Blog

May 4,

SIFE Sendoff Party

Wed, 04 May 2011 13:44:25 GMT

On Monday, Marian Killpack and her team put together a GU SIFE sendoff party for our team. This party was designed to celebrate our success and showcase our Nationals presentation to the rest of the school. We had a great turnout and we are very excited to head to Nationals next week in Minneapolis. Please let us know if you are wanting to come to Nationals as a part of our team so we can sign you up with SIFE USA. For those of you that are coming, we can't wait to see you!

Apr 19,

Roundtable

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:07:04 GMT

Last week our SIFE team hosted the 20th Annual Entrepreneurial Roundtable. It was great with speakers like Duane Sandage and other very successful entrepreneurs. The event was coordinated by several people, a big thanks to Jan Gray, Justin Akers and Jeff McElroy. The events team planned the event and executed the day seamlessly. Graceland students were fortunate enough to hear business story after story from real life entrepreneurs who have built their own companies. The presentation team also shared our teams story over lunch which was a humbling experience for all in attendance.

Apr 13,

Stock Market

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:54:55 GMT

The Stock Market Simulation team has just recently finished teaching sessions in the classrooms of Leon, Mount Ayr, and Wayne High Schools. Our last teaching session in each class emphasized the importance of opening 529 college savings plans to the students. The students of each class were sent home with a brochure on a 529 plan and how to open one either on the web or through a broker nearby. Simulation day on April the 20th is right around the corner and the team will be very busy over the week by creating decorations, making name-tags, learning how to run the simulation system etc. The students who come with proof of opening a 529 college savings plan the day of the simulation will be entered in a drawing to win a new touch ipod nano! We are hoping to see great results considering this awesome prize. Looking forward to the simulation! -Brady

Apr 12,

Doing Good

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:53:41 GMT

The GU SIFE Doing good team is staying connected with the Lamoni food pantry via Gwen Simpson. We will be visiting the pantry this Thursday and have helped unload food there twice. The Doing Good teamg will also be starting a new set of courses soon.

Apr 5,

Regionals

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:06:04 GMT

For those of you that have not heard, Graceland SIFE is a Regional Champion. We will be heading to Minneapolis, MN in May and we would love your support for those that care to join us.

Apr 4,

Kids Bank

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:25:30 GMT

The Graceland University SIFE Kids Bank team is excited to enter into Mt Ayr's 5th grade classroom for the second year in a row, starting April 12th. The team will teach three lessons all lead by first year team member, Garrett Shank. The account deadline to open new accounts will be April 28th. Unfortunately, the team will not be able to host a scholarship party for the newly opened account holders and essay writers; however, students will still receive a $400 scholarship to GU. The students will only be required to write an essay if the student already has a bank account. The SIFE team helps students who open new accounts start with $20, $10 donated by the bank and $10 donated by GU SIFE. If student already has an account, the GU SIFE team donates $10 to the existing account. We are excited about the progress of this project and hope to have lots of new accounts opened.

Mar 21,

Regionals

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:04:07 GMT

ONE WEEK UNTIL REGIONALS!

Mar 16,

HealthEd Connect

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:13:11 GMT

Happy Spring Break! Today I was fortunate enough to have lunch with Jac and Sherri Kirkpatrick of HealthEd Connect. We had a wonderful lunch filled with conversation and laughter. We were able to exchange pictures and information about Africa. Jac and Sherri informed me of the operation with the IGA project. It seems that the chairman of one of the committees abused his power and now the committee has decided to replace that person. In the other committee, the chairman was not acting in a timely manner for the project so they have decided to replace him as well. We are so excited to hear these groups are self governing. The project has also been generating income. Although Jac and Sherri did not have an exact number we were excited to hear the bikes are being utilized. We hope to hear an amount soon. Regionals is only a short time away so all the information we received will be very useful. We look forward to telling you more about our competition preparation.

Mar 15,

Kid's Bank

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:47:00 GMT

The Kids Bank Team is excited to announce the new accounts opened by students at Central-Decatur Elementary School. The 5th grade students opened accounts at Great Western Bank and Farmers Bank of Northern Missouri. We also had several students who had existing accounts. Last year in Leon we only partnered with one bank and there weren't any accounts open. However this year we partnered with two banks and had six new accounts open! Now that Kids Bank in Leon is done, we have started our lessons for JA Biztown with the 6th graders at Lamoni. On Thursday the 6th graders became JA Biztown citizens by taking the JA Biztown Pledge and registering to vote! The Kids Bank Team would like to thank the DEKKO Committee for helping us financially with our project. Thank you!

Mar 9,

Leadership Council

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:43:51 GMT

Hello fellow supporters of GU SIFE! We are excited to annouce that our SIFE presentation team for 2011 have been chosen: Loralyn Heath Matthew Waite Taylor Johnson Kasy Kiarash Ian Christenson Anna Bichiashbili Alternates: Jennifer Abraham Brandon Bennett As a SIFE team we have a lot of talent that we will be using for furture years in the area of presentations skills. We thank all those who tried out, and we are excited to be enterting competition season. The Leadership Council has come up with a different format for our presentation this year, we won't share it with you now, but we think you will enjoy it. The LC is currently in the process of writing the script, and those who are visually capable on the team are working on the annual report, and video for this years competition. We are excited as we look towards the future with the new criterion and format of our SIFE team as a whole. Please continue to look for new blogs from the different projects, as well as updates from the team!

Mar 8,

Stock Market Simulation

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:25:43 GMT

This week will conculde our teaching at Central Decatur High School for the third year in a row. The students are very excited to participate in the simulation, which will be held at Graceland University on April 20th, from 10am-1pm. We would like to invite any supporters of the Graceland SIFE team to come watch and enjoy the excitement of the stock market. We also will be starting our teaching at Wayne High School on Thursday, March 3rd. We are deepening our impact of project this year by adding involvement with the parents. The students will be learning about College Savings Accounts, or 529 plans in class, and then will have an opportunity to open a 529 plan with their parents and become eligible for a prize drawing at the Stock Market Simulation. We also are in the planning stages of the NYSE trip for the second year in a row. Everyone is very excited for the opportunity, and we will potentially be able to send 4-5 of our GU SIFE Stock Market team along to join the experience. Please stay tuned for more updates as we recieve them! ~Loralyn

Feb 22,

Presentation Tryouts

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:12:41 GMT

Greetings. Last Thursday and Friday, our team had callbacks for presentation team. For those of you who do not know, presentation team is the group of individuals that tells our story to the judges at competition. We had 14 people show up for callbacks and have a lot of raw talent. We anticipate we will know who has been selected by this week. As soon as the team knows, we will update all of you. On a similar note, the leadership council has been discussing ideas for the script and will begin writing the script very soon. We are excited about building new team members in the video and annual report areas. We have a few individuals who are very ready and eager to get started. Check back soon to hear who made the presentation team and about all our projects.

Feb 16,

Stock Market Challenge

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:34:47 GMT

The Stock Market Team just finished teaching in Mount Ayr last week which proved to be an awesome experience. Different team members attended each day (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) of last week, and almost everyone on our team was exposed to how the class sessions work. The high school students seemed to enjoy the lessons, and took a lot away from them as well. The differences between the pre and post tests that we gave them were significant for almost every student. They are all of course very excited about the New York trip as well, and so is our team. We are doing our best to pull this trip off again, as it is a great opportunity for any high school student/sife team member to see the real New York Stock Exchange. We've also added two new schools to our list this year including Wayne High School and Central Decatur. Expanding this project to as many surrounding schools as possible was one of our main goals from a year ago. This week is a preparation week, and next week we will be in Central Decatur teaching more high school kids about the stock market! -Brady Co/Project Manager Stock Market

Feb 15,

Spring Semester

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:17:12 GMT

This semester our SIFE team has started off with a bang. A lot of projects have really taken off this semester and we are really excited about them. Each of the teams will be blogging soon about their great success so I won't spoil it for you. We have had our first presentation team tryout and are having call backs on Thursday and Friday. We are very excited to see everyone's talent again and put a team together. As soon as I find out the presentation team, I will let all of you know. Leadership Council met last week to begin working on the script. We made some progress in the right direction but are still working to find the proper format for the presentation. For those of you that are not aware, the SIFE criteria was consolidated into one criterion this year so we are having to start our presentation from scratch which we are pretty excited to do. This may be a scary task for some but our leadership council is very excited about the opportunity. We will continue to keep you updated on the script writing process.

Jan 27,

We're Home

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:29:48 GMT

I hope you weren't waiting for a blog to hear we were home safely. I'm very sorry for waiting so long to let everyone know we made it. We had a slight delay in D.C. but had no major problems other than that. Our semester is now in session and we're getting on the road with our projects. We are continuing many of our projects from last semester and are very excited about the team we have to work with. Keep checking back with us to hear about our projects.

Jan 18,

Africa

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:28:03 GMT

Greetings! We only have a small update for you, as we are mainly just working on our workshop and enjoying Africa. We have completed two days of our workshop in Chingola and things have been going well so far. We have over 30 participants so we are very happy about the increase in numbers. We have two days left in our workshop and cannot wait to present the bikes to the group. We are done with our workshop every day by 1 P.M. our time so if anyone would like to call we would love to talk. Please check back with us to hear more about our adventures. T.I.A. Waka Waka

Jan 15,

Africa

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:56:59 GMT

Muli Shani ("How are you?" in Bimba) Our workshop in Ndola/Chipulukusu is now complete. Overall, the workshop was a success. We presented the group with two bicycles and one cart. There was a lot excitement in the community about their new project. Friday night after the workshop, we were invited to have dinner at Gershom's (the pastor) home. We had a lovely meal and returned home to pack our things and celebrate Jac's birthday. Michelle arranged for us to have some cake and ice cream (African style), which we were very excited about. After dinner the six of us sat around and played games. Rhonda fell out of her chair because of the intensity of our games. We laughed for nearly 10 minutes. This morning we had breakfast and were greeted by an 18 passenger van. I know you're thinking of a nice big fan but we were very cramped. All our luggage nearly came crashing down on Taylor, Margaret and me quite a few times on our way. We arrived in Chingola around 2:30 and have settled into our guest house. Tomorrow we will be going to church in the village. After church we will be relaxing and preparing to begin another workshop. Check back to hear more about our adventure. T.I.A. Waka Waka.

Jan 13,

Africa

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:20:53 GMT

Whelp, I almost got pick pocketed as we were walking to the internet cafe by two small children no older than 12. We made it here safely though thanks to our guide, Patrick, and Michelle, who got called by a few choice words in the process. I'm so excited to tell you about how successfully the workshop is going. We have now completed three very good days and are very excited for tomorrow. We have almost all decisions made as far as the bicycle business is concerned and we are about to be up and running. The group we are working with has decided that they would like two bicycles and one cart because they feel this would be best for their community. They have also made nominations for the committee that will oversee the project and come up with a name. Hopefully, with the training the SIFE team has provided them they can run a successful business and eventually expand. After our workshop today, we went with a few of the Kafwa (health care workers) to visit a few of their clients. It was so sad to see the how HIV/AIDS was affecting their community. It was an emotional experience for us and we'd love to tell you more about it when we return. We are very excited to share all our wonderful stories with you once we return. Keep checking back to hear more. T.I.A. Waka Waka

Jan 10,

Africa

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:46:13 GMT

Yesterday, we started our day by attending church. Although we didn't know a lot of what was going on because it mostly in Bimba (the native language) we really enjoyed participating in what we could. After church we were invited to have lunch with on of the caregivers in the village. We were introduced to the traditional African meal of sheema. As far as I can tell everyone really enjoyed it because we also had it for dinner and everyone dove in. Today was the first day of training. A mistranslation occurred in church yesterday so all the participants thought they could participate in both trainings. Everyone had signed up to do the Child Support Specialist training and we unfortunately did not have anyone sign up for our training. Once we figured out the problem we found a way to reconcile it. Jac spoke with the group and we will begin our training with some of the participants in the CSS training as well as some new members from the community. We are very excited to see how everything goes. We will be updating you on what happens as soon as possible. Keep checking back please. T.I.A. Waka Waka.

Jan 8,

Africa

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 15:19:53 GMT

We finally have internet! Sorry it has taken so long for us to update you on our status. So here is the day by day breakdown since we last updated. Thursday We went to Victoria Falls which was beautiful. After viewing the falls, Jac took a few of us on a hike down mountain (not sure if that's the right word for it but you get the idea)while the others stayed at the top for some shopping. On the way back up the mountain Taylor and Matt had an altercation with a baboon. Taylor decided to entice it with some candy and the baboon ended up trying to steal Matt's bag. It's a good story now because everyone is safe but it could have ended bad. After the falls we all returned to Jollyboys so Taylor, Jac, Cherry, Michelle and me (Jen) could pack our bags. We took our flight to Lusaka in order to get some prep work done before the rest of the team arrived. The rest of the team got the privilege of staying behind at Jollyboys and enjoying some relaxing time. Friday The team for Lusaka set out in order to find the right bikes for our project. First we visited World Bicycle Relief, which is a non-profit that works with giving bikes to those in need to help them generate income. After getting a lot of valuable information from World Bicycle Relief we headed to Zambikes. Zambikes picked us up and took us to view their facilities and discuss options for bikes we could get as well as everything they offer. We decided it would be best to go with Zambikes. We ended up deciding to order four bikes, two for each village, for sure and we are waiting to talk to those in the villages before we decide what else we think is necessary to order. We want to ensure the community has a need for everything we might possibly provide. We were very happy with the decision we made and are looking forward to how the communities will react to our decisions. The rest of the team took a bus from Livingstone to Lusaka so in the afternoon we met up with them at the hotel. The SIFE team enjoyed a night of conversation and laughter. Today (Saturday) Another bus ride for everyone. We departed from Lusaka at 8:30 this morning and arrived in Ndola around 1:00. From there we got settled into our new home for the next week and grabbed some lunch/dinner. We happened to come across an internet cafe and we able to give you an update on our progress. We're not sure when our next update will be but please continue to check back with us. We are looking forward to being in the village this week and can't wait to share with you any updates we may have. T.I.A. Waka Waka

Jan 5,

Africa

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:00:50 GMT

Greetings from Livingstone. We started our day out this morning with a flight from South Africa to Livingstone. We are staying at Jollyboys, which for those of you that kept up with the trip last year it's one of the same places. Once we got settled in our rooms, we hit the town. First we exchanged money and then went shopping. We got some beautiful things. Taylor and I (Jen) decided to head back early and lay by the pool. The weather is beautiful. Sorry for those of you in cold weather. It's about 90 degrees here. Tomorrow Taylor and I head with Jac, Cherry and Michelle to Lusaka by plane to lay some ground work and the rest of the group will join us on Friday. Before we leave we are going to see one of the seven wonders of the world, Victoria Falls. We're very excited about the events ahead. Check back to hear more about our trip. T.I.A. Waka Waka

Jan 4,

Africa

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:31:14 GMT

We have officially made it to South Africa! It was a long 19 hour flight with screaming babies and not too much sleep but we are all very happy to be here. We are 8 hours ahead of those of you in the Midwest so these blogs will seem to be posted at all hours of the night. Tomorrow we are flying to Livingstone, Zambia and doing some tourist things. We are very excited about the adventures ahead. Keep checking back to hear more about our excursion. T.I.A. Waka Waka

Jan 3,

Africa

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:08:28 GMT

We're about to head out of the Kansas City Airport. We will be meeting Cherry, Michelle and Kelsey in Washington DC and then off to South Africa. We're very excited about the adventures ahead. Check back to hear more about our trip. Waka Waka.

Jan 3,

Africa

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 03:26:35 GMT

Today we met at Jac and Sherri's for our adventure to begin. We enjoyed a some chili and ice cream and discussed the trip ahead. We fly out of Kansas City and arrive in Washington DC tomorrow and shortly after head to South Africa. We will try to update the blog every day so please check back with us to see how we are doing.

Dec 15,

Kid's Bank

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:32:24 GMT

After finishing our work in the Lamoni 5th grade classroom, we had 6 new accounts opened and were able to give away $6400 in scholarships. At the pizza party we hosted, six parents filled out a survey letting us know that they had opened an account for sibling when opening an account for their 5th graders. We are so happy the parents understand the importance of savings! Kids Bank has also been working with Christmas for Kids. In downtown Lamoni, the old Tailor Threads has become the Family Christmas Store! On Friday, Dec. 3 the Kids Bank team helped the students look for some ideas about gifts for each person in the family. This week Lamoni students are shopping in the store with the Kids Bank and other SIFE team members asn the "elves" helping the kids find the perfect gift and wrapping presents. We are so happy to help the Lamoni community feel the Christmas Spirit and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Dec 7,

SIFE class

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:51:53 GMT

This week in SIFE class we decided that it was time to change things up a little. Justin sent out an e-mail telling everyone to meet in the MSC main-room for SIFE class last Wednesday. The team showed up to discover dodgeballs and a court made out of duck-tape awaiting them. The team numbered off and the games began. It was quit the sight to have red balls flying through the air, combined with the shrieks of excitement coupled with laughter, and certain members cowering in the back avoiding the projectiles. It was pretty evident who was a team player. Overall it was definitely a day for team building and I'd say the GU SIFE team is better for it.

Dec 3,

New Leadership Council

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:27:12 GMT

We are proud to announce that right before Thanksgiving break, we added two new members to our Leadership Council team: Taylor Johnson and Matt Waite. Taylor is a Junior from Des Moines, IA majoring in Communications with minors in Spanish and Psychology. Matt is a Junior from St. Louis, MO majoring in Biology and Chemistry. We are very excited to have them join Leadership Council and are looking forward to their unique perspective. We also have recently had our first Business Advisory Board conference call to update our BAB on our current projects, and to recieve feedback and advise on how to move forward. The Leadership Council has also been working through some ideas on how to improve our SIFE organization for next semester, on top of the list is adding more members to the team. We believe having new members on the team adds a lot. Check back to hear more about our projects.

Nov 30,

Stock Market Team

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:55:38 GMT

The Stock Market team is finishing up the semester by contact possible donors to support our project next semester. As a team we are still planning on taking students from local high schools to visit the New York stock Exchange in person. We have added Osceola High School, and North Harrison to our lists of schools we will be visiting in the spring. We will be starting our teaching sessions during winter term, and hopefully we will finish up with teaching by the first of March. We are very excited to be expanding this year. We will also be conducting a parent night where we will be talking with the parents about opening a 529 plan for their children, and our hope is to help those parents open up actual 529 plans on those parent nights. We are moving forward, and are looking ahead to next semester!

Nov 29,

Thanksgiving Break

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:13:36 GMT

Happy Thanksgiving! Our SIFE team has just returned from Thanksgiving Break and really enjoyed the time off. We are eager to get to a back to work on our projects and make some big things happen before then end of the semester. Our project teams will give you an update at the end of the semester to hear about all the great things they have done in the past 15 weeks. Check back with us soon.

Nov 16,

Local Efforts

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:41:26 GMT

Our SIFE team is very passionate about our local Lamoni Community and the Local Efforts team is devised for just that purpose. Local Efforts is anxious to work with any local business in town and is happy to help in anyway possible. Currently, we are working with the new Mexican Restaurant that is coming soon to Lamoni. We have combined our efforts with Graceland University's community outreach coordinator; Aaron Richards, as well SIFE's visual design and sustainability teams, in hopes to get the most successful results possible.

Nov 16, SIFE Tools

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:28:46 GMT

GU SIFE Tools

Nov 15,

Africa

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:20:26 GMT

The Africa team is getting geared up to head to Africa in a little over a month. Jac and Sherri Kirkpatrick, founders of HealthEd Connect, came up to meet with us and give us an overview of what we will be doing in Africa and what to expect. We are going to be working in two communities in Zambia to provide health training and income generating activity workshops. We have found that we are going to be providing bicycles and bicycle generators to these communities and teach them how to make it a profitable business. The team is very excited about working together. We think we have a very collaborative team and are very excited to spend the entire Winter Term together. Just a reminder of the team: Taylor Johnson Matt Waite Garrett Shank Rhonda Bradford Jen Abraham Margaret Clark Check back to hear more about our progress with the trip to Africa.

Nov 10,

Paintball

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:50:00 GMT

The SIFE team traveled to Tabortooth Paintball on October 10th to play the great sport that is paintball. There was an elite team of 12 Sifers who showed up ready to participate. The team played multiple scenarios where Justin Akers, the new SIFE advisor, was right there out on the field with students. It is good to see such leadership actively involved with the team's activities. Several people where tagged but at the end of the day everyone left the field smiling. The team cohesion and unity is one of the key success factors that drives the Graceland University SIFE team! Kirk Tabor

Nov 9,

"Doing Good"

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:10:27 GMT

Last week, the Doing Good team met again with Gwen Simpson who does a lot for the local food pantry. While we still have the idea of making the food pantry more sustainable, we are moving more towards helping the recipients of food develop skills that will lead to them being less dependent or not dependent at all on the food pantry. We plan to do this through classes which include general health, cooking, job preparation skills, environmental sustainability, computer use, and financial literacy. We are in the stages of developing the syllabi and curriculum and plan to implement the classes next semester. We are also looking into other initiatives such as a community garden and/or orchard.

Nov 2,

Kids Bank Lamoni

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:17:36 GMT

The Kids Bank Team has been hard at work seeting up for its upcoming desination, Lamoni 5th Grade. In preparation we have have been hosting "Kids Bank Parties" on Tuesday nights at 9:00 where the team can get some work done with music and snacks! The Kids Bank Team has gotten approval to receive DEKKO Funds to support our efforts in Osceola and Leon last spring. Thanks DEKKO! Our team is excited to partner with the banks in Lamoni for a 5th year; Bank of the West and American State Bank . Without bank participation, Kids Bank would not be the wonderful opportunity it is today!

Oct 28,

Stock Market

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:25:03 GMT

The stock market simulation team has developed a basic understanding of the past simulation project and sprung out ideas to mold the project to our desires. We have been working hard towards getting sponsors, so we can make the winning trip to New York bigger and better. We have also been working n getting other SIFE teams in the Kansas City area to partner with our project and we can expand our project to other parts of the nation. Our goal is to coordinate a larger stock market simulation with all of the schools involved in the spring, therefore, impacting more students, schools, parents, and lives. Our meetings have been running smoothly and we are excited to get into the Lamoni community as well as Mt. Ayr and Leon. We have just completed a proposal to send to major corporations to try to get their buy in, and sponsorship so we have plenty of money to work from when preparing to impact lives. Our team is excited about learning and teaching the basic principles in investing money and thrilled to see the end result of our project. Stock Market Simulation Team

Oct 27,

Winter Term 2011

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:19:19 GMT

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are pleased to announced those attending Winter Term 2011: Taylor Johnson Matt Waite Garrett Shank Rhonda Bradford Margaret Clark Jennifer Abraham This year for Winter Term, our team has decided to return to Zambia, Africa with HealthEd Connect. HealthEd Connect is a non-profit organization started and run by two of our business advisory board members, Jac and Sherri Kirkpatrick. Jac and Sherri have shared a wonderful project with us that we think will do great things for our team. Check back with us for more updates on Winter Term 2011.

Oct 22,

Updates

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 21:34:34 GMT

Currently the Graceland SIFE team is in the middle of the semester with all of our projects. Our Kids Bank project is starting to take off and going in to classrooms to teach. This is one of our legacy projects, and they are currently looking for other SIFE teams to partner with, who would take on this project them selves. Several of our projects are in contact with other SIFE teams and donor companies to help our projects along, take on our projects, and to help support what we are doing. We also have been doing several team building activities during SIFE class as well as outside of class such as a couple of weeks ago when we took a team field trip to Tabor Tooth Paintball in Lamoni. Some might say our team bonded pretty well on the field, and it gave a whole new perspective to the word team. The Graceland SIFE team is just starting to prepare for the winter term trip in which we will be returning back to Africa to work with Health Ed Connect for the second year in a row. Members of the SIFE team will be turning in applications to attend the winter term trip to Africa in January, and we will be taking 5-7 members. By returning to Africa again for the second year in a row, we hope to start a legacy project where we will be able to see long term results for many years to come. We are very excited for this project and adventure, and we are excited to start working with Jac and Sherri Kirkpatrick to plan the events for the trip. There are many exciting things happening in all of our projects thus far in the semester. Look for the return of the Edison project, and the Local Efforts team to be helping a local family open up a Mexican restaurant in Lamoni. It's been an exciting, and a good re-building year for our team, and we hope to have more exciting news for you in the weeks to come!

Oct 20,

The New Criterion

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:17:43 GMT

This fall our SIFE team has been busy! Our team traveled to the SIFE Training Conference at William Jewell College to learn about the new judging criterion SIFE USA has given the teams: Considering the revelevant economic, social, and environmental factors, which SIFE team most effectively empowered people in need by applying business and economic concepts and an entrepreneurial approach to improve their quailty of life and standard of living. This changes the way GU SIFE and other SIFE teams will choose and carry out their projects. In order for a project to meet the excellent standard on the judging sheet it must meet the following sentence: created a project that clearly provide a systematic, habitual, long-term change that will significantly improved the lives of the target audience members, has proven sustainable for multiple years, and has further solidified commitments from key stakeholders. This fall we have 7 projects we hope will achieve this. These projects include Kids Bank, Stock Market Simulation, Doing Good, Local Efforts, Events, Sustainability and Webpage/Visual Design Teams. We are excitied for the potenial for all our teams!

Oct 15,

LA

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:58:44 GMT

Hello, hello. For those of you that don't know I just returned from LA to watch the SIFE World Cup and attend the Chartis Credit Counseling Seminar. The Credit Counseling Seminar was very educational. It was wonderful to learn what great impacts other teams are having in their communities. I learned a lot of best practices from other teams and look forward to applying that information to our projects. The SIFE World Cup was amazing. I really enjoyed the experience of going and can now see what all the fuss our former SIFE members made about it. Congrats to Belmont SIFE for representing the United States and taking 3rd in the entire country. There were so many teams that had such wonderful projects. It's incredible to see the great impact SIFE is having all over the world. Today is the start of Fall Break for our team so check back to hear more about our projects. Cheers, Jen

Sep 1,

Back to School

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:13:10 GMT

Greetings! Graceland University SIFE had our first class today and we are very excited about the new students eager to join our team. Check back for more updates about our team.

Aug 5,

Sam Walton Fellow

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:22:17 GMT

Graceland University SIFE is proud to announce our new Sam Walton Fellow, Justin Akers. We are very excited to have Justin back on the team and look forward to a great year.

May 12,

Greetings From Nationals!

Wed, 12 May 2010 12:39:34 GMT

Greetings! The Graceland SIFE team arrived here in Minneapolis yesterday evening and kicked off our stay with an alumni reception. Andy Simpson was honored with speeches by leadership council and the SIFE team put together a book full of pictures and letters to give to him so that he will never forget his time with GU SIFE. Today kicks off the presentations at the Minneapolis event center. Presentations begin at 8:25 and Graceland will be presenting in our league (11) at 1:25. Wish us luck!!! -Nikky Closson

May 7,

Financial Literacy

Fri, 07 May 2010 04:23:01 GMT

The Financial Literacy group has been busy, busy, busy! Last week, April 26th-29th was Senior Week! The week was a great learning week for graduating seniors. They learned about ethics and future costs of living, such as buying their first apartment or new car. There was also be a fashion show of what to wear and what not to wear in certain business situations. At the end of the week we had dress for success and mock interviews followed up by an amazing steak dinner. We want our graduating seniors to be prepared as much as possible for whats to come in the next chapter of their lives. Please continue to check back to see what other amazing things out Financial Literacy team is doing.

May 5,

HealthEd Connect

Wed, 05 May 2010 19:08:37 GMT

This semester, our team had a little bit of a slow beginning after coming back from Zambia. HealthEd Connect was a brand new team, and we only have two members. Although it was a rough beginning, we at least had somewhere to start from. When we worked with the children at the schools in Chipulukusu and Kasompe, they drew illustrations of their friends, family, and oftentimes, nature. We took these drawings home to the U.S. with us, and we had to choose a few different designs to turn into cover designs for greeting cards. The little artists names were included on the back of the card, along with their age and location. We printed 250 cards, using 2 different designs, and sent the cards to Independence, Missouri, to the Community of Christ World Conference. There, Jac and Sherri Kirkpatrick sold ALL of the cards in packs of 5, for $5 a pack. This made $250, and subtracting SIFEs cost for the envelopes, which was $33.05, our total profit for our first endeavor with the cards was $226.95. Since the cards sold so well, and more individuals expressed an interest in purchasing them, we are currently planning on printing 500 more, which, if sold, would generate close to $450 to send back to the schools. Michelle Mahlik, a friend of Jac and Sherris who went on the Zambia trip, e-mailed yesterday about an illustration that she took home with her. It was of a bicycle that a boy named Eddison Banda drew at the Kasompe school. Michelle is currently getting the card design featuring the illustration mass printed so that she and her husband can sell them at bike races over the summer. They donated the money used to print the cards, so all of the money generated will be pure profit to send back to the schools. HealthEd Connect is having great success, and we are sure that the children will feel a great sense of accomplishment in knowing that they possess skills that can support themselves and their families financially.

May 4, SiteLinks

Tue, 04 May 2010 21:08:39 GMT

links

Apr 28,

OAMC Packet

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:30:40 GMT

Click the image above to view the new Once-A-Month-Cooking guidebook!!

Apr 24,

ETHICS ETHICS ETHICS ETHICS

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:51:01 GMT

ETHICS ETHICS ETHICS ETHICS. The Graceland University SIFE team taught the 4 Es of Entrepreneurship to the hundreds of Entrepreneurial roundtable participants. Our team understands the importance of a strong moral compass and how a lack thereof would have extremely negative consequences. Our SIFE team decided that ethics should be at the very fiber of our efforts, and not just a standalone project. We have partnered with the Skills for Life team and Stock Market Simulation team in developing separate ethics curriculums for their teachings. Just last week, we went into a senior seminar class at Blue Valley High School and taught them some important skills that are not taught in a classroom. This includes resume skills, dressing for an interview and even the importance of posture and eye contact. We managed to fit in a segment on ethics and an ethical decision-making framework that they could use whenever faced with an ethical dilemma. We have developed a similar ethics curriculum for the stock market simulation team and will be going into the classrooms next week to transfer this knowledge. Cheers for tuning in, --Matthew Nuttall

Apr 22,

Stock Market Simulation and the NYSE

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:53:30 GMT

Over the last week and a half, we have been back into the high school classrooms no to teach, but to present 3 students with a trip to New York City to go to the NYSE, 3 students a $500 scholarship to Graceland and 3 students with a $50 Best Buy gift card. These students seemed to enjoy the recognition for their efforts. The students from each school that are going to New York are very excited as most of them have never been out of Iowa or on an airplane. Next week we are partnering with the Ethics Team and heading back into the classrooms to make sure these students have some knowledge on Ethics and the importance of it in the business world today. -Sara Dilks

Apr 20,

Skills for Life

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:40:57 GMT

The Skills for Life team went to Blue Springs High School on Monday, April 19th. We conducted two 90 minute sessions covering job and college applications, resumes, interviews, budgeting, and credit. Mr. Hagerty, one of the Personal Finance teachers, was gracious enough to let us come and take over his classes. The district is conducting MAP(Missouri Assessment Program) testing this week but we were lucky the seniors did not have to participate so they could be apart of our class. Mike Palermo, the video teacher at Blue Springs, is working on a video for our team to help us affect more students. We hope to continue teaching more classes this semester so keep an eye out for more updates. -Jen Abraham