Sum Up

The Flagler SIFE team has been hard at work this past semester creating new projects and pushing ourselves to improve existing programs. I am very excited to tell you that our team has grown to over fifty active members this semester! We have also finalized our plans for this years competition and will be competing at the Charlotte regional competition Monday March 29th. Below are updates on a few of our projects for this year.

Winmark Video: We are putting the finishing touches on our new Winmark video script which will be addressing customer service for our business ethics criteria. We will be filming in early January, and will be presenting our video at the Spring Winmark conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Deconstructed: We held our first ever Deconstructed event in November and it was a success! Students from the College Reach Out Program (CROP) followed fashion through the supply chain. Participants learned that each person in the distribution process must make a profit, and that those costs are reflected in the store's retail price. At the end of the day, students were challenged to create their own outfit by using materials and ideas from different countries. Students showcased their fashions on our Deconstructed runway and strutted their stuff for a panel of judges.

Other projects we are working on include: Consumer Cadets, Amaro's Army, Bee Keepers, Lights Out!, Suruwat, Let's Can Hunger, West Augustine Grocery Store, Real Estate Program, and Bridges to Sudan School.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Flagler SIFE had an amazing team Thanksgiving. We also held our major market economics program the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving. The event was a huge success, the Flagler SIFE team had a great time getting to see some of the kids we worked with last year. Projects are moving and we are on a roll preparing for our regional competition, which will be March 29th.

Blast off!

This week has been extremely busy! We have had very productive think tanks and are rapidly moving forward on our projects. Our new environmental sustainability project is turning into a huge success thanks to co-project leaders Alyssa and Phil!.
Ethics is also about to blast off, we have incredible scripts for our newest video thanks to everyone who has been working day and night on the project. We are in the process of improving our marketing for ARC, including the complete redesign of the Traveling Lunchbox menu.
If you are interested in getting involved with any of our projects or have any ideas please contact SIFEPresident@flagler.edu.

Moving along

Projects are going well, the team is growing and some new leaders are emerging. We are so excited about our Let's Can Hunger campaign with Cambell's Soup. Our other projects are also growing and expanding, more on them later!

The results for this years presentation team is in!

Presenters
Jessica Welch
Jaclyn Wilmers
Alyssa Murfey
Sheila Acharya
Joe King

Alternates that will travel to all competitions and attend practices: Two alternates will be chosen to be presenters based on project involvement, Q and A and presentation skills:
Rachel Holgate
Katie Salmi
Hannah Engle
Katherine Baggett
Mike Lambert
Kameron Lapp
Ryan Couch

Tech team (tentative)
Victoria Van Arnam
Joel Greene
Ryan Ledonne
Jesse Quick
Hannah Garner
Stevie Schenk

Back from Berlin

Energized by the connections and ideas we got at the World Cup the Flagler SIFE team has been plowing away. The general meetings have had very strong attendance and ideas have been flying about new projects. With these new members come new connections and many new opportunities have come up for Flagler SIFE to work with other school clubs and community groups both in St. Augustine and around the country. We have had weekly think tanks for each project, these think tanks have been well attended and progress is being made on many of the new projects while old ones are getting a face lift.

Yesterday we had a SIFE bonding adventure at the beach! We went to The Beach Comber to talk and eat and then played on the beach, we event made a SIFE sand castle.

This Wednesday is the presentation team auditions, next update will include a listing of the new presentation team. Good luck to those of you auditioning!

World Cup

The Internet access throughout our trip was sporadic at best, so once again I apologize for the lack of blog updates. I will rectify that now.

As you might have guessed we did not make it to the semi-final round at the SIFE World Cup. As we mentioned in the last post we did everything we could and have no regrets. One of our Business Advisory Board (BAB) members send us an email after the results were aired online and said that it is not the destination that matters but rather the journey to get there. For us the journey really did make this entire experience spectacular. We met incredible teams and made friends with people from every corner of the globe, we were supported by fantastic alumni, parents, and faculty and we represented Flagler College to the best of our ability. Most importantly, we had fun through every minute of it.

After watching the rest of competition I truly believe that if anything this has motivated the team to work harder. I cannot wait to see what we do next.

Love,
Jessica

Monday In Berlin

Sunday:

We changed hotels from Checkpoint Charlie to the Estrel Hotel and Convention Center where we will be competing. Last night was the first night on the competition schedule, which kicked off with the SIFE World Cup Cultural Fair—it was worth coming to competition just for that. Each country set up a booth to represent their country with food, dancing, jewelry, etc. Each team also wore native garb from their respective countries. We represented the U.S.A by bringing Oreos, Flagler college key chains, and Mickey Mouse bookmarks. To represent American attire and our area of the United States we wore Mickey Mouse ears and Mickey t-shirts. It was amazing to see other country’s excitement about our Disney theme. Each Flagler SIFEr was probably photographed 100 times with people wanting pictures with the “Mickey team.” It was absolutely incredible seeing teams from every corner of the world come together to celebrate the diversity of our cultures.

After the cultural fair we went to the opening ceremony where each team paraded across the stage with their national flags. We were told later by a Flagler parent that the opening ceremony was broadcast live online at www.sife.org/worldcup. I am not sure if all of the award ceremonies will be broadcast live but if you are interested they would all be on the aforementioned website. The competition schedule is on a previous blog post; please do not forget that Germany is six hours ahead of Eastern Time.

Aside from introducing the competitors the Opening Ceremony was also the first time competitors were told the pairings for our first round of competition Monday. We were the second to present in a room competing against: Singapore, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, and Swaziland.

Monday:

We have been working hard on practice presentations and Q&A practice; we apologize for not getting Sunday’s blog up until today. As a result, we can also use this blog as an opportunity to tell you about our first round this morning. We presented second at 10:35, to a panel of approximately 25 judges from around the world. Although the competition results will not be released until this evening at the 5PM Opening Round Award Ceremony we all feel like the presentation went extremely well. As Donna, Barry, Dr. and Mrs. Abare, and our other supporters all said there was nothing that we could have done to improve the presentation or Q&A. Now we just have to wait for the results…

We will update later this evening with news about whether we are moving on to the semi-final round of competition tomorrow. For immediate status updates look to our Twitter at Flagler SIFE.

Love,
The Flagler SIFE Team

More touring!

The group split up today, Hannah, Shelia, Jessica, Chris, Victoria, and Morgan (The SIFE USA Representative) went to the Bauhaus early in the day. It was beautiful. We looked at two exhibits, one was on the Bauhaus its self and the other was on a famous French architect. The Bauhaus is a modern art museum, but it used to be a school and some of the most famous modern artists in the 1920s. None of us really knew what the Bauhaus was until we went to Berlin, much less the impact that it had on modern art, architecture, clothing, and furniture. Almost everything that we consider "modern" today was originally designed by Bauhaus artists in during the 1920s. It was incredible! When we left there were lines literally wrapped around the building with people waiting for a chance to see the largest Bauhaus exhibit in history. Good thing we went early!

We walked to a brautwerst stand and got currywerst, a specialty in Berlin. The stand we went to had a line around the corner thank goodness we had Chris or else we would have never gotten our food.

After lunch we tried to get into the Unification Celebration but the celebration was so crowded that the police were forcing people to leave to make room for the event. The other group: Katherine, Kameron, John, and Jaclyn were able to get into the festival earlier in the day and said it was incredible! The group was able to get stamps from all of the countries represented during the Unification Celebration-including the United States and France. As Katherine said the day was incredible but "unbelievably crowded," yet worth it.

For those of us who were unable to get into the celebration we did get to experience a bit of the Unification Celebration. We followed a German marching band dressed in red, white, and blue as the played the American National Anthem and other traditionally American songs. Then we walked to the Holocaust memorial, what a beautiful yet somber place. There we met a group from SIFE Puerto Rico. It was incredible to learn that SIFE Puerto Rico celebrates their champion by sending representative from all of the other teams in the territory to support the champion. This was one of the support teams, they were excited to meet us and we spoke for a while.

As the group rushed back to the hotel for our practice presentation we were able to see another aspect of the Unification Celebration. A theatre group from France brings giant puppets-one from East Berlin and the other from West Berlin- which unite on Unification day at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate France's roll in uniting Berlin after the WWII. The entire team was able to see and talk about this unique event. The streets were teeming with people from countries across Europe all celebrating this momentous occasion. How lucky were we to be here?!

After a practice presentation we went to an alumni dinner with two alums ate venersnitzel and pasta with truffles We also had our first taste of German chocolate in Germany...fantastic! After dinner we met a German girl who just returned from two months in Jacksonville. For those of you who know about our team superstitions with signs we agreed that this was the second sign for the World Cup. (At Nationals we thought we had "signs" indicating that we would win: a fortune cookie, hat, and others that the team couldn't quite agree upon.)

We will spend today practicing and will also move to the competition hotel. Tonight is the culture fair, opening ceremony, and introduction of the teams. We are all so excited to start the World Cup and meet teams from around the world. That's all for now, we will update this evening after the events.

Thank you for following our blog and supporting us.

We miss and love you,
Jessica, Hannah ,and the Flagler SIFE Team

BERLIN!

This is a picture of us with some of the refugees from the Suruwat project we ran into in the airport

WE MADE IT!
Busy day! SO COLD!!! My parents told me I didn't understand how cold it would be and they were right! Met up with our translator/alumni Chris Gassner in the airport and immediately put his native tongue to use getting taxis and navigating our way through Berlin. We wondered around downtown, toured one of Berlin's famous churches, Parliament, and Brandenburg Gate! Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and is marked by the Unification Celebration. That means that we will not only be able to tour the city tomorrow but will also be able to celebrate one of Germany's national holidays. Tomorrow evening we will also be doing a presentation and dinner with Flagler alumni. More details to come...

Victoria and Jessica-


-Victoria
A cute video we took before getting on the plane to Berlin

Itinerary for World

We are waiting in the Jacksonville airport to take off for the SIFE World Cup in Berlin!

Throughout the World Cup competition we will be updating this blog, as well as, our Facebook, Flagler College Students In Free Enterprise (FCSIFE) and our Twitter, FlaglerSIFE. If you have any questions please post them here and we will do our best to answer them. Thank you so much for your incredible support. We are thinking of you!

Love,
Jessica & The Flagler SIFE Team

This is the tentative presentation schedule.

Sunday, October 4

08:30 - 12:30

Country Staff Meeting

10:00 - 12:30

Program Staff Meeting

10:00 - 20:30

Registration

16:00 - 17:00

Parade rehearsal

16:00 - 17:00

Cultural Fair set-up

16:00 - 17:30

Team Technology Check

17:00 - 18:30

Cultural Fair

19:00 - 20:30

Opening Ceremony

20:30 - 22:00

Team Technology Check

Monday, October 5

Business Attire

07:00 - 18:30

Registration

08:00 - 17:00

SIFE Internet Station

08:30 - 09:30

Team Technology Check (late Sunday arrivals only)

08:45 - 09:30

Opening Round Judges Orientation (coffee only)

09:00 - 16:00

SIFE World Cup Sponsor Fair

09:45 - 12:25

Opening Round Competition

11:00 - 11:45

Refreshment Station

12:30 - 13:30

Luncheon (Judges, Faculty & Country Leaders)

13:35 - 15:10

Opening Round Competition continues

15:00 - 16:00

Refreshment Station

17:00 - 18:30

Opening Round Competition Awards Ceremony

18:30 - 18:45

Semi-Finalist Teams Meeting

18:30 - 20:00

Executive Reception
(Opening & Semi-Final Judges Business Guests & Country Leaders)

Tuesday, October 6

Business Attire

07:00 - 17:30

Registration

07:30 - 08:30

Semi-Final Round Judges Orientation

08:35 - 11:55

Semi-Final Round Team Competitions

09:00 - 10:30

Top to Top Forum

09:30 - 10:30

Top to Future-Top Registration (students)

10:30 - 11:30

Top to Future-Top Forum

11:45 - 12:45

Final Round Competition Judges Luncheon & Orientation

12:15 - 13:10

Luncheon (Judges, Faculty & Country Leaders)

13:15 - 13:30

Announcement of Final Round Competing Teams

13:30 - 17:00

Final Round Competition

15:05 - 15:20

Refreshment Station

17:00 - 18:00

Final Round Awards Ceremony

18:00 - 19:00

Reception: Final Round Judges and Final Round Teams

National Champions!!!

Congratulations FCSIFE - we now hold the title of

USA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

Berlin, Germany - Here we come!!!!

-Hannah

This video is us screaming when we found out we won the National Championship.

UPDATE!

Things have been moving along here at FCSIFE, so here's a brief update!

Competition------------------------

The team is getting ready for Regionals in March. The ITCs were written and turned in and the presentation team is getting ready for competition.

"Destination Denim"------------------

Destination Denim is our new market economics project. The goal of the project is to educate students about the complexities of the international market place and how many countries touch their everyday lives. St. John's C.R.O.P. is bringing students from the surrounding middle and elementary schools to participate in the activities.

Date: March 7th
Time: 10:30-2:30

Ethics-------------------

Jessica spent this pasts weekend at Winmark HQ in New Orleans presenting our ethics video. She received a great response and they loved the team's work.

Greennovators-----------------

The Greennovators project will be expanding its reach into local elementary schools to help students get creative with "going green."

The Arc Sandwich Shop-----------

Has now been officially named The Traveling Lunch Box. The team met with Mary and Christine from The ARC last week to gives updates on the progress of the project. Equipment has been bought, menu ideas have been created, potential workers have been selected, and a logo has been picked. The main goal now for SIFE is to iron out the details and set up marketing around local businesses.

As always, look for specific project updates in the monthly BAB newsletter!

Thank you for supporting FCSIFE,
Angie Vecchioni
FCSIFE Treasurer

FCSIFE Welcomes in the New Year!

Things are moving along here at FCSIFE. We have Regionals prep, new projects, and expansion of existing ones. Here's an update of what has been going on since holiday break:

Market Economics Project--------

A think tank was held this past friday to brain storm ideas for our new market economics project. We are looking at working with Jobs for Florida's Graduates (JFG) which directly works with those students least likely to graduate. Some great ideas were brought forth and a second think tank is scheduled for Tuesday to discuss the specifics of the project.

Expansion of Greennovators---------

Our Greennovators project will now expand into high school science fairs in order to increase the impact and reach of the program.

The Arc-------

The Arc sandwich shop is now officially named "The Traveling Lunchbox." The menu items are coming along thanks to the help of Christine who was hired to bring her culinary experience to The Arc.

Tom Rittenhouse--------

FCSIFE will have the pleasure of hosting a 'round table' event with guest speaker Tom Rittenhouse on Jan. 28th. Mr. Rittenhouse will be speaking at the Michelina’s Business Luncheon Series on the 29th bringing 37 years of experience in global supply chain management.

Legacy Goes Green-------

The eco-friendly changes have been made, a business plan has been created, and now WE'RE EXPANDING! The Legacy is looking to expand its eco-friendly business plan to St. George Street businesses.

As always, look for detailed project updates sent in the BAB newsletter.

Thanks you for your support!

Angie Vecchioni
FCSIFE Treasurer
Sifetreasurer@flagler.edu