La Verne Students Have Business Minds, Caring Hearts

   A group of La Verne University students that are members of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) have hooked up with Sowing Seeds for Life (SSFL), a food bank that feeds some 6,000 needy people per month in the East San Gabriel Valley.

   On a recent rainy day, the students, accompanied by two professors, showed up at DPI Labs at 1350 Arrow Highway, where SSFL conducts food giveaways twice a month.

     They were there to help in any way they could. But their main purpose was offering business advice to the people there in need, most of who are currently unemployed. It could be as simple as offering advice on how to fill out a resumé, or offering advice on how to handle a job interview.

    “Our students are helping and learning at the same time,” said Dr. Issam Ghazzawi, a professor of business management and an SIFE advisor.

     

    There are more than 40 SIFE students at the University of La Verne and thousands more, representing 800 U.S. colleges and universities.  Globally, SIFE has more than 48,000 participating students, representing more than 1,500 institutions of learning in 40 countries.

    The goal of SIFE is to improve lives, strengthen communities and develop socially responsible business leaders.

    Vicki Brown of Glendora, the founder and CEO of Sowing Seeds for Life, can vouch that the goal is being reached in the East San Gabriel Valley.

    “These kids are just tremendous,” Brown said. “For them to come out on a rainy day and try and help people in need has to restore our faith in today’s young people.”

     The SIFE members aren’t the only University of La Verne students offering a helping hand to SSFL.  There was another group that planted orange trees at the Glendora Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Martin Luther King Day. That group included six members of the La Verne track team, one graduate assistant coach, two female students from the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority and academic advisor Michelle Kerchichian.

   They were all there on strictly a volunteer basis.

    It was another uplifting story about caring young people at the University of La Verne.