Flagler SIFE

Second round presentation

2011-05-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Our second presentation was flawless. The tech team has never done better and the presenters were full of emotion. We are now waiting to find out the results at the awards ceremony at 1:00p.m.

Won our league in the opening round!

2011-05-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Made it to the Top 20 in the 2011 SIFE National Exposition! We will be presenting again on Thursday at 11:05 a.m. The awards ceremony was a lot of fun. Our treasurer, Estefania Mones, received recognition for two scholarships and Michelle Olson-Rogers received the SIFE Alumna of the Year award! The team spent last night enjoying a dinner and reviewing the judging sheets from the last round. The visual received a number of good comments; overall, it was great!! Be sure to follow us on Twitter @FlaglerSIFE for updates throughout the day!

Nationals!

2011-05-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

The team practicing the presentation in our hotel.

We safely arrived in Minneapolis, MN! We have been enjoying the wonderful food options in the city and the cool weather. We travel around indoors through skyways or as we call them, "gerbil tunnels." Some of our alumni will be arriving tonight and we are really excited for the Rally of Champions tonight!!

We present tomorrow in the Opening Round at 11:20 a.m.

We will keep everyone posted!

You can follow us on Twitter @FlaglerSIFE

Our Container Home

2011-03-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

Cutting and framing has begun! Thanks again to the Hastings youth academy and Joe Kelly!

Painting!

2011-03-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the container got a fresh coat of paint!
SIFE teamed up with The Hastings Youth Academy, a Juvenile Corrections facility,
to give the youth there a chance to learn valuable vocational skills, such as painting.
They did an awesome job! and had alot of fun with our SIFErs!

Also a big thank you to Joe Kelly!! our contractor that is donating his time to
help us with this project! We can't thank him enough!

Conversion Begins

2011-02-28T14:37:00.000-08:00

Conversion of the container began this past saturday February 26th! SIFErs de-rusted the outside, cleaned the inside, and power-washed both. The Cleaning work is being finished today.

Containers For a Cause Update

2011-02-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

It is finally here! The container was delivered to the Record parking lot this afternoon.

Containers for a Cause in the running for 250,000 Grant

2010-12-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Here is how you can help!

Project Updates

2010-09-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Containers for a Cause single container to be built early in semester.

Suruwat

Our Suruwat project began 2 years ago to help Nepalese refugees that were relocated to Jacksonville, FL assimilate into their new environment. When the refugees arrive in America they speak little English and do not always understand our cultural norms and ways of life. Flagler SIFE began giving workshops to help these individuals learn everything from how to clean a kitchen to how to speak English.

We learned that 75,000 additional Nepalese refugees would be coming into the United States over the next 5 years. We wanted to create a program that could help these families face the challenges of everyday life in America: going to the bank, shopping at the supermarket, searching for a job. We produced a video and supplemental packet to help with these lessons. Our video and supplemental packet was distributed through the 10 national resettlement agencies including World Relief, Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services. Since the program was so well received we have been asked to create more videos.

Recently we met with Catholic Charities to determine the languages our video should be translated into, these include: Arabic, Spanish, and Barundi. Our next videos will use different nationalities as actors and will be translated into at least 7 different languages.

Conservation Cadets

Conservation Cadets was started last year when it was brought to Flagler SIFE’s attention that we could help people to conserve energy and save money. We deliver our message through a series of videos in which children and adults reverse roles. In our videos the Conservation Cadets, teach adults how to cut costs and conserve energy. A lot of great tips coupled with humor have allowed our Conservation Cadets to successfully reach about hundreds of people with their crash course in environmental sustainability.

We are pleased to announce that as we begin the fall semester, the Conservation Cadets project is, once again, gaining momentum as we look to the future.

To view the videos and learn more about the project click here OR check out Flagler SIFE’s YouTube Channel.

Containers for a Cause

Containers for a Cause is one of our newer projects, started last semester, it is one of our largest and fastest growing. Containers for a Cause takes used shipping containers and transforms them into low income housing.
We are currently working on building our first container. The plans are still in the building department. When they are approved, we will begin the construction of our first container on The Record’s parking lot.

SIFE General Meeting, 6:00pm, Wedensdays @ Markland
(Markland is the big white house right behind the Student Center)
Food | Travel | Jobs | Internships | Leadership Experience | Food

Conservation Cadets Update

2010-08-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

The Sassy Sisters teach a business how to save paper by printing on the back and front of paper.

We are currently working on a partnership with the Solid Waste Authority of South Florida and Talquin Electric. You can now find Conservation Cadets on Radio Green Earth's site , Earth 911, YouTube and the website for the Florida League of Environmental Educators.

Summer Project Update

2010-08-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Shelia Acharya working with a Nepalese woman in a language lab.

This month Flagler SIFE has been busy working on the Suruwat Refugee program and Containers for a Cause.
Sheila and Barry finished the script for the second Suruwat video. The first one can be viewed here. We hope to start filming this new script once everyone is back from summer break. The topics it will cover are employment, housing and maintenance and transportation.
Our first video is now being used by 10 national resettlement agencies. Topics cover banking, grocery shopping, personal safety and learning English. We will be speaking to the agencies, including Catholic Charities, about the second video this week.
Containers for a Cause is moving forward. We received our building plans from PQH Architects and the plans are now at the county building department for approval.
These plans are for the single unit structure that we will construct on the parking lot of the St. Augustine Record. The high cube shipping container is 40ft x 8ft x 9ft6in.

TEDx Creative Coast

2010-06-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Counter Clockwise, Victoria Van Arnam, and Renee Chiaverini pose with the Loci Design interns Walter Woods and Clayton Dodd in front of the TEDx sign.

On Friday, Flagler SIFE and Loci Design exhibited at the TEDx sponsored by Creative Coast in Savannah GA. We were demonstrating innovative ideas on how to give old shipping containers a new life.

It was an incredible opportunity to go to TEDx, seeing the movers, shakers and thinkers of Savannah really motivated us to implement these ideas in St. Augustine.

Containers for a Cause is moving forward on several different fronts. We are working on several large partnerships with different groups and following several leads from the conference to secure land and money for our containers.

Containers for a Cause is working to make low income housing out of shipping containers.

Containers for a Cause

2010-06-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Our Containers for a Cause project is moving along rapidly. We already have a container, which will be transformed into our first home shortly in the St. Augustine Record’s parking lot. We are working on several parallel paths that start from our initial container idea and expand out in multiple directions.

Our partners from Loci Designs have arrived in St. Augustine and have set up their equipment alongside our editing station, making it a rather cramped space considering the lack of air conditioning. We are working closely with Loci Design to create a concrete plan for our Containers for a Cause project.

In addition, today, June 9, we presented our idea to Dr. Proctor. Dr. Proctor was supportive and gave us several other exciting directions to consider for the project.

Currently, we are preparing a presentation for the St. John’s County on how our containers can reduce the local recidivism rate. We are also preparing to present at a TEDx conference in Savannah, GA on June 18.

Coming home

2010-05-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

That poster behind us has Kameron Lapp, Victoria Van Arnam and Jessica Welch's faces on it!

After watching the final four, Flagler SIFE had a wonderful post competition dinner. As we were leaving the restaurant, we ran into Belmont, the newly christened national champions. Their presentation was incredible and they truly deserve the 2010 SIFE National Championship.
The SIFE year has turned over; this has been a great year for Flagler SIFE under the unwavering leadership of Jessica Welch. Congratulations to Jessica who is moving on to work with Wal-Mart. This year we have overcome many challenges, gained new experiences and grown exponentially.

The new Co-Presidents, Emily Marcellus and Victoria Van Arnam flanked by their Co-Vice Presidents Alyssa Murphy and Jessie Quick (for full list of officers see previous blog), are ready to lead the team through whatever the criteria changes and down economy can throw at them.

The team has since arrived back safely from nationals. Everyone has dispersed to their appropriate states. All is quiet in St. Augustine, but in Markland house, operations will soon be returning to normal.

Heading Home

2010-05-14T06:49:00.001-07:00

We're headed back to Saint Augustine now. The first group is en route to the airport.

We had a wonderful time with our entire family last night; parents, SIFERS, D&B (Donna and Barry), and Dr. and Mrs. Abare. We ate at "The Local," exchanged senior gifts and gave speeches and toasts; a wonderful, memorable evening.

That's all for 2009-2010.
Will keep you posted with the exciting summer stuff we'll be doing!

- Posted by the Marketing Director of Flagler SIFE via BlogPress

Semi-finals Results

2010-05-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

We made it to the semi-finals, but didn't move on to the Final Four. We're very proud of the team and the performance. Watching the Final Four now.

- Posted by Flagler SIFE via BlogPress

8:00

2010-05-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

We're so proud of our team! We did the best we could at 8am for the top 20 semi-finals presentation this morning. We find out in an hour if we make the top 4!!! Immediately following the announcements of final 4, the contestants must prepare to get on stage right away. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!!

Top 20!

2010-05-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

We made it to the semifinals! We will be presenting tomorrow again in the top 20!

More information later!

Rally of Champs

2010-05-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

Bull Pen Unleashed!
The Rally of Champions was incredible! The entire team got to run up onto the stage, wave the American flag and show our Flagler pride. We watched as the trophy that once decorated our student center was once again brought to the stage for this year’s SIFE USA National Champions.

We won first place in the Campbell’s Lets Can Hunger, Hunger Awareness competition. The award included $750 for the team and a plaque! We are incredibly proud of our two freshman members who headed that program Jessie Quick and Ryan Ledonne.

We saw Joel Conner and Jack Shewmaker at the Rally and they stopped to say hi and meet our new members. We are so excited for the competition to begin! We present at 11:20, if you want immediate updates check our twitter and Facebook!

(right) Ryan Ledonne receiving Let's Can Hunger award from Doug Conant President and CEO of Campbell Soup.
(left)Pictured from left, Barry Sand, Emily Marcelles, Joel Conner CEO and Chairman of Bellisio Foods and Chairman of the Board of SIFE, Victoria Van Arnam and Donna DeLorenzo.

Enjoying Minneapolis

2010-05-11T09:17:00.001-07:00

Last night we had a spectacular dinner with the President of Winmark Corporation, the head of Winmark’s Training Department, and the Play It Again Sports Training head. The presentation team had a wonderful time getting to explore some of the city and relax after the long flight and weeks of working around the clock. We are now getting back to work!

The rest of the team is on their way, we will be having a late lunch, practicing, and then we’ll head off to the Rally of Champions. We are so excited for the competition to begin!

Pictured finishing dinner, Katie Salmi left, and Angie Benson Director of Winmark Training.
Photo courtesy of Hannah Garner

Traveling

2010-05-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

Got up at 3:30, to go to Jacksonville for our flight. We are now on the plane to Minneapolis! Everyone is ready to do their best (after a little nap)! More later.
Photo of Mike Lambert, Courtesy of Joe King.

Preperation

2010-04-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Lets Can Hunger
Flagler SIFE has been chosen as one of the nine finalists for Campbell's Let's Can Hunger Challge! We collected 3,042 cans, all of which we donated to St. Francis House, a local hunger relief organization. We look forward to the competition results which will be announced May 11, 2010 at the SIFE USA National Exposition.

Schools out for Summer!
Flagler College SIFE students are ecstatic about school coming to a close. Finals ended last week, we have been spending all of our time perfecting our projects and getting ready for competition.

Containers for a Cause
The Containers for a Cause project is moving along at a lightning pace. Within the next few days, we have multiple meetings planned with some great people in the community who are helping us turn our homeless rehabilitation center into a reality. We've made tons of headway over the past year and with each new day we get that much closer to our final goal! We have a video of some of the pictures taken at our Cardboard Campout. Check it out and leave your comments!

Conservation Cadets
Conservation Cadets editing is now complete and is available for viewing on our Flagler College SIFE's YouTube and on the Flagler SIFE website! Huge thanks and congratulations to the team members who have contributed so much time to filming and editing the videos for this project!

Officer Postitions

2010-04-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

On Friday Barry and Donna announced the SIFE officers for 2010 and 2011.

Victoria Van Arnam & Emily Marcellus

Co-Presidents

Alyssa Murfey & Jesse Quick

Co-Vice Presidents

Beth Houston

Secretary (will receive a "co" soon)

Stevie J. Schenk & Shannon Greene

Directors of Marketing

Justin LaVerdiere & Ryan Ledonne

Directors of Finance

Rachael Holgate

Transitional Coordinator

Become a friend of Flagler SIFE on facebook and check out all of our photos! updated frequently.

More news coming soon!

Whats going on

2010-04-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

The team is so excited and so honored about moving on to nationals in Minneapolis. The end of school is rapidly approaching; we will soon be able to work on SIFE all day long without having to worry about classes! We have a two week “break” between our last week of class and nationals that will be nonstop fun.

The Lets Can Hunger (LCH) initiative has collected 687 cans which we turned in at regionals. This last weekend we were at the St. Augustine Friday night Art Walk. This weekend, the 10^th and 11^th, LCH will be at the St. Augustine Art Association Spring Festival at St. Francis Field by the Parking Garage. If you are in the area please come by!

The Cardboard Campout was a great success! Thanks to everyone who donated money and slept on the West Lawn with us. To see photos and video of the event go here.

WE WON REGIONALS!!

2010-03-29T14:00:00.001-07:00

Flagler SIFE won the regional competition and will be proceeding to nationals in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May. This regionals had some tough competition but the reigning national champions prevailed as results were announced on Monday at the award ceremony.
Flagler SIFE won the Entrepreneurship Individual Topic Competition with their TAPED Ethical Training video.
Flagler SIFE also attended a small reception with individuals from Sam’s Club corporate offices.

The team is ecstatic and exhausted, after a week break general and competition preparation meetings will resume as everyone is ready for more.

Flagler SIFE ready for regionals

2010-03-27T20:19:00.001-07:00

The last day of practice went great today. Yesterday, we performed a formal presentation for some of the college staff and they loved it. We’ll be meeting at 6:30 in the morning for the seven hour road trip to Charlotte, NC. The 40 team members are hoping to get some sleep on the ride up along with some Q&A and presentation practice.

Lets Can Hunger and BAB

2010-03-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

Regionals is getting close, we will be competing on March 29th in Charlotte, NC! Flagler SIFE is finishing up projects and taking those last few photos to make everything just right.

We just held our Let’s Can Hunger challenge at First Friday Art Walk last week, which was a huge success. There was a great turnout and we collected a lot of cans and donations.

The Business Advisory Board presentation will be on the 16th from 5-6:30PM. We are thrilled by the feedback thus far and cannot wait for our dress rehearsal next week.

The presenters and alternates have also been finalized and are listed below:

Presenters:
Alyssa Murfey
Shelia Acharya
Jessica Welch
Jaclyn Wilmers
Kameron Lapp
Joe King

Alternates:
Mike Lambert
Rachael Holgate
Katherine Baggett

Tech Team:
Victoria Van Arnam
Hannah Garner
Ryan Ledonne
Joel Green

Fieldtrips and projects

2010-02-27T08:15:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday, the Flagler SIFE team was invited to meet with Gorge Lindemann President and CEO of Standard Union at White hall, Henery M. Flagler’s Palm Beach home. Over lunch Mr. Lindemann talked with various SIFE students about the importance of being persistent in business, "If you can't get in through the front door, try the back door. If that doesn't work start looking for a window." After lunch SIFE students were able to tour the historic home of industrialist Henry Flagler, who our College is named after. It was amazing to see another beautiful Gilded Age building so much like our Ponce De Leon Hotel.

For Project News...

The team is working hard to prepare for our regional competition, which is just five weeks away.

Last night we completed filming for Suruwat and will begin editing today. We plan on distributing the video next week and are thrilled by the enthusiasm we have received thus far with this "how to" assimilation program. Suruwat is also being used as the feature story for this term's Flagler Magazine!

As for Winmark Training video, the conference presentation was amazing. Winmark staff, franchisees, and managers all loved the video. In our video survey 100% asked for additional videos! Steve Murphy, the President of Winmark, said told us that as this project evolves into a formal business we can count Winmark as our first official customer! We also chose a name for the program:T.A.P.E.D or Teaching Associates Proper Ethics Daily.

A new project that we are working on in our housing for the homeless program which will create a rehabilitation center to integrate St. Johns' County homeless back into society. The former Mayor of St. Augustine donated our initial supplies to get this program started. The project is progressing rapidly and although it will not be ready for regionals we are very excited by the community support we have received.

Thank you so much for your support of Flagler SIFE. If you have any project questions or suggestions please let us know!

Thank you,
The Flagler SIFE Team

Onward

2010-02-07T22:20:00.001-08:00

Flagler SIFE has welcomed 10 incredible new members to the team since the semester began a few weeks ago. We are so excited by the enthusiasm and drive these new members already have for SIFE and our projects. Some of our new members have even designed and started working on an extremely ambitions project for next year that will be an amazing opportunity for Flagler SIFE.

In addition to new members the team has been busy with projects and competition preparation. This has been a hectic past two weeks, here are some of our biggest team updates for the past week:

The biggest accomplishment this week is the completion and submission of all 6 of our Individual Topic Competition (ITCs)! We will find out at regionals if we finaled in any of the ITC categories we submitted, regional ITC finalists receive a trophy and prize money during the award ceremony. In addition to getting past this first competition hurdle, completion of ITCs means that we have framed our projects and are ready to start writing the script.

Our Ethics Training Program for Winmark is complete along with the accompanying supplemental information packet. Last year's video was great, and this years video is even better! Jessica, Kameron and Katie will be leaving Sunday February 14th to go to Las Vegas to present the video and supplemental information packet at Winmark's conference and trade show.

The Suruwat video will be filmed this Friday and Saturday and we are having fun preparing to make our second "major motion picture" of the year :)

We held auditions for Consumer Cadets and Conservation Cadets last week and were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the community and the great kids who came out for casting. We will begin filming both segments next week.

These updates are just a glimpse into what we have been doing the past week. We would like to thank everyone who has been working with us on these and our other projects!

Consumer Cadets

2010-01-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

We are currently working on a project called Consumer Cadets, in the past, Flagler SIFE has written and produced a similar segment called Amaro’s Army for First Coast News anchor Ken Amaro. Some of our Amaro’s Army segments can be seen at firstcoastnews.com keyword: Amaro’s Army. Consumer Cadets will be similar to Amaro’s Army except it will be hosted by elementary students in St. Augustine.

Consumer Cadets segments will feature kids discussing ways to save money at locations throughout St. Augustine. Student actors will be working with Flagler SIFE team members and our coach Barry Sand, the original writer and producer of The Late Night Show with David Letterman.

We hope to cast six kids between the ages of eight and ten that have an upbeat personality and are comfortable in front of a video camera. Here is where you come in! If you have a child that fits these criteria and would like to star in Consumer Cadets, please bring him or her to our Consumer Cadet auditions.

Consumer Cadet auditions will be held at Flagler College on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. If you have a child between the ages of eight and ten that might be interested please fill out the attached release form and bring it with you to casting. This release will allow your child’s Consumer Cadet segments to appear on YouTube and possibly First Coast News as part of the show. There are no guarantees that the show will be played on the local news. The show also has a chance of expanding and being put on other news networks. Parents and students will be notified should segments be posted anywhere other than YouTube.

If your child is interested in auditioning or you have any questions, please contact me by Monday, February 1st at (561) 371-8187.

Clinic Nepal

2010-01-08T12:45:00.001-08:00

Today we had the honor of hearing a speaker, Hari Bhandery, who has started a program called Clinic Nepal that looks beyond Mt. Everest and sees the human side of Nepal and addresses rural humanitarian needs. In addition to opening the first medical clinic in his area, Hari has also started a number of Kindergarten schools, education scholarships, installed pipe wells for clean drinking water, and has educated the public on the necessity of sanitation.
This man has done so many incredible things and has effected the world around him in such a positive way, he was an incredible inspiration to us and we cannot wait to work with him on SIFE projects.

Sum Up

2009-12-23T13:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-03T06:59:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-11-15T09:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-06T10:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T07:36:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-10-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-02T02:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-05-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-02-17T07:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

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

New Updates!

2008-12-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

GREENNOVATORS-------------

The Grennovators entries were due December 1st, and FCSIFE received some amazing ideas for innovations. On December 4th, we displayed these entries to be judged at the Eco Fun Fest on Flagler College's West Lawn. After some tough decision making, the judges chose Katherine Baggett as the second place winner of two annual passes to Sea World and Busch Gardens and Matthew Van Arnam as the winner of $500 cash. Overall, Greennovators was a great success. Not only were some great thinkers awarded for their wonderful ideas, but everyone who attended the Eco Fun Fest learned more about environmental awareness and sustainiblity.
Great job Alyssa and Sam and everyone else who helped out!

RIPPLE THE NATION------------

Ripple the Nation is up and running on facebook thanks to Victoria. Log on and share any stories that you may have. Ask a FCSIFE member about this exciting project.

AMARO'S ARMY---------------

Visit Firstcoastnews.com/videos to watch Amaro's Army videos. Enter Amaro's Army into the video search section. Watch the segments and learn manageable ways to save money in your everyday activities. Don't forget to rate the segments!

THE LEGACY GOES GREEN--------------

Stop by the Flagler's Legacy and check out how it is "going green." Thanks Kacey for all of your work!

THE ARC---------------

Our friends from The Arc came to Markland yesterday bringing samples of their new menu items. FCSIFE and The Arc brainstormed ideas for menu changes and name ideas. The meetings was a real success and everything is really coming along.

Thank You for you're support!

Angie Vecchioni
FCSIFE Treasurer
SIFETreasurer@flagler.edu

UPDATE

2008-11-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

I'd like to start out this post with GREENOVATORS!

I strongly encourage all students: College, High school, and Middle school to take part in this great event!

Entries are not limited to only students; anyone from the campus or community can participate! Team entries are also encouraged. If you want an entry form or have any questions please e-mail Greennovators@flagler.edu. Product entries must be turned in by December 1st and a winner will be announced December 5th.

Being creative = $500 in prize money! $$

Please encourage friends, family, and students to participate and look for Greenovators flyers around town and in your inbox!
___________________________________________________

FCSIFE and Flagler College was fortunate enough to have Mr. Jack Kahl visit our campus for the first time this week. Mr. Kahl was the creator of Duck® Duct Tape and transformed Manco, Inc. into a leading global consumer products company.

Tuesday: A reception was held in Markland House in Jack Kahl's honor. Faculty and students gathered to meet Mr. Kahl in person and learn from his business experience.

Wednesday: A luncheon was held followed by a lecture series given by Mr. Kahl in the Flagler Room.

Jack Kahl provided great insight into the business philosophy that enhanced his success and intrigued Flagler's business students with his many stories about Walmart founder Sam Walton.

A big thanks to Mr. Jack Kahl for giving Flagler College his time.
_____________________________________________________

Our Ethics ideas are developing into some pretty exciting projects. For updates, look to the BAB/Alumni newsletter.

Ethics meetings will be held Friday at 3 and 4 pm in Markland.
_____________________________________________________

Finally, THANK YOU Alvin and Donna for having the team over for a "Thanksgiving" dinner. Everyone really appreciates it and had a great time.

Thank you for supporting FCSIFE,

Angie Vecchioni
FCSIFE Treasurer
SIFETreasurer@flagler.edu

Update!

2008-11-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

Everyone has worked very hard this week to prepare for our two events: The Avant Garbage Eco Art Show and leadership training with Bob Kolenda.

UPDATES:

The Art Show was held this Friday from 6pm-8pm on the West Lawn in conjunction with the first Friday Art Walk. The show included 50-60 pieces from various artists.

Leadership training with Bob Kolenda was held in Kenan from 8am-3pm on Saturday.
Former SIFE members Jessica Minch and Amy Wares threw an Alumni sponsored party for SIFE for everyone to meet and get to know each other after the training.

Our new team leadership position of Team Administrator has now been filled. Congratulations to Stevie Schenk!

A detailed update letter will be sent to the Business Advisory Board and Alumni. If you are not receiving anything and are interested in getting monthly updates from the team, e-mail Jessica Welch at SIFEPresident@flagler.edu . All details about our ethics project which were brainstormed at the BAB meeting will be included in the letter.

CHANGES:

Dates have changed for our Greenovators project.
Entry forms are now due on November 12th
Designs and prototypes are due December 1st
Judging will be held on December 5th
Prize=$500!

A Rosa Loves party will be held in conjunction with Greenovators on the West Lawn on December 5th in order to launch SIFE's "Simple Machine" bike project.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me at SIFETreasurer@flagler.edu

Angie Vecchioni
Sife Treasurer

FCSIFE Updates!

2008-10-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Business Advisory Board meeting on October 15th was a success! Our BAB were really a big help when it came to brainstorming for ethics projects. We gathered so many great ideas that touched so many different areas of the community. Thank you to everyone who came that evening. We don't know what we would do without you!

The SIFE Walgreen's Training Conference was also held last week (Saturday 18th) at the UNF campus. The conference was full of a lot of new information and ideas for both new and veteran SIFErs. We had the opportunity to learn about the new judging criteria, team sustainability, and SIFE scholarships. Our Sam Waltons Fellows were also able to attend an advisor meeting. During the Conference we were able to interact with various SIFE teams from Florida and Georgia, share experiences and network. Business leaders from SIFE sponsor companies also attended and were there to share their experiences and answer any resume or interview questions that we had. Overall it was a really fun and informative day.

Presentation Team Auditions!

I would like to send a BIG congratulations to our new 2008-2009 presentation team:

Kameron Lapp
Stevie Schenk
Alyssa Murfey
Jaclyn Wilmers
Katherine Bagget
Jessica Welch

Everyone did a fantastic job with their auditions and we really have a great team to work with.

Thank you to all of those to came and sat as judges for the auditions

Coming Up:

Bob Kolenda- November 8th, 8am-3pm

>We'll be watching 12 O'clock high and discussing leadership and teamwork based upon the movie.

Avant Garbage Eco Art Show- November 7th

Greenovators

Thank you everyone for supporting SIFE!

Angie Vecchioni

FCSIFE Treasurer

SIFETreasurer@flagler.edu

Project updates from a few of FCSIFE’s project leaders…

2008-10-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

A Bike is a Simple Machine…

Rosa Loves and FCSIFE are combining forces to give independence to community members of the St. Augustine area. Rosa Loves is a local non-profit t-shirt business that uses art and creativity to foster hope and encouragement through the aid of apparel. Each t-shirt is designed for a specific project; the proceeds from the t-shirts go to benefit that cause. Rosa Loves and FCSIFE's new project is directed to our local community. By commissioning recycled and used bikes to people who stand to gain independence and grow their economic opportunity.

FCSIFE's current job is to create info-packets to be dispersed into the community. Mike Fretto will be creating surveys to place with the info-packets. The survey is to better asses where the need is within the community. The info-packets will describe the process of receiving and fixing a bike and then giving the bike to the community member in need.
-Hannah Garner, SIFEVicePresident@flagler.edu

ARC Sandwich Shop…

ARC's Sandwich shop is rolling along really well. The Committee has narrowed down the name to five favorites and the official name will be chosen at the next meeting. We have been working hard on compiling menu options from competitors and we're starting to put together sandwich ideas that will make our lunch options unique (or at least really yummy!). ARC clients have been sharing their messages & thoughts and the business plan is beginning to take shape. We've set a goal to have the first deliveries start in January.
-Michelle Santorelli, SIFEHistorian@flagler.edu

Flagler’s Legacy Goes Green…

Flagler College Legacy on St. George St. is undergoing construction to enhance its natural resources. The Legacy, although very careful with expenses already, is going through an updating process to perform at its highest level of efficiency in an effort protect the environment. From changing light bulbs to tinting the windows, the Legacy will be going green to protect the environment, and cut the cost of operations. Hopefully, we can spread the good news of Gone Green to the rest of the community.
-Kacey Helbig, KHelbig@flagler.edu

The Avant Garbage Eco Art Show…

This is the third year Flagler College’s SIFE team is doing the Avant Garbage Eco Art Show. This year it will be held on November 7th in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk. The art show challenges St. Augustine community members and Flagler College students to turn their trash into art and draw attention to the importance of environment conservation. All artwork submitted must be made primarily out of re-used materials. Along with the art show, we will be holding a silent auction with any art that the artists are willing to donate. All profits from the auction will go to a community program/organization in need.
-Sheila Acharya, SIFESecretary@flagler.edu

Get SIFEd!

2008-10-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

FCSIFE has been busy getting our projects underway as well as preparing early for completion which will be held in Orlando in late March. At this past Wednesday’s general meeting Jessica Minch, former FCSIFE President and this year’s Miss Florida, spoke to the team about preparing for competition and auditioning for the competition’s presentation team.

Students from Flagler’s Reality Programming class, which is spearheading the Ken Amaro/Amaro’s Army project attended this past Wednesday’s general meeting and held auditions for an online spokesperson who will represent Amaro’s Army and introduce each program segment to online viewers. I’m excited to announce that Kameron Lapp was chosen as the spokesperson for this year’s Amaro’s Army program. Amaro’s Army segments can be seen twice a month on First Coast News, Jacksonville’s ABC/NCB affiliate. To view episodes online please go to http://www.firstcoastnews.com/video/default.aspx and type in Amaro’s Army under the video search box to see all of our videos and online segments.

The team is getting ready for a busy, but hopefully fruitful October with numerous upcoming projects and events. All of our events family friendly and open to the public and I strongly encourage you attend if you are available.

I’m proud to announce that this Saturday, October 11, 2008 will be our annual Kids’ Marketplace. The market will run from 11:00-3:00 at Saint Francis Field in conjunction with the eleventh annual Saint Augustine Greek Festival. Since this is the first year we are working with the Greek Festival we were limited to the number of students we could bring, we have twenty-five students signed-up to attend. Our project leaders for this program, Amanda Cassella and Sierra Rubright, have done a spectacular job preparing for this event. We hope to see you there!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 FCSIFE will be working with Rosa Loves for their second Anniversary Party at Café Eleven. The event will run all evening and will have some of Rosa Loves’ newest t-shirts which will be fundraising for current projects, including the Saint Augustine Transportation Project (AKA the Bicycle Project) co-sponsored by FCSIFE.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 FCSIFE will hold our first Business Advisory Board (BAB) meeting for the semester. The event will be held in Markland from 5:00 to 7:00, come and go as necessary. The primary focus of the evening will be brainstorming an ethics project which FCSIFE will organize and host second semester.

Saturday, October 18, 2008 FCSIFE will attend the annual Walgreens Training Conference sponsored by SIFE headquarters at the University of North Florida (UNF). This all-day event is an opportunity for FCSIFE to meet and work with SIFE teams throughout Florida and Georgia, as well as, business leaders throughout North Florida. The primary goal of the event is to bring teams together through team-building activities and to discuss the purpose and focus of SIFE.

We will be hosting auditions for our presentation team at our general meeting on Wednesday, October 22, 2008. The auditions will be a short monologue and a brief question and answer period in an effort to choose a dynamic group to represent Flagler College and FCSIFE at our annual competition(s).

We Are Currently Working On:
Legacy Goes Green, complete implementation by mid-October/November
Avant Garbage Eco Art Show, November 7th
Greennovators, November 14-20th
West Augustine Factory
ARC Sandwich Shop, January 1st
Rosa Loves, Business Expansion
Rosa Loves, Bicycle Project

As always if you have any questions or suggestions we would love to hear from you!

Thank you,

Jessica Welch, SIFEPresident@flagler.edu

Hannah Garner, SIFEVicePresident@flagler.edu

FCSIFE Updates

2008-09-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Our projects have been going extremely well, we will be having the following meetings this week:

MONDAY- At 2pm we will be having a meeting with Mike Fretto who works for Rosa Loves. We'll be discussing idea's for our SIFE T-shirts and our upcoming Rosa Loves projects. It'll be in Markland, so come by if you're interested.

TUESDAY- Holly Hill speaks about Life After College. Her speech will be at 7pm in the Flagler Room. Her speeches are awesome, so it's definitely recommended you come to hear her!

WEDNESDAY- Flagler's 40th Anniversary Party. It should be a really exciting day so make sure to stop by. Volunteers need to make sure they are there for whatever time you signed up for. Also, general meeting at 6pm.

If you haven't already, don't forget to friend the Legacy on Facebook.

I will be updating the blog with further details about each project as well as an events calendar in the future.

Officers for this year!
President-Jessica Welch
Vice President- Hannah Garner
Co-Secretaries- Sheila Acharya & Katherine Baggett
Treasurer- Angie Vecchioni
Co-Media Relations Officers- Alicia Abbott & Amanda Cassella
Team Historian- Michelle Santorelli

We're Off To A Great Start

2008-09-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

There is a lot going on with FCSIFE! Yesterday Donna, Barry, Holly, Liz, and I met with Mike from Rosa Loves. Rosa Loves is a t-shirt business which sells shirts in support of various causes around the world. The profits from shirt sales are given to the people affected by whatever problem the shirt is dedicated to—the shirt designs are phenomenal and the causes truly heartwarming. Rosa Loves is extremely popular around St. Augustine and Flagler not only because the founders are Flagler Alumni but also because their shirts pull at your heartstrings. Mike came to FCSIFE wanting to expand the Rosa Loves business outside St. Augustine throughout the United States.

FCSIFE will be working on a few different projects with Rosa Loves aimed at not only their projects but also expanding their business which is in the process of becoming a 501c3 non-profit organization. I will be posting more in the near future as we flush out our ideas and target how we will be helping Rosa Loves. If you’d like more information on Rosa Loves I encourage you to look at their website at: http://rosaloves.com/.

Yesterday also brought more big news to FCSIFE, we had our first general meeting last night in our new offices at Markland. We had 30 students attend including quite a few new students with even more e-mailing me about their desire to get involved in SIFE. I’m so excited about the team this year, everyone

I’m also excited to announce this year’s SIFE officers:

· Hannah Garner- Vice President, SIFEVicePresidentt@flagler.edu
· Sheila Acharya & Katherine Baggett- Co-Secretaries, SIFESecretary@flagler.edu
· Alicia Abbott & Amanda Cassella- Co-Media Relations Officers, SIFEPressSecretary@flagler.edu
· Michelle Santorelli-Team Historian, SIFEHistorian@flagler.edu
· We are still in the process of finding a Treasurer for this year.

As always, if you have any questions or ideas please feel free to let me know. I will continue to write as more information develops with each of our projects this year.

Thank you for your support of FCSIFE!

Jessica Welch
FCSIFE President
FCSIFEPresident@flagler.edu

A Great New Year!

2008-09-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since our last blog but I wanted to keep everyone updated on the happenings with FCSIFE . We are preparing for a fantastic new year moving forward with our projects and our team. We have some exciting new things to announce not the least of which are our new SIFE offices in Markland. With the acquisition of the Florida East Coast Railroad buildings many of the people working in Markland have moved leaving SIFE with new offices and a place to truly call our own. I’m confident that this new space will help our team both with meeting and projects.

This evening we also had our first team meeting for 2008-2009 with returning students to discuss the direction of FCSIFE this year both as a team and for our projects. Everyone seems very positive and excited about this year and the changes that we will be making to help FCSIFE grow and move forward with our projects and as a competitive team. Our team slogan for the year is “positive power,” with an upbeat attitude we can achieve anything we set out to do.

We will be recruiting new students at club night Thursday evening, although we’ve already been sought out and met with numerous students who are interested in joining SIFE this year.

As the year progresses I hope that you will continue to follow this blog and give us your ideas or opinions as we move forward with the team and our projects. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.

Always,
Jessica Welch
FCSIFE President
SIFEPresident@flagler.edu

It has been awhile!

2008-07-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

HELLO SIFERS!! Hope everyone has been enjoying a stress-free summer. With fall semester around the corner, I wanted to update everyone on what has been going on this summer and what is in store for the team this coming year.

Beginning Fall '08, SIFE criteria will include ECO Sustainability. The criteria is available at http://www.sife.org/connection_newsletter/072008_new_judging_criteria.html
Team building will be important this year. We want your true personality and passions to shine through!! CREATIVITY, UNITY AND PRODUCTIVITY- new vocab to know :)
There will be "How To" exercises for the team from Laura Stevenson on Event Planning and Requisition Fill-Out from Linda Strait
We NEED ideas for ethics event and projects... Start brainstorming!

Projects for '08-'09

Jack Kahl Innovative Inventor Contest - In November, Jack Kahl (Reinvented use of Duct [Duck] Tape) will come speak to college and we will have a contest leading up to his arrival in which he will judge.
Amaro's Army (great outlet for ALL projects)
Sandwich Shop Consulting for The Arc - A great community program wants our help in creating a delivery sandwich shop including menu creation, marketing materials, and money management. If interested this will be an awesome project to get involved in! The Arc's website: http://www.arcsj.org/
Revitalization of West Side - after the West Side Market was put to a halt, county officials and SIFE are determined to find a program to work and bring economic opportunity to the impoverished community.
Flagler's Legacy Education Packets/Curriculum - Currently working with The Legacy to create curriculum for school tour groups
Military Family - Meeting tomorrow with Bill Dudley on program ideas.
ECO Art Show - With the new added criteria, we can now use the show successfully in our presentations!
JR Partners - Cameron and Steven have both finished their 8 or 10 week program. We now need more grants to continue the success of the program!
Kids' Marketplace

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I can't wait to see you all!

Hannah Garner

Any questions?! Contact Jessica Welch at JWelch@Flagler.edu or Hannah Garner at HGarner@Flagler.edu

Happy Holidays!!!

2007-11-27T12:24:00.000-08:00

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

Welcome Back!

2007-10-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hello FCSIFErs!

I'm incredibly excited about this year! FCSIFE has been working hard and has come up with some great projects and improvements on existing projects...it's going to be amazing! We've been coming up with new ways to help the community through the Westside Market--our highlighted project from last year. Rebecca and I have also been working hard on Kids' Marketplace, which is scheduled to take place Saturday November 17th.--it's night of lights so if you're in the area stop by. In addition to the exciting events we have planned, FCSIFE has numerous new students this year, all of whom have jumped into event planning and leadership roles.

FCSIFE attended the Wal-Greens training conference two weekends ago and everyone seems excited and energized to begin working toward a successful year. I can't wait to see what innovative ideas we are able to pull off! See you at regionals in Orlando!!!

-Jessica Welch-

FCSIFE CO-Treasurer 2007-2008

CRITERIA!!

2007-08-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

To get our year started off right, I thought we should all look at the criteria since these are the questions that should guide our projects throughout the year!

How effectively did the SIFE team measure and demonstrate that it created economic opportunity by helping others:

1. Understand how a market based economic system operates?
2. Acquire the education and skills training needed to succeed in a dynamic, competitive, global economy?
3. Learn how to succeed as an entrepreneur and/or improve an existing business?
4. Develop the personal financial management skills necessary to achieve financial independence?
5. Understand that the long-term success and prosperity of a market economy, businesses and individuals is dependent on ethical business practices?

6. How successfully did the team develop and execute a strategy to ensure the long-term sustainability of their team and educational programs?

Looking forward to an INCREDIBLE year!

Julie Hirshan
FCSIFE President
jhirshan@flagler.edu

SIFE USA National Expo 2008 & 2009

2007-06-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

2008 SIFE USA National Exposition
May 13-15
Chicago, IL
McCormick Place Convention Center

2009 SIFE USA National Exposition
May 10-12
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Convention Center

Mark Your Calendars!

Julie Hirshan
FCSIFE President
jhirshan@flagler.edu

Abaco Islands Project

2007-05-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest news from Donna:

SIFE is beginning again…..!!! Welcome to newcomers on our list….

Some exciting news…Barry, Stephanie, Samantha Peacock and I are off to the Abaco islands in July to set up a FCSIFE program. It will involve creating a retail, wholesale business with the islanders and establishing a Market. It also may involve setting up training programs to help the residents learn service trades so they can obtain jobs in the new hotels and resorts that are being planned for the islands. Shuffle if you’re interested in working with us on this project, let us know. Julie has an opportunity to go to Ghania this summer to work in an orphanage for two weeks. She is going to do a SIFE program there…so we will have the beginning of some global influence.

I hope everyone is having a great summer. We are looking forward to a year that is fun, successful and beneficial to the people and communities that we help.

My best,

Donna

In addition, the dates are out for the annual Walgreens Training Conference. On October 6, our Regional Conference is at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Don't forget the SIFE World Cup 2007 - October 10 through 12 in New York, New York.

Hope everyone's summer is going well so far!!

Julie Hirshan
FCSIFE President
jhirshan@flagler.edu

NATIONALS PHOTOS

2007-05-18T23:44:00.001-07:00

In addition to all the thousands of photos that were taken by all our FCSIFE members in Dallas, SIFE has posted their official photos on gosife.com-- you should go check it out! There are a BUNCH of FCSIFE pictures, I checked!

Julie Hirshan
FCSIFE President
jhirshan@flagler.edu

blast from the past

2007-05-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

I found these albums in a Google Alert for FCSIFE... enjoy :)

Click to see Pre-Nationals pictures.

Click to see the "SIFE Nationals" Album.

Click to see more Nationals pictures.

Click to see even more Nationals pictures.

Click to see pictures from the Greenbriar trip.

Julie Hirshan
FCSIFE President
jhirshan@flagler.edu

SIFE Grant Notification

2007-05-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here's an email that Jessica Welch forwarded to me from SIFE HQ, informing us that we have been selected for the "I Choose!" grant for the 2007-2008 school year! Jessica wrote the initial proposal for the grant, which will be used to expand the Foster Care Consumer Carpentry and The Game of Life & Debt programs next year, by providing internships for local high school-aged foster children at Flagler's Legacy, as well as taking them on day trips and introducing them to business leaders around the community. We are very lucky to have this opportunity!! The email reads as follows-

Dear SIFE team,

Congratulations, your team has been selected to receive one of fifty 2007-2008 “I CHOOSE!” grants.

The next step for your SIFE team will be to submit a full grant proposal by May 25, 2007.

Attached you will find the grant proposal form. As you work to answer the grant questions, please pay close attention to the grant requirements which are also attached. Completed proposals must be emailed to aswenka@sife.org by May 25, 2007.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Congratulations again!

Adam Swenka
Associate Director- Alumni & Programs, SIFE
SIFE Alumnus

1959 East Kerr
Springfield, MO USA 65803
Office: 800-677-7433 ext. 218
Cellular: 417-894-0381
Fax: 417-831-7962
aswenka@sife.org
www.sife.org

"SIFE is a meaningful, long-term cause that companies can get excited about."
-SIFE Donor

This indicates a good start to a good year!!

Julie Hirshan
FCSIFE President
jhirshan@flagler.edu

Advice from a past president

2007-05-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

I received this email from Jess Minch, FCSIFE Co-President 2004-2006. It inspires me, and I hope it will inspire you, too :)

YOU HAVE TO THINK BIG TO BE BIG

High achievement always takes place
in the framework of high expectation.
You'll always hit what you aim for in the long run.
So why not aim high?

If you can dream it, you can do it.
If you don't have a dream,
how are you going to make it come true?

Have the courage to follow your dreams.
It's the first step towards attaining your destiny.

The empire of your future resides in your mind.
Big thinking precedes big achievement.

~THE DAILY GURU

Hope everyone's having a great summer!!
-Julie

National Exposition 2007 in Dallas, TX

2007-05-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

Howdy, SIFErs!
I am so incredibly proud of ALL of you! We accomplished a great deal in a short period of time!

I am just going to share some highlights from our trip to Dallas.

Presentation Team-
Andrew Rogers, graduate, Communication
Michael Charneco, graduate, Graphic Design
Julie Hirshan, rising junior, Communication
Jamie Alvarez, rising junior, Communication
Rebecca Shields, rising junior, Graphic Design

Tech Team-
Andy Goyet, rising senior, Business Administration
Stephanie Slankard, rising junior, Liberal Arts
Renee Chiaverini, rising sophomore, Communication

Support Staff-
Jackie Malambri, rising senior, BFA
Jessica Welch, rising sophomore, Business Administration
Hannah Garner, rising sophomore, Business Administration
Sheila Acharya, rising sophomore, Business Administration

We qualified for top 20!!

We OWNED Individual Topics!!

Our incredible Sam Walton Fellow got the recognition that she deserves!!

All in all, Nationals was a GREAT SUCCESS!!

I look forward to next year!! We are going to rock the HOUSE!