By Kelline Linton, Staff Writer
Students enjoyed food, fashion and business advice at the annual Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) fashion etiquette dinner last Tuesday in the Living Room of the Campus Center.
The event began at 6:30 p.m. and lasted for about two hours. Attendees ate a full course meal before listening to a guest speaker and watching a fashion show that had a business twist.
ARAMARK catered the dinner. “The meal [included] foods you eat at a normal business dinner – a meat, two sides, a salad and a dessert,” said Courtney Arrington, one of two coleaders for the SIFE event.
The guest speaker was Liza Smallwood, the marketing coordinator for ARAMARK Higher Education and pastor and founder of Prophetic Transitions Ministries. Smallwood talked for about 40 minutes and covered a wide range of topics like interviews, conversations, dinners outside of work, dinners for work and anything one could come across in a business atmosphere, said Krystal Edwards, the other SIFE co-leader.
Smallwood was chosen as the speaker for her energy and her constant professional attire and attitude, said Arrington, senior accounting and finance major from Dallas.
“She won’t even wear a pair of sweats to Wal-Mart,” said Edwards, senior marketing major from Dallas.
The fashion show was the big finale of the evening and ranged from business professional to business casual attire. Five female and four male students paraded two outfits each from Dillard’s. The models were of all shapes and body types. “What we’re trying to do was get all genders, sizes and races, so it could be a diversified fashion show,” Arrington said.
Edwards said, “the main goal of this event was to teach students how to prepare themselves to get far in whatever their chosen path,” Edwards said. “People think college is a time to play, but college is preparing you for your actual career; it’s better to start developing techniques to help make a lasting impression,” she said.
The dinner cost $15 or two meal plans. Reservations were taken through email with a maximum cut-off of 65 people due to limited space in the Living Room.
More than 65 people were allowed to attend, but they could not eat the dinner or take a seat at a table. They also were not charged. “They [got] the benefit of seeing the fashion show and hearing Mrs. Smallwood speak,” Arrington said.
In the past attendees were charged $10 or one meal plan for the dinner, said Jessica Sneed, SIFE leader for last year’s etiquette dinner and senior marketing and management major from Keller. About twenty-five people attended last year.
The event this year was open to anyone in the Abilene community.
The publicity focus for the dinner was placed on freshmen and sophomores, since they are usually in introduction business classes. Arrington and Edwards wanted attendees from a variety of majors. “Even if you’re not a business major, you need to know how to act and make yourself appropriate and leave a lasting impression,” Arrington said.
Some introduction to business professors offered extra credit to students to encourage attendance.
SIFE had a new aspect to the dinner this year. An outreach table was reserved exclusively for eight women from the Noah Project, a shelter that helps and cares for battered women. ARAMARK sponsored the table and paid for the women’s meals. “It [gave] them the opportunity to get out and get their lives together, so they could make it far without depending on anybody,” Edwards said.
Carino Cortez, president of SIFE, had the idea for the sponsored table. Members of SIFE hope outreach tables will grow in number for future dinners.
“We would like for more companies to sponsor next year, so we can allow more [battered] women to come or younger kids from the Boys and Girls Club to come and get a benefit at an early age,” Arrington said.
SIFE has hosted the etiquette dinner for the last three years.
SIFE’s other big event of the semester was Enterprise City that took place on Nov. 9 for Taylor Elementary fifth graders. The program allowed students to work, buy and sell in a small-scale city that included a bank and numerous shops. “It taught them how to live in our growing economy,” Arrington said.
SIFE’s big event next semester involve the Noah Project as SIFE members work to provide speakers and technical classes for battered women, and, “a big secret project [that] is also coming up,” Arrington said.
