Happy Holidays from FCSIFE! The first semester is over and FCSIFE has been working hard to make the 2007-2008 year a successful. This year many of our projects have evolved and we are excited about the progress that we have been able to make over the past few months. Here is just some of what we have been doing and planning for this year:
This year, our Saint Augustine Youth Services (SAYS) seminars have evolved into what we now call our: Junior Partners Program. The first Junior Partners seminar took place on October 23, 2007 and was a bigger success then we had ever hoped. The program combines the seminars that we did with the foster care students, but then takes the curriculum one step further by finding internships for interested students in a job that reflects their future career aspirations. Internships typically last between three months and one year, depending on the availability of each individual sponsor, and teach students the ins and outs of their desired vocation. Each interested student fills out an application describing what they want to do within their careers and then FCSIFE and Flagler’s Legacy work to find a local business to sponsor these kids in whatever their intended field is
We completed our eighth annual Kids’ Marketplace on Saturday November 17, 2007. We can definitely say this year was the most successful as we had 50 students throughout St. Augustine participate. Next semester we will be working with Flagler College’s education majors to create a curriculum to expand Kids’ Marketplace to the national level.
We have also expanded our Bobby Banana Goes Global project and have recently created a course curriculum that we hope to present to Dole Food during the second semester. In addition to taking our Bobby Banana curriculum to Dole Food we will also be presenting the curriculum to schools in Saint Johns county.
During the week of January 28th through February 3rd FCSIFE will be hosting our annual Ethics Week. This year we have decided to make the event nautical themed, we will be projecting ethical and unethical statements onto two 40-foot canvas sails on Flagler College’s West lawn. We will also be hosting an ethical seminar along with other exciting community activities.
This year FCSIFE is very excited to report that we have been approached to help with two international projects. The first international project is in the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. FCSIFE’s goal with this project is to help create economic opportunity for island citizens. Our plan for the Abaco project is to create a trolley tour system similar to that in Saint Augustine to help the Abaco citizens capitalize on the ever-increasing tourism industry.
Our second international project is helping disadvantaged children in Nepal. We are tentatively planning to help these students (who have the equivalent of a high school diploma but wish to go on to university) create their own e-Businesses so they have the opportunity to pursue their dreams of attending college.
At the suggestion of our SIFE regional representative from SIFE USA headquarters, we have decided to have our annual presentation auditions at Markland House on Flagler’s campus on Monday December 3, 2007 at 11:00 AM and on Tuesday December 4, 2007 at 5:00 PM. If you are available for one or both of the auditions we would appreciate any input you are able to provide in selecting FCSIFE’s regional and national presentation team.
Additionally, FCSIFE will be hosting a breakfast for all of our BAB members on Tuesday January 15, 2008, to get more great ideas for this year's competition!!!
Thank you for all of your support; we would not be the successful SIFE team without all your help!
Happy holidays,
Julie Hirshan Jessica Welch
FCSIFE President FCSIFE Vice President
