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world.

Limestone is one of 294 grant recipients worldwide. The $3 million in awards will fund programs that encourage financial literacy with an emphasis on young people ages 16-25 and women entrepreneurs.

SIFE provides students from all majors a chance to make a difference on college campuses and in the community. Students work on different projects while developing leadership, teamwork, organizational and communication skills.

Limestone’s SIFE team will use the grant to repeat the “Whose Money Is It Anyway?” project and develop a version of the project appropriate for high school students, SIFE advisor Betty Hoge said. Team members sponsored a series of personal finance seminars last fall which focused on issues college students face while in school and the early years of their careers.

“The high school version is currently being developed with Gaffney High School ninth and tenth graders and will include lessons about the basics of opening and managing a checking account and making smart choices between saving or spending their money,” Hoge said. “Once completed, the high school financial lessons will be taught this fall by the Limestone College SIFE members at both Gaffney and Blacksburg high schools.”

From the most successful projects, Hoge said 100 participating students will be selected to represent their colleges and share their knowledge at the HSBC Financial Literacy Forum in Toronto in October.

Limestone SIFE members hope to get additional ideas while attending the national competition in Kansas. Despite competing against much larger schools, Limestone was a first runner-up at the SIFE USA Regional Competition in Charlotte.

“We were invited to the national competition in Kansas City because of the accomplishments of our team over the past year and the potential our team has shown for the future,” Hoge said. “There has been some changes in the SIFE judging criteria next year that takes away some of the advantages of being from a bigger school. We hope attending the national competition will give our students some new ideas that will help us become a regional champion.”