Willard Intermediate School students participate in SIFE City activities.

On Monday November 19, 2007 from 9:00 a.m .– 2:00 p.m. the MSU SIFE Team hosted 360 Willard Intermediate School 5th grade students at the Discovery Center. The project is called “SIFE City” and all of the students had jobs and elected officials (Mayor, Judge, Police Chief). The students learned about financial literacy, personal success skills, ethics, and global economics. This year’s special guests included the current Willard Mayor Mr. Schoolcraft and Police Chief McClain who both provided detailed presentations about the city of Willard and the Willard police department. SIFE City began 5 years ago with 50 students from Willard South and now it is our marquee project.

Our MSU students have been working with the Willard kids for the last 3 weeks and SIFE City is their field trip. We selected Willard because 45% of the student population is on free or reduced lunch and many of the kids have never been to the Discovery Center. This year we are also getting support from Frito Lay who is paying for the Discovery Center rental and providing chips and cookies for the SIFE Mart (where the kids spend part of their paycheck) and we are also getting $100 worth of supplies from Sam’s Club and free soda from Walgreens.

This project is one of our community outreach efforts to the surrounding school districts. We look forward to next year’s SIFE City which will be attended by close to 400 students.