Blog

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

Apr 20,

Sustainable Living Week

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:14:59 GMT

Click the above graphic to check out GU SIFE's third annual Sustainable Living week schedule!

Apr 18,

Kids Bank Update

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:52:26 GMT

The GU SIFE Kids Bank team is making some positive strides. The team met with Greg Sutherland, director of admissions, and received approval of the awarding of $200 scholarships to those 5th graders who open up new savings accounts. We have had six new accounts open and are waiting for another bank to get more information on newly opened accounts. The team will be awarding at least two scholarships of $200 each. The team is starting up its program in Leon starting April 19th. We will be teaching in two different classrooms which is very exciting for the team! Thus far, the team has been able to expand into four different schools and will start working in Bethany fall of 2010. The team got to experience some recognition from one of the judges at the SIFE Regional Competition, one judge said that he was highly anticipating hearing about the efforts the Kids Bank team. The team also received some great news recently, the team was awarded the Bridge Endowment in the amount of $500 which is used to support the Kids Bank program. The team will continue its hard work and continue to make positive strides in making youth more knowledgeable about basic banking concepts and the importance of saving. -Neal Fogarty

Apr 13,

Skills for Life

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:48:28 GMT

The Skills for Life team is excited to announce that our project is expanding quickly. We have arranged with the Blue Springs School District to teach in the Senior Seminar class at Blue Springs High School on Monday, April 19th. The Media class at the high school has volunteered to come tape our lessons and make a video to be shown across the campus. We are looking forward to working with around 60 students and are hoping to have a positive impact on their future. Please check back to hear about how our visit goes. -Jen Abraham

Apr 6,

Stock Market Team Prepares for New York

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:05:36 GMT

This coming week the Stock Market Simulation Team is heading back into schools to follow up with the students. We will be presenting them with their awards from the Stock Market Simulation, one of which is an all expenses paid trip to New York to go to the NYSE. This trip is scheduled to take place on May 7th. Other awards include, scholarships to Graceland and an iPod. We will also be teaching them about the importance of ethics and how it relates to them and their everyday lives. We want them to have some knowledge on differentiating between right and wrong in the business world. During this time we will also be covering savings and it's importance. -Sara Dilks

Apr 5,

Pizza Ethics and Roundtable

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:01:53 GMT

This week has been a busy one for our SIFE team. On Wednesday we hosted our first Pizza Ethics Symposium with over 120 participants. Jeff Thrutchley led a game called "Win as Much as You Can." This game taught us the ethics of earning money at the expense of others. Johnny Huntsman, owner of Johnny's Pizza, was the keynote speaker. Johnny shared with us the ethical dilemmas he experienced in his career. To conclude the event, participants recieved free pizza donated from 4 pizza establishments in Lamoni; Pizza Shack, Pizza Hut, Casey's, and Godfather's. Pizza Ethics was a nice warm up for Roundtable, which took place on Thursday. Throughout the day we heard from a few different panels about the ethical issues they have incurred in their respective lines of work. We also had 2 time slots devoted to breakout sessions. We had 6 speakers covering topics ranging from Global Ethics to Financial Ethics to Ethics vs the Law (our team expresses our gratitude to those who came and spoke for our Roundtable event). During our lunch break, the GU SIFE presentation team gave the presentation that they will give at Regionals this coming Thursday. The day concluded with the keynote, Brent Wouters, giving a presentation over Cirrus Aircraft. Brent is the CEO for Cirrus and had a lot of interesting things to share. We hope that all attendees of the Pizza Ethics and Roundtable enjoyed the events and learned a little more about Ethics. -Jen Abraham

Apr 3,

Happy Easter!

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:13:27 GMT

Happy Easter from GU SIFE!

Mar 30, SIFE Tools

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:32:42 GMT

GU SIFE Tools

Mar 30,

Regionals 2010

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:48:28 GMT

Our SIFE team has been working very hard to prepare for our upcoming regional competition taking place on April 8th in Chicago, Illinois. Regionals is where different SIFE teams compete against one another to determine which of them achieved the most impact improving the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. An audiovisual presentation will be given that shows what we have worked on and accomplished this year. Our presentation team as well as our leadership council has put in long hours to make sure our presentation is top notch. The regional competition also provides a unique opportunity for students to connect, collaborate and learn from each other. There will be a career fair that begins in the morning of the competition and runs throughout the course of the day. It provides companies with an opportunity to meet, interview and even hire SIFE students for internships or full time jobs. Graceland SIFE is very excited for the upcoming competition and cannot wait to show the judges what we have achieved this year! --Kimberley Kuchar

Mar 29,

Skills for Life

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:25:29 GMT

This past Thursday GU SIFE's Skills for Life team (formally known as Pick Up the PACE) went to PACE Juvenile Center. Our team taught the students success skills relating to savings accounts, debit and credit cards, and keep tract of finances. Students enjoyed watching video clips and answering questions regarding these topics. We look forward to going back within the next few weeks. Also related to the Skills for Life team, Blue Springs School District contacted us about the possibilty of teaching at the alternative school. We had a conference call with them on Thursday and will be sending them a detailed lesson plan this week. Our goal date to get into the classroom is the week of April 19th. We hope to see this partnership blossom. -Jen Abraham

Mar 29,

Roundtable 2010

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:34:04 GMT

Greetings! This Thursday is GU SIFE's 19th annual Entrepreneurial Roundtable. Roundtable Agenda

Registration/Refreshments The Shaw Center for Performing Arts
Welcome/Intro
Ethics Roundtable
Structured Networking
Roundtable Breakout Session 1
Lunch and GU SIFE Presentation
Roundtable Breakout Session 2
Professionals Networking
Entry Level Ethics Roundtable
Break/Refreshments
Awards
Keynote Brent Wouters, President and CEO of Cirrus Aircraft
Closing/Prizes

Roundtable Breakout Topics

Financial Ethics Dave Brown
Global Ethics Matt Naylor, PhD
Environmental Ethics Steve Graybill
Profitable Ethics Kevin Prine, PhD
Ethics vs. the Law Karen Minton, JD

Be sure to REGISTER and we look forward to seeing you there!!

Mar 27,

Back From Spring Break

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 03:27:30 GMT

Our team has recently returned from Spring Break and hit the ground running. The leadership council has been cranking on the script and the presentation team has began the long road to having the presentation ready. Many of our projects have already had great success and we hope you will continue to check back to hear about them. -Jen Abraham

Mar 26,

Kids Bank Scholarships

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:13:57 GMT

Exciting news! The Kids Bank team has partnered with the Graceland Admissions Department and we are able to offer a $200 scholarship to any 5th grade student who opens a bank account or if they already have an accout, they must complete a 200 word "Importance of Savings Essay" to recieve the sholarship. The Osecola 5th graders were so excited about this oppourtunity and had lots of question about Graceland University. Who knows, maybe someday they will be on the GU SIFE team! Big thanks to Greg Sutherland for helping us make this possible! -Laura Ferguson

Mar 23,

Get Fit Graceland

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:57:25 GMT

The ideal of our society is where everyone's needs are met without anyone feeling left out. To reach this goal we all must be accountable for one another. This will be accomplished by completing simple steps. One of these includes learning more about nutrition and what exercises work for you. Another is to use time management to have a more productive life. It is also important to have someone that is willing to help you reach your goals in every aspect. Finally, you need the confidence and belief in yourself that you can do anything regardless of how out of reach it may seem. Everyone in life has dreams and to reach them we must find out how to get their one step at a time. To see what our Get Fit Graceland Team is all about, check out the project page by clicking here. -Alvin McAdory

Mar 8,

JA Biztown

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:48:03 GMT

Our JA Biztown team has done four lessons so far in Mrs. Perkins 6th grade classroom. On Tuesday, the students learned about Free Enterprise, which is what SIFE is all about. The students worked in team to make products out of construction paper, staples and scissors. The students then presented them to the class along with how much they would cost. The 6th graders creativity know no bounds and they had some great products. On Thursday, the students filled out their JA Biztown bank application. For the next week, they will learn how a checking account works and begin the process of applying for a JA Biztown job! -Laura Ferguson

Mar 8,

Kids Bank

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:51:14 GMT

Kids Bank has been traveling to Osceola to implement our program in the fifth-grade classrooms there. This school has 4 classrooms and 24 students in each. We have taught lessons about savings accounts, checking accounts and credit. The students have been playing PayDay, Bingo and participating in stations where they can practice their new skills. One of our SIFE goals is to include ethics into every project. Kids Bank has been doing this by introducing ethical as a new vocabulary word and having conversations about what it means to be ethical. On Monday, several students were so unfamiliar with the word ethical that they could not even pronounce it. Now those same students are able to give examples of an ethical situation. One student said, If you are at the grocery store and the person gives you back too much change, you need to give the extra money back and not keep it. We hope that we can also help the students open savings account at the local banks. This week we have talked about some things they would like to buy and that have a lot of saving to do! -Laura Ferguson

Mar 5,

SIFE Spirit Video

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:17:47 GMT

The past couple weeks have been very intense and exiting for our SIFE team while we start to prepare for competition. Yesterday during our SIFE class we created a video we will be submitting to the the SIFE spirit video contest at nationals in MN. Our visual design team came up with a very exciting idea for our video and it got our team very pumped up. I don't want to give the video away, but while there was a lot of cheering and excitement we were able to give our Sam Walton Fellow a little surprise at the end that created the most excitement of all. This activity allowed our SIFE team to come together and do a little bonding while showing others our enthusiasm we lead our team with each and every day. You will be able to view this video on our video link within the next few weeks. -Loralyn Heath

Mar 4,

Stock Market Simulation a Success!

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:48:14 GMT

Yesterday on March 3rd, 2010 the 2nd annual stock market simulation took place on our Iowa Campus with 50 high school students. Our team this year has been working very hard to implement this project and make it even bigger then when it was last year when it started in one rural IA high school class room. Our team has put in around 200 hours on this project between this semester and last, and we were finally able to see some of our results. We brought in one class from Lamoni High School, two classes from Central Decatur High School, and two classes from Mt. Ayr High School. The students participated in a couple of ice breakers, and then participated in the simulation game itself. We were very fortunate enough to have Donath Thappa and Anne Rajbhandari to create a database for us that allowed the students to play the game so successfully. The kids got really into it, and there were around 500 transactions throughout the four quarters of play. The top five winners received a small Graceland University gift, and the students will be awaiting our next step in which we will combine the students' scores to see who will get the opportunity to travel to New York to the New York Stock Exchange with the Graceland SIFE team. We will also be giving out scholarships from Graceland University to the second place winners from each high school. Our partners Emory and Henry College in VA, are in the process of conducting their simulation, and our goal is to combine our results to show the impact of all the students we interacted with. Following the simulation, we will go back in the class room to help the students take the first step in saving and investing money. Thank you to all the SIFE students who stepped up and helped,and the Graceland University Staff. -Loralyn Heath

Mar 1,

Stock Market Simulation

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:02:13 GMT

Over the past couple of weeks, the Stock Market Simulation team has been working around the clock to make sure that they are prepared for this weeks Stock Market Simulation. We have been going into Mt. Ayr High School, Lamoni High School and Central Decatur High School to teach juniors and seniors about the importance of investing. The students have been very receptive and have asked many good questions about the stock market. This is going to be a very busy week, as the students are coming to Graceland for a mock Stock Market Simulation and a winner from each school will be awarded a trip to New York to visit the New York Stock Exchange.

Feb 26,

A Busy Week

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:02:55 GMT

This past week has been a very busy one for Graceland SIFE! The Stock Market Simulation Team went into class rooms in Mt. Ayr, While the Waste Audits team took a trip down to Blue Springs to preform a waste audit at a school there. Today the Pick up the PACE team went to the PACE center in Des Moines to teach a lesson there. Meanwhile back on campus Leadership Council is busy working on this year's script for competition! All in all it has been a great and busy week and we're really excited to see all of the results to come. -Nikky Closson

Feb 25,

OAMC

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:14:56 GMT

The Once A Month Cooking team is made up of five SIFE students, Taylor Johnson, Joy Jamerson, Jenny Jackson, Ben Anderson and Eric Van Kuiken. We are very excited about the Once A Month Cooking group this semester because we are expanding it out into many other communities. What we are working on right now is a OAMC Guide Book which is a step-by-step process of how other communities can get Once a Month Cooking started on their own. This will help to expand this great project outward to create the a "ripple of light effect." -Taylor Johnson

Feb 23,

JA Biztown Update

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:32:03 GMT

The JA Biztown began their lessons in the Lamoni 6th grade classroom with great success! Today the students learned about what a community is and became offical citzens of JA Biztown by reciting the Biztown Pledge. For the next eights weeks our team will be in the classroom every Tuesday and Thursday to prepare the students for their time at JA Biztown. The students are full of questions and excited for the opportuntiy to learn how a community works. We are excited about the future of this project! Please feel free to visit our project page for more information. -Laura Ferguson

Feb 17,

Business Advisory Board Conference Call

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:17:30 GMT

On Wednesday, February 10th, Graceland SIFE Leadership Council had a conference call with our Business Advisory Board. The topics for discussion were the Winter term trips taken in January (Belize and Zambia). Kirk Tabor and Nikky Closson spoke about their wonderful adventures in Zambia and I explained the awesome events of Belize. After discussing Winter term, we discussed the new projects that have been created this semester and looked for their feedback on how to make these projects great successes. We would like to say thanks to all those members that were available for the call and hope those that were not available will be for the call next month. --Jen Abraham

Feb 17,

Pick up the PACE

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:45:08 GMT

The GU SIFE Pick Up the PACE team is ecstatic about our goals to accomplish this semester. We are going back to PACE juvenile facility on Thursday, February 18th to teach about budgeting and the possibilities of going to college and furthering education. We are hoping to greatly expand this project this semester by partnering with other SIFE teams across the United States. We have made contacts in the Blue Springs and Independence school districts and we hope to work in alternative schools in their areas in order to widen our scope for this project. Within the next few weeks we will be working very hard to finish creating the curriculum to provide to the other SIFE teams so they can have great success with this project. For those SIFE teams interested in receiving our curriculum, please contact us through our SIFE web page. -Jen Abraham

Feb 12,

2010 Presentation Team

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:48:09 GMT

The Presenters for 2010 ARE: [drumroll please] Loralyn Heath Zoe Naylor Matthew Nuttal Joe Oxley Matt Waite Alternates: Taylor Johnson Casey Conrad-Davis Congratulations Everyone!

Feb 12,

Kids Bank SP10

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:19:28 GMT

After another successful semester of Kid's Bank our goals are set high. We are planning on expanding our program and making a stronger impact on all the lives we encounter. Kid's Bank will be teaching lessons to at least three more schools this semester, if not more. With stronger connections being made with surrounding banks it is helping to make the Kid's Bank program even stronger with a long lasting impression. With a list of goals set high we are planning to reach all of them. It is our hope to make our Kid's Bank program even larger with stronger, more interactive lessons that will involve all students. Kid's Bank is not only looking to spread our program to surrounding cities, but to partner with other SIFE teams and schools to spread the Kid's Bank program. Our main goal is to give young children information on saving, a savings account, and a sum of money to begin their savings account that otherwise might have not been possible. Helping young children learn main money saving concepts at a young age could affect their money management skills for the rest of their lives. Along with spreading our program we hope to open a scholarship fund that will someday be available to help students when they attend college. Kid's Bank's goals are set high and we plan to achieve everything we can and more. It is going to be another exciting and successful semester for Kid's Bank. -Courtenay McCanless

Feb 12,

GU SIFE Spring 2010

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:12:24 GMT

Hello! The Spring semester has started off with a bang. This semester we have 67 registered SIFE members spanning across 20+ different majors and 14 students are new members to our SIFE team! This semester we have 18 different projects and we are very excited to start preparing for Regionals in April. The new presentation team is announced today so be sure to check back-- we're going to post the new team soon!! -Nikky Closson

Jan 26, Spring 2010

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:32:59 GMT

Today was the first day of class for the 2010 Spring Semester. The Graceland SIFE team had a semester kickoff meeting to discuss reasons to be involved in SIFE, introduce our SIFE staff and leadership council to the new members, and share some of the exciting Winterterm adventures. We're really excited about this upcoming semester. April 8th is regionals, held in Chicago this year and GU SIFE is holding presentation team tryouts next Wednesday at 3 in the Heritage Chapel. Please continue to check back for more GU SIFE updates. I will also be uploading some remaining Zambia blogs from Winterterm sometime this week! Nikky Closson

Jan 19, Belize

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:28:00 GMT

Ahoy! Today was another wonderful, warm day in Placencia. We went on a snorkeling excursion and had a lot of fun. Krista and Rhonda were in a bit of pain though because of their sunburns. We got to see a lot of really cool fish and underwater wildlife. Tara, Ryan and I even got to see some sea turtles, a stingray and a 4 foot nurse shark. Im very sad to say that this will be our last blog for the Belize team. We will be home on Thursday and are looking forward to seeing our family and friends but not the snow. Hello to the States on Thursday. Jen Abraham

Jan 18, Belize

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:01:03 GMT

Hola from Placencia. We have made it to our beautiful home in Placencia. On Saturday, we went to Mountain Pine Ridge. That is a correction from Pine Tree Ridge. We were mistaken on the name. We first went to Rio Frio Cave that we all hiked through. Some of us had a little more trouble than others (AKA me, who slipped off the rocks at the very beginning of the cave). Then we went to the Twin caves where Rhonda, Neal, Krista and I stayed out because it was very dark and scary. Neal and Rhonda were going to go but Neal saw a spider and they decided to stay behind and protect Krista and Me. Linda, Ryan, Tara, and Johnny Chuc (our guide from Kin Winik Jungle Tours) crawled down into the cave. Following the caves we went to Rio Frio pools, which were beautiful, and hiked up them without our guide. We were all feeling pretty impressed with ourselves for navigating through them until we got to a dead end and had to have the military men show us the way out. After hiking the pools we met up with Johnny and he took us to Big Rock Waterfall. He helped all of us get up close and personal with the waterfall. This was quite the excitement for Krista because she figured out she knows how to swim. He even helped save the life of a man that was not even with our group. He was quite the guide. By the end of the day we were all exhausted and ready for bed. Most of us were passed out before 10 P.M. Sunday, we took a 3 hour car ride to Placencia. William stopped on the way so we could all put our feet in the sand before getting on the water taxi. We went and caught our water taxi and headed to our Decked Out House. There are decks surrounding our house that overlooks the water so we have enjoyed relaxing outside. Today we all woke up at 7 A.M. because of the schedule we have gotten used to. We went and had breakfast at The Shak and laid on the beach. Some people got pretty burnt and were hoping they arent too miserable tomorrow. Rhonda said she wants to go back to Iowa to throw her body into a pile of snow because she is so sunburned. Tomorrow we have an excursion to the barrier reef to do some snorkeling. We are all looking forward to it even though the water is a little bit cold. We will definitely take the cold water over cold weather. Thank you for checking in with us. We will blog tomorrow after we go snorkeling so please check back. Jen Abraham

Jan 16, We're Alive!!!

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:43:40 GMT

The Africa team is alive and well!! So sorry I haven't been able to blog, we've been pretty cut off from the outside world. I have tons of blogs saved up on a flash drive, but seeing as even loading this page took me 13 minutes and a thousands of kwatcha it might have to wait until we get better internet connectivity. The saying of our trip is "This is Africa" (Blood Diamond anyone?). For example... we actually had plans today to check out a chimp park, but the truck died halfway down the road and we all had to get out and push. We walked the rest of the way to town where I'm now spending tons of money at the internet cafe to update you fine people. Overall the trip has been an exciting one! Our water got turned off for a couple days (we're clean now, don't worr), and a couple of us got pretty sick but are feeling better now. I had an interesting experience with a latrine (uhh hole in the ground) and Laura wore the same shirt five days in a row (nasty). Jac got mugged but scared the guy off and Danica got scared by a huge blonde spider in the closet. (Taylor). Our experiences at the first school were amazing and yesterday we even got to meet the big boss, Mariam. We're home on Friday, hopefully I'll get to blog again before then but no promises!! We miss you all and are excited to be back home to work on another semester of GU SIFE!!! TIA! -Nikky Closson

Jan 16, Belize

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:44:48 GMT

Greetings from the top of the ProBelize building! We are so excited to tell you about our last day of the workshop. After lunch everyone gave their business pitch and I must say the participants did a wonderful job. Following the business pitch, the students had a little surprise in store for us. They performed a ceremony for us that included Mestizo dancing, skits, dancing, poems, and so much more. It is so hard to put into words how we all felt to see how much the participants appreciated us coming down and teaching them. We are very excited to come back and share all our pictures and video with you all at home. Today, we went and worked on a home for a caretaker at an orphanage. The house looked a bit like a beehive. We will hopefully be able to post some pictures of what the house looked like so you can see exactly what Im talking about. We spent a hard day doing manual labor and are very tired but are pleased with the work we accomplished. We came back and all showered and went out to Bullet Tree to interview a woman that has started up a business because of the workshop from 2 years ago. After that we went to dinner at Hannahs but felt like we were cheating on Erva. Tomorrow, we are going to Pine Tree Ridge to do some cave exploring, swimming, and hiking. We are pretty excited and will update you as soon as we can. We will be going to Placencia Sunday morning so hopefully we will get a chance to blog before then. Please check back with us. Jen Abraham

Jan 14, Belize

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:09:22 GMT

Good day. This morning we went to Ervas for breakfast and once again had her wonderful pancakes. We have all decided that we are going to take Erva and Landi home with us and they can start a restaurant in Lamoni. Today is the final day of our workshop and we are very sad to see all our students go. We went through the next steps in marketing, getting your business online(using the curriculum from the BOB presentation), and executive summaries this morning. This afternoon we are going to have a graduation ceremony for the participants and get their contact information so we can keep in touch. Tomorrow we are going to do service work up the street from the school we worked on last week to do some plastering. Im a little nervous since a lot of us have never done anything like it. I know we will all be fine and put in our best effort. Im hoping we will be able to blog again tomorrow after we do the construction work but if not we will blog as soon as possible. We love and miss you all. -Jen Abraham

Jan 13, Belize!

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:39:15 GMT

Hello, hello! Last night the ladies and I took a yoga class that was juicy. Jude, our instructor, was a very interesting lady who came from the Midwest to Sedona to Belize because the spirits pulled her this way, by the hair. My favourite part of the session was getting to let go of our inner jaguar, and growling really loudly (or meowing in my and Taras case,) After yoga Linda, Tara, Jen and I decided we wanted something sweet, and went hunting around town for dessert. After a few failed attempts to find a place that actually made desserts, we found a cute Indian restaurant, and ended up ordering 4 different desserts to share. We made a rotation so we could all taste each others. The cheesecake and chocolate cake were the winners of the taste test with the carrot cake coming in a not so close 3rd place. We even tried the Indian dessert (wappalassa?), a flan-like triangle that was kind of like a squishy gingerbread cookie. That one brought up the rear, and sadly was never finished. Today is day 3 of our workshop. The main topic is accounting and finance, which seems to be the most difficult subject of the whole workshop. We had a calculator lesson with our SIFE solar- powered calculators (they are surprisingly difficult to use in the poorly lit building we are in), and also a short lesson on legal, taxes, the types of business they could open, budgets, and cash flows statement. We are slowly working on getting some photos up so we can show off the awesome adventures we are having, and the work we are accomplishing here. Thanks for your interest and support! --Krista Woodend

Jan 12, Belize

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:11:51 GMT

Greetings from the Red Cross Building in San Ignacio. Sorry it has been so long since the last blog. On Sunday we went to the only zoo in Belize. It was beautiful. This zoo is different than most of the zoos in the United States. In the United States we build the zoo and then bring the animals in. In the Belize zoo they went into the jungle and built fences and put in rescued animals. In most cases the fences aren't very high so we got to lean over and pet some of the animals. Tara, Krista and I even got to feed the macaws some plantain chips. Yesterday was the first day of our workshop. Overall, the day went pretty well. In the morning we began with icebreakers and goal setting. We took a short break that lead into Ryan and Krista beginning with the business idea and finding the niche of your business. After lunch, Dr. Avila from BRDP (Belize Rural Development Program) told the participants about his program where entrepreneurs in rural areas can get funding for starting their business. Today, we began the day again with an icebreaker. After the icebreaker we went back to finding the niche for each individuals business. We know how important it is for a business to have a niche so we want to make sure our entrepreneurs have that something to set them apart and make their business successful. After we gave them a little more time to brainstorm we had them all tell the group their niche and gave them ideas about how to improve their niche. Next, Neal presented about marketing a business. We worked on creating a name for all the desired businesses. After lunch, Tara began with advertising. We are having the participants design their own logo for their business. Tomorrow, Rhonda and I are very excited about presenting the financial side of the business plan. A few of our fellow travelers have been trying to use a phone card to contact home but are having a little bit of difficulty because the phone cards we brought do not work in Belize. They will have to buy new phone cards to call home. Please, be patient with us we will try to call as soon as possible. Tonight we are all excited to go to a yoga class at the local yoga studio. We will keep you updated on how it goes. Thank you for checking on our blog and we will hopefully be able to blog again tomorrow so please check back. Jen Abraham

Jan 10, Zambia day SIX

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:50:09 GMT

Greetings! Our group has spent the last few days in wonderful Livingstone, Zambia. We are currently on the bus on our way to Lusaka. The bus ride is supposed to be six hours long and seeing as we havent quite reached the one-hour mark I think its going to be a long day! While in Livingstone we did lots of great sight-seeing and shopping in the local market. Jollyboys Hostel, where we stayed during our time in Livingstone, had an excellent bar-side pool where we relaxed and worked on our tans. We will be in Lusaka until Tuesday. Tomorrow will be spent having preparatory meetings. We will be visiting the U.S Embassy and the Ministry of Health, and will be having meetings with CHAZ (Church Health Association of Zambia) and with Dana Sanstrom, a U.S citizen that resides in Zambia and works for a group that helps local medical organizations. After Lusaka we take another long bus ride (only four hours this time!) to Chingola where we will be working with our first school. Our first six days in Africa have been exciting ones. We have made numerous international friendships along the way and so far members of our group have been robbed, almost lost, almost missed the bus due to shopping (Kirk and Daniel), and drenched from Victoria falls. We have had the amazing opportunities to interact with African wildlife, from playing with baby lion cubs to feeding wild baboons life savers to eating zebra, antelope, caribou, and crocodile. Thats all for now folks, we are constantly thinking of our friends and loved ones back in the states and hope you are all staying warm! -Nikky Closson PS We are staying on Cairo road in Lusaka, which Jac informs us is the pick-pocket capital of the WORLD. Jeez

Jan 9, Belize 1/7 and 1/8

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:47:43 GMT

Greetings from San Ignacio. Yesterday was a very productive day for our group. We awoke at 7:30 A.M. and headed to breakfast at Ervas at 8 A.M. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast consisting of coconut milk pancakes and homemade orange juice. Neal said they were the best pancakes hes ever eaten (sorry Laura). After breakfast, Tara and I (Jen) headed out with a small group from Youth for the Future to do some recruiting for our workshop. We met with a few influential people from San Ignacio to hopefully help us find more participants for the workshop. The rest of the group (Ryan, Neal, Rhonda, Krista, and Linda) went to Bishop Martin, a primary school in San Ignacio that fell victim to arson, to assist in the demolition and clean up along with students from University of South Dakota. These groups were very excited because they got to kick down walls and use sledge hammers. Tara and I met up with the group after our venture around San Ignacio. The 6 of us played a little basketball with a few puddles on the court. Neal and Rhonda took a little spill and Rhonda has a huge bruise on her hip. In the afternoon the entire group finally got to take showers. They were cold but manageable. The boys and Linda decided to stay behind at the hotel while we girls went out to do a little shopping on the main street. We came back with a little shock when we had all gotten Henna tattoos. We went to Ervas and had some wonderful pizza for dinner with watermelon juice. Rhonda, Neal, and I tried a new hot sauce on our pizza and it was very spicy. We went to Cayo Twist, a place that takes prides on serving only non-dairy desserts. Following the dessert, we proceeded to go back to the hotel and Linda taught Neal, Ryan, Rhonda and me how to play Russian Rummy. This morning we got up at 8:30 A.M. and headed down to Ervas. Our group enjoyed some eggs, toast with Belizean jam and homemade strawberry jam, an orange, something similar to summer sausage, and pineapple juice. Following breakfast, we headed down to the market and saw all the beautiful fresh foods of Belize. We are looking forward to going to the Mayan ruins this afternoon and will blog about our experiences there later. Tomorrow is going to be a fun filled day at the zoo. We all send our love to our friends and family back home as well as the group in Zambia. We have done a lot of shopping and purchased many gifts that we cant wait to give when we get home. -Jen Abraham

Jan 8,

Zambia Day FIVE

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:27:15 GMT

Greetings from Zambia!! We arrived in South Africa after a grueling journey on Wednesday evening and spent the next couple days exploring Johannesburg and Soweto. Johannesburg has been busy preparing to host the 2010 World Cup in June. We even got to see some of the new arenas that they have built just for the June games. In Soweto we visited the apartheid museum and saw the family home of Nelson Mandela. The mini-safari was a blast and we were able to pet and play with some baby lion cubs!! We also got to feed giraffes and ostriches and the Carnivore restaurant was just as crazy as we had hoped! (Zebra is delicious... in case you were wondering!) We are slowly but surely recuperating from jet-lag and just arrived in Zambia today. Zambia is hotter and more humid than South Africa but beautiful just the same. We are staying at the fabulous Jollyboys hostel which has quite the hippy/Woodstock theme! Visiting Victoria Falls tomorrow and a 6-hour bus ride to Lusaka on Sunday! Hello to all of our friends and family back in the states! We miss you dearly but are busy buying you presents and taking amazing pictures to show once we get back! Shalapo for now! -Nikky Closson

Jan 7, Belize

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:27:02 GMT

Hello from Belize. Our team has successfully made it to Belize safe and sound. We left yesterday morning from Lamoni at 5:30 A.M. We arrived at Des Moines airport and had no problems getting through security. We landed at the Houston airport (IAH) at 11:30 A.M. At the airport we enjoyed some Panda Express and Jamba Juice. We made our final flight starting at 1:30 P.M. We arrived in Belize City, Belize. As we walked off the plane we sang praises for the 75 degree weather. We were met by Nicole from ProBelize and William Hofman with Belize Shuttle. Nicole and William did a wonderful job sharing about Belize with our team. We arrived at our brand new hotel around 6:30 P.M. We are the first guests to stay at the hotel and we greeted by the very friendly owners. They have been working hard to make sure we are comfortable with our stay. We are a little nervous about showering because there will be no hot water. Last night, we went to Erva's to eat dinner. We were served chicken, rice and beans, and a vegetable mix. We were served a lemonade like drink that was made with limes instead of lemons. After dinner, we walked the town and did some shopping and bit of light recruiting for our workshop. There are some wonderful shops in San Ignacio and we enjoyed shopping at all that we went to. Today, we woke up around 7:30 A.M. to the sound of the barking neighbor dog and birds squawking. We went to Erva's to have a great breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, sausage, papaya, friedjacks (a friend piece of tortilla), coffee, and homemade orange juice. After breakfast we had orientation with ProBelize. Included in our orientation, we learned about the native bugs, snakes, and animals to watch for. After lunch we are looking forward to going and meeting the people of the town. We are hoping we can do some recruiting for our workshop that begins on Monday. We are having a wonderful time and hope you continue to look for our blog. -Jen Abraham

Jan 5, Belize

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:59:18 GMT

Hello from Lamoni. Our preparation for Belize is well underway and we are very excited about our trip. This morning we had a conference call with Nicole from ProBelize. We found out a lot of valuable information. In Belize we will be doing a 4 day workshop teaching business plans to 20 to 30 potential entrepreneurs. We have broken up into teams to teach different parts of the business plan. In the initial part of the workshop we will be playing icebreakers and getting to know the participants. This part will be lead by Tara Shupe, a junior Visual Communications and Studio Art major from Independence, MO, and Krista Woodend, a senior Business Administration major from Woodstock, ON, Canada. After learning about our group we are going to jump right into the business plan and about how to implement it. Ryan Holler a senior Information Technology and Business Administration major from Overland Park, KS and Krista Woodend will be leading this section. Our marketing and advertising section will be headed up by Tara Shupe and Neal Fogarty, a junior Communications major from Piper, KS. Legal issues and tax structure are important to know about when starting a business. This information will be shared by Ryan Holler and Neal Fogarty. Accounting and finance makes up a large part of the business plan. Rhonda Bradford, a junior Accounting and Business Administration major from Lee's Summit, MO and Jennifer Abraham (Me) a junior Accounting and Business Administration major from Blue Springs, MO will be covering this topic. Dr.Linda DeBarthe, Professor of Accounting and Business Administration will be our leader for this trip. She will be giving advicing and guiding us through our adventures in Belize. We will be arriving in Belize City tomorrow around 3 and traveling to San Ignacio. On Thursday and Friday we will be helping to clean up and tear down a burned down primary school. Over the weekend we will be going to the Mayan Ruins and preparing for our workshop that begins Monday. We are all very excited about our trip and are anxiously awaiting our departure. I will be blogging as often as possible so please check back on the website for a staus update. -Jen Abraham

Jan 5,

Zambia Day ONE

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:01:19 GMT

Greetings!! The Zambia team leaves tomorrow morning for our 18-day trip! Today was spent at Sherri and Jac Kirkpatricks home in Lee Summit, Missouri where upon arrival we jumped right into orientation and training for our upcoming trip. Our next couple days are packed full of fun; after arriving in Johannesburg on Wednesday night well be staying at a fun Bed & Breakfast. Thursday afternoon we get to go on a mini-safari, and eat at the famed Carnivore restaurant where well get the opportunity to sample a variety of large game meat. (Could you pass the Zebra?) Friday morning we hop a plane to Livingston where we will be visiting Victoria Falls and hiking the surrounding area. The Zambia project has multiple focuses and each of our six team members will be doing different things. We will be working both with OVCs (orphans and other vulnerable children) and their caregivers to teach healthful living skills as well as financial literacy and other entrepreneurial techniques. Kirk Tabor, a junior Economics and Business Administration major, will be working on teaching the caregivers how to write a successful business plan and other business-related success skills. Daniel Vogelsang, a sophomore Chemistry major, is interested in working with the Kafwa, the native Zambian health workers who have been previously trained by HealthEd Connect. Dancia McLain, a sophomore Publication writing and design major will be working on teaching some arts and crafts to both the OVCs and the caregivers for potential profit generators. Taylor Johnson, a sophomore Communications major will be leading a Young Peacemakers Club and will be working with the OVCs on a couple different exciting after-school activities including starting a new soccer league. Laura Ferguson, a sophomore Elementary Education major, will be teaching the OVCs basic math, reading, and writing skills through the use of fun skits and stories. She will also be assisting with the after school program. Nikky Closson (Me!), a senior Accounting and Business Administration major, will be teaching financial literacy skills such as basic accounting principles, record keeping, how to use a calculator, and the importance of saving. Our fearless leaders and the founders of HealthEd Connect, Jac and Sherry Kirkpatrick, have had programs in a multitude of countries, including, but not limited to Haiti, Jamaica, Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Kenya, Soviet Union, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and China. After months and months of planning and preparation the Kirkpatricks are very excited to finally implement this phase of the program! Also coming along on the trip are Cherry Newcom and Michelle Mahlik. Cherry has been to Africa three times already with the Kirkpatricks and is anxiously awaiting this next journey. While this is Michelles first trip to Zambia, she has done extensive research on the needs of caregivers and the grieving process that OVCs go through. We are VERY excited for tomorrow and the next coming weeks! Please continue to check back in, I will be updating the blog as often as possible!! Shalapo!! (Goodbye in Bemba) -Nikky Closson