Blood drive project takes students to World Cup

Blood drive project takes AUT students to World Cup

A 'blood-sucking' super hero has helped a team of AUT University students win a New Zealand business enterprise competition - and the chance to compete in the final in New York.

AUT Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) invented the super hero to help boost student donor numbers for New Zealand Blood and the eight members presented their campaign at the 2007 SIFE New Zealand National Competition on Saturday July 14.

The campaign's mascot, Red Defender, was the star attraction at a recent New Zealand Blood drive aimed at students aged 18 to 25 years, resulting in a 45 per cent increase on comparable drives.

The eight winning students will compete against 50 countries at the 2007 SIFE World Cup in New York in October 2007.

SIFE AUT president Ineke Jacobs says it's an honour to represent New Zealand at the global competition in New York and her sights are set on bringing home the world cup.

"Past SIFE AUT teams have passed us the baton and we're proud to have done their hard work justice by taking out the national champs," she says. "Now we're focussed on a New Zealand win at the world final."

SIFE is a not-for-profit global community of tertiary students at more than 1800 institutions. They create and implement ethical business enterprise projects to serve groups within their own countries.

A panel of top Kiwi business people judged the competing SIFE teams. They rated projects on global competition criteria including entrepreneurship, sustainability, financial independence, competitiveness in a global economy and business ethics.

This is the second national win for SIFE AUT. In 2005 they took home the top trophy and placed 20th in the world, and last year they came second in the national competition.

SIFE AUT 's projects included Health$tylz - a wealth through health campaign, Work NZ - assisting women who have been out of the workforce into employment, Pro-Activ - speed-date styled employment interview sessions tailored to graduating students and Networx - sourcing and donating computers to 13-15-year-olds with 12 months free internet access.

Ineke says if they could hand over the trophy to the communities they serve they would.

"Without their constant support and enthusiasm the projects would never have come to life as they did," she says. "It is amazing being part of their lives and making a difference."

Senior business lecturers Helene Wilkinson and Mark Le Fevre have been academic mentors with SIFE AUT since it began in 2004.

Helene saysthe judges' comments highlighted that SIFE AUT's presentation was professional, focused and more than met the judging criteria.

"One judge said that during their presentation he asked some tough questions but the AUT team had no problems answering them and were never thrown off," she says.

"Others said SIFE AUT's professionalism, having tangible project outcomes and their outstanding score saw them easily win the competition."

She adds the national trophy belongs to the whole SIFE AUT group whose collective skills and capabilities came together to make the projects succeed.

"This is a wonderful achievement for these young business entrepreneurs and bodes well for New Zealand," she says.

This year's competing students were SIFE AUT president Ineke Jacobs, CEO Clifton Johnston, Uros Vujnic, Lenaire Wilcox, Megan Rawson, Sarah Roys, Michael Teoh and Amy Boyd.

ENDS

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