Another Honor for SSFL’s Vicki Brown

Sowing Seeds for Life founder  Vicki Brown, who has received numerous regional and local awards for her charity work, was among those receiving an award during a ceremony April 30 at the University of La Verne honoring the school’s ENACTUS team of outstanding business students.

The University of La Verne chapter of ENACTUS organization, formerly SIFE, have been a big part of Sowing Seeds for
Life in recent years. The group is also heavily involved with Campbell Soup’s “Let’s Can Hunger” drive.

ENACTUS stands for Entrepreneurial Action US, while SIFE was short for
Students in Free Enterprise. The name change took place in Sept. 30. The new
name, it is believed, emphasizes the commitment to “using entrepreneurial action
as a catalyst for progress.”

Vicki Brown was among several honorees at the April 30 cermony which was attended by University of La Verne President Devorah Lieberman. Others included Clive Houston-Brown of the Pomona Rotary and La Verne Mayor Don Kendrick, who was unable to attend the ceremony.

But it was the ENACTUS students who drew most of the attention.

The 2012-13 ULV team had earlier won its fifth straight regional
competition and sixth in seven years. The next step was the national competition in
mid-May at Kansas City, which involved 155 schools and 4,000 students.

ULV finished second to Oregon State in the “Let’s Can Hunger” competition. Nancy Reagan (not the Nancy Reagan but rather the vice president of sales of Campbell Soup) presented the students with their award.

The ENACTUS World Cup is scheduled for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Cancun, but the ULV team will not take part in this international competition.

Although La Verne’s ENACTUS members emphasize they are a team, one individual singled out at the April 30 ceremony for a special award was MBA student Sajaad Shah. Getting individual awards from the students were their advisors, Dr. Issam Ghazzawi, associate professors of business management, and Kevin Marshall, professor of law and economics.

The ENACTUS motto is “Changing Lives One Life at a Time,” and the La Verne group does that in many ways. The fight against hunger is one of its main objectives. The group has teamed with Campbell Soup in its “Let’s Can Hunger,” drive and has been involved with Sowing Seeds for Life (SSFL) in a variety of ways.

One way is that a group of ENACTUS students conduct a career preparation workshop at the twice-a-month SSFL food pantries held in the parking lot at DPI Labs, 1350 Arrow Highway in La Verne. The students assists the people with such things as creating resumes and searching for jobs and even prepare them for job interviews.

Brown, who is also the president and CEO of DPI Labs, said, “I can’t put into words just how tremendous these young people have been in helping us help the needy. We serve 6,000 people per month, and the ENACTUS students deserve a lot of credit in enabling us to do what we do.”