So what's up with SIFE's community development projects?

Well to say the least; there is a lot going on! There are currently 12 different projects in our community development portfolio educating people on a variety of things from market economics to business ethics!

But people always wonder.. why are we educating people on the topics that we do? Let me walk you through how we create a SIFE educational project with a common example.. let's say that you are a university student with no money! Here are the steps I would go through to help you solve your problem:

Firstly, we would have to define the audience and the need, which would be university students who are spending too much money eating at the Surrey Central food court or at cornerstone. How much money is lost by these students each week? If you think about it, $15 on food each day, maybe 4 days per week. That is $60 per week and around $240 per month! You could buy a new textbook for that much!

Next, we would decide on a strategy to educate SFU students and how we can empower them alternative strategies to save money on food. So how can we do this, and at the same time maybe inspire SFU students to eat healthier (Pizza point isn't the healthiest thing to eat everyday). So the strategy that I came up with is a healthy eating program where students track their consumption in calories and dollars spent on food.

Then you need to set some GOALS! If you don't have any goals for your project, you won't get anywhere! Make sure you set your goals high and try to achieve those goals!

Next would be a name for the program, either an acronym or something that aligns with the project's goals and purpose. Since I'm no good at coming up with names for projects, I will call this one "Piggy Bank Lunch".

So what's next? Figure out a way to market the project and empower students to save money and eat healthier! Now the exact details would have to be determined and written down on SIFE documentation! (we will skip that step for now)

After completion of the project, it is utter most important to track results and record your impact! A strategy to follow-up and keep track of how the participants have used the program to change their lives is of equal importance of the project itself! There is no point in creating a project without knowing how your project changed the lives of people.

After you have followed up with the participants, fill out your closing documents and pass the project onto the next Project Manager!

So creating and implementing a SIFE project isn't that much work, as long as you know what your goals are. Because executing any project is possible, yes we are still in university, but we aren't in the real world yet.

So take the time to try out something new, get out there and find your passion!