Graceland University SIFE

May 5, Entrepreneurial Roundtable 2009

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:17:03 GMT

This year the Entrepreneurial Roundtable was held on Gracelands Lamoni campus April 9th ,and was a valuable event for both students and professionals. This years event, sponsored in part by the JS Kemper Foundation, was themed Building Online Businesses. To start the morning off, we had Cliff Illig, Vice Chairman and co-founder of Cerner Corporation speak with us. This was followed by four breakout sessions including; Angel Investor 101- Don Salyards, Cash in on Ebay- Janelle Cross, Social Network Marketing- Doug Mitchell and Building Online Business Basics taught by our very own Graceland University SIFE team. During this years Roundtable, the Lamoni Development Corporation (LDC) also announced the winner of their $10,000 Student Business Plan competition. Three students presented their ideas for a small business to be implemented in the Lamoni area. Kirk Tabor was the winner with a paintballing business by the name of Tabortooth Paintball. David Edey of SiteSell summed up the day by speaking on the importance of putting your business online, and several great prizes were given out including four Site Build It! memberships donated by SiteSell and Graceland SIFE. -Ashley Campbell

May 4, Wellness in Lamoni

Mon, 04 May 2009 19:36:33 GMT

Graceland University/Lamoni Wellness has come a long way this semester! This project started out as just an idea to improve the wellness facilities on campus and now is ready to happen. The idea for this project came from complaints to the student Senate about the need for better wellness equipment as well as the need to have wellness classes offered to students. The solution to that problem was to set up packages for students to be able to attend classes at the Living Arts Studio in town. Part of the money collected from the packages will go to the Living Arts studio and the other part will go in a fund to help improve the current equipment on Graceland campus. The team this semester has put in a lot of hard work meeting with many important people on campus as well as off campus to have the program implemented and we are there! Students can now sign up for next semester to attend classes at the Living Arts Studio in downtown Lamoni. -Jennifer Abraham

May 4, Visual Design in SIFE

Mon, 04 May 2009 19:36:33 GMT

This semester has been a busy one for the visual design team. We have been videotaping, editing, interviewing, and collaborating with most of the other project groups in order to present the Graceland SIFE story. We finished up with the stress of regionals a while back, and now we are diving head first into the Nationals video. We are punching the clock at all hours of the day, and we are determined to have a top notch video for the presenters to practice with. Aside from the presentation, we are helping other project groups create poster, flyers, and all around media to help make their projects more successful. We have had a very successful year, and we hope to continue that success in the near future at Nationals. -Tyler Jones

May 4, Ethics

Mon, 04 May 2009 15:52:24 GMT

This school year the Intellectual Property team changed their name to Ethics. As a team we saw the need for a broader range of change. Although remembering the importance of ethical use of intellectual property, the Ethics team has now collaborated with JA BizTown to teach fifth graders on ethical resume building and interviewing skills. We also paired with the Building Online Business team helping them develop a program that teaches people how to ethically build a website, using legal software. Ethics is also pairing with Financial Literacy, and is continuing to spread through out all of Graceland SIFE's projects.

Apr 15, Financial Literacy

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:20:28 GMT

This semester the Financial Literacy team has put most of its efforts into educating high school juniors and seniors about the stock market. Our team created a curriculum that has allowed for the general knowledge to be gained of capital markets, basics of investing, and why it is important to invest your money now, all through the help of the Goldman Sachs Capital Markets competition. They have taken this curriculum into a Central Decatur High School classroom three times, and will be conducting a stock market simulation to show what the students have learned applied to a real life game. The class sessions have consisted of interactive games, presentations of information and definitions, as well as learning and understanding of ethical practices. Not only has the team impacted 23 high school students, but they have impacted themselves through knowledge gained about the stock market. The Financial Literacy team is also partnering with the Graceland CAP Center to organize Gracelands Senior Week at the end of April. Senior Week, funded in part by a generous grant from AIG, is designed to help graduating seniors gain more knowledge about the real world prior to graduation. The teams goals are to help seniors understand the costs of buying or leasing a car, renting an apartment or buying a house, and payments of student loans, as well as how to manage their credit wisely. There will be a mock interview day with professionals and a picnic at the end of the week to honor the seniors for all the hard work they have done throughout their undergraduate career. We hope to empower our seniors and help them gain confidence so they can make successful personal and business decisions when they enter the real world after graduation. -Loralyn Heath

Apr 15, GU SIFE Presentation and Reception

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:52:03 GMT

To raise funds for our SIFE team's continued success and efforts to change the world

Apr 14, Yes! Lamoni

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:49:28 GMT

Graceland SIFEs Yes! Lamoni Team has been created in reflection of the already existing effort of Yes! Lamoni, the Lamoni, buy local campaign. During the fall semester in 2008 one main accomplishment was the reusable, Yes! Lamoni Grocery bag drive. These bags were sold for only $1.00 and represented the action of looking to buy local first. Now the Yes! Lamoni team is working to increase the communication between the local businesses and services with the students who attend Graceland University. Just yesterday the budget for an on-campus business directory was given the OK by the Graceland Marketing Department. Now the team will communicate the importance for local businesses to be involved with their Chamber of Commerce. We will use the opportunity for a business to be in a Graceland Business Directory and the opportunity for it to be online through the Graceland and GU SIFE Websites to better sell Lamonis Chamber of Commerce Memberships. We now have established 3 main goals going forward.

To recruit 100 of Lamonis retail and restaurant business for the Chamber of Commerce.
To establish an online presence for 10 Lamoni merchants for the first time.
To provide the Graceland campus with its local business information online and tangibly.

-Nate Myer

Apr 14, Entrepreneurship

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:42:29 GMT

The Business Plan / Small Business Consulting Team has been encouraging entrepreneurship on campus the past two semesters. Last semester, we promoted the entrepreneurial spirit on campus by educating students who wanted to start their own business. The team hosted a business plan workshop for students on campus, and then sponsored a Graceland Student Business Plan Competition. We had 13 entries for the competition, and these were our winners: 1st Place (tie) - $100 Nate Myer eBay Lamoni 1st Place (tie) - $100 Andy Lavender, Greg Kelly Online Real Estate 2nd Place - $50 Molly Cornelison MC Photography 3rd Place - $25 Reed Manuel Venture Online The Graceland Student Business Plan Competition gave us a great way to introduce the Lamoni Development Corporation (LDC) $10,000 Business Plan Competition to the students on campus. This exciting award is for a student that starts and operates a new business in Lamoni. Three student business ideas were selected as finalists for the LDC competition: Kirk Tabor: TaborTooth Paintball Andy Lavender and Greg Kelly: Lamoni Online Real Estate Molly Corneilson: MC Photography The winner of the competition will be announced on April 9th, 2009 at the 18th Annual Entrepreneurial Roundtable sponsored by Graceland SIFE, Graceland University Sandage Center for the Study of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, and the J.S. Kemper Foundation. The LDC competition finalists will be presenting their business ideas to student attendees and hosting a Q & A session during a Roundtable session. We appreciate Lamoni Development Corporations sponsorship of the $10,000 Business Plan Competition, and look forward to congratulating the winner at this years Entrepreneurial Roundtable. Hope to see you there! - Collin Isham

Apr 6, Southwestern Community College

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:41:04 GMT

Building Online Businesses

Apr 3, Graceland University Entrepreneurial Roundtable

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:19:42 GMT

Graceland University is Hosting the 18th Annual Entrepreneurial Roundtable on the Lamoni Campus on April 9th, 2009

Apr 2, Once A Month Cooking

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:54:21 GMT

Once-a-Month-Cooking is a program that strives to teach parents in our community how to prepare meals for a week or a month in a single setting. Through Once-a-Month-Cooking you walk away with inexpensive and nutritional meals, a sense of community from working with other parents, and most importantly, a sense of empowerment. We have recently started two groups, one in Raytown, Missouri and another one in Mt. Ayr, Iowa. There is also a group that has been meeting in Lamoni, Iowa for about a year on their own now. We are looking forward to starting three more groups before the end of the year. -Cara Hakes

Mar 25, Wildflower Home Project

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:27:50 GMT

For three weeks this pass January, a group of Graceland SIFE members made an epic journey halfway across the world to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Once there, we worked with ProThailand and the Wildflower Home. ProThailand is a subsidiary of ProWorld, a non-profit organization that has several locations across the world. Each individual location's mission, including ProThailand, is to empower communities, promote social and economic development, conserve the environment, and cultivate educated compassionate global citizens. ProThailand had been working with the Wildflower Home before we arrived. The Wildflower Home is a battered women's shelter that takes in women with young children who have been abused or abandoned by the father. They not only give the women and children, a safe place to stay, but they try to give the women hope for the future. Once a week, the women open a small shop in the market where they sell candles and crafts. The women lacked many skills that are necessary to be successful in a market. Our job was to provide these skills to the women through three important market topics: financial literacy, product development, and marketing. The four-day workshop that Graceland SIFE put on, along with Far Eastern University SIFE who helped in the teaching and translating, was a tremendous success. When we arrived back in the U.S., we were worried that our work would not be sustainable for the Wildflower Home, since there are always new women coming and others leaving. We therefore decided to create the Wildflower Home team. Our main goal right now is to create a book that incorporates all of our lessons from the workshop. We are happy to report that the group is very close to being finished with the first draft of the book. With this book, the skills necessary to be successful in the market can be passed down through the generations of future women that come through the Wildflower Home. We are very excited about the possibility of adding to the success of the winter term by making all of our efforts sustainable for the women. -Clayton Hines

Mar 11, Building Online Businesses

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:36:01 GMT

This SIFE team, formally known as Lamoni Online, was created after our team identified the problem that many small towns, like Lamoni, discover in that their foot traffic from outside sources is little to none. By teaching these businesses and entrepreneurs how to build their own websites, our hope is that they will generate revenue from new sources. Last week the Building Online Businesses team had the opportunity to travel to Jefferson City, Kansas to present to members of their chamber of commerce and local business owners about getting their businesses online and running. There was a great turnout of around 70 people and we were able to build several new relationships. Our friends from the Central Methodist SIFE team attended as well, and we were able to continue our partnership with them. Hopefully, this presentation at Jefferson will allow us to continue working with people in that area and will lead to future seminars! This year, our project is funded by a $26,000 grant we received from the James S. Kemper Foundation to host presentations such as this one. So far, we have presented to communities in Fayette, Missouri (home of Central Methodist University), Mt. Ayr, Iowa, Jefferson City, Kansas, and Osceola, Iowa (home of South Western Iowa Community College). We eagerly anticipate returning from Spring Break to set up a few more presentations and try to spread our reach as far as possible. The Kemper grant also allowed for a BIG presentation, Roundtable , which is being hosted here at Graceland University, on April 9th. It is going to be a great day, full of interesting keynote speakers and excellent networking opportunities. Roundtable is focused around our projects goal of promoting e-commerce to the small business owner and entrepreneur. I encourage you to visit our projects page to keep up with the work we are doing throughout the semester! -Nikky Closson

Dec 12, Wrapping Up

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:06:47 GMT

This week marked the final meeting for our team this semester. Our projects are being wrapped up and teams are anxiously looking to the upcoming spring semester. Even though the final hour is near, projects are still churning out results and one in particular. The Sustainable Living team hosted this week on campus, raising awareness to key environmental and sustainability issues. Sustainable Living week received participation from hundreds of students, faculty, and university staff. Many of our teams projects will continue into next semester with renewed focus and even more objectives to be accomplished. However, there is one unique SIFE experience that will take place before our team meets again in the classroom; a group of students will travel to Thailand for a winterterm experience. It is one of the most anticipated trips in recent memory, featuring 13 students and 2 faculty members. There are humbling opportunities for our team in Thailand and the group has already begun preparation for the January trip. The end of fall semester saw three of our most dedicated and appreciated students graduating. Shannon Graybill, Emily Brock, and Lauren Seamen will each be missed for their individual and group contributions to our SIFE program. I would like to personally thank each member of our team for their hard work this semester and look forward to our projects in 2009. -Abraham Forth

Dec 11, First Annual SIFE Sails

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:46:51 GMT

SIFE is ALIVE with spirit! For a recent team building exercise the SIFE class thought it would be valuable to construct boats out of recycled cardboard and Duck brand duct tape. The teams had one hour to build the best cardboard boat they could with the materials provided. After the boats were ready to sail, 6 members of the team including Andy Simpson and Justin Akers, took them out for their maiden voyage. To give you an idea of what this spirit sailing race looked like, Id like to give you the setting. Picture a cold and windy day on Big G Lake in late November. The lake was anger that day my friends. The brave sailors tried to cross the lake but only one, Calee Bullard, made it all the way in her boat. The others had to swim to shore or if they didnt make it far, they we able to walk a couple steps to safety. One question you might ask yourself while reading this is: Are any other SIFE teams doing this kind of extreme team building? The answer: Most definitely not. This kind of commitment, unity, and strength is what the good people of our SIFE team, here at Graceland, are all about! -Kirk Tabor

Dec 4, SIFE's Annual Board Meeting

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:08:52 GMT

Zoe Naylor, Andy Lavender, Nate Myer, and I had the opportunity recently to attend SIFE's Annual Board of Directors Meeting with forty other SIFE Students and one hundred top executives from SIFE sponsor companies. The meeting took place a few weeks ago in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart's headquarters. SIFE kicked off the event with an evening networking session between students and professionals, and three project presentations. Our team was honored to be chosen as one of the three. We presented the Edison Project which strives to educate people on the advantages of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs). By enlightening people on the financial and environmental benefits of using less energy, our team was able to change out 3,500 bulbs in our community during the 2006-2007 school year. The next day was also filled with incredible networking opportunities. Executives and students were split up into small groups. For an hour, each group discussed the future of marketing and branding for the millennial generation. The experience was remarkable. We could not believe, as college students, that we were given the opportunity to share ideas with some of the most influential business executives of our time. It just demonstrates the unique and amazing opportunities SIFE can provide for students who really want to make a difference in their communities and their own lives. After attending the Board of Directors meeting, I am confident that SIFE will be instrumental in creating the socially responsible business leaders of tomorrow. -Shannon Graybill

Nov 12, Hard At Work

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:28:00 GMT

Graceland SIFE has continued to make a ripple affect throughout local communities through education of parents, entrepreneurs and 5th grade students. Once A Month Cooking is very excited about the contribution they received from Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder of Act-1. With this money they look forward to taking this project to new heights. So far the group has helped create a sustainable cooking group located in Lamoni, IA. The project Get Your Business Online and Running has been working to teach entrepreneurs how and why to get their business online and running. This project started two years ago with the goal of getting virtual traffic to Lamoni, a community with little foot traffic. Since then, we have worked with numerous local entrepreneurs to successfully get their business online. This year we will be expanding our project to hold roughly eights seminars for local entrepreneurs throughout Iowa and Missouri. Kids Bank, Bank of the West, and American State Bank joined together to educate Lamoni 5th graders about how important saving money is. They did this through facing the students with real life decisions. The decisions consist of how much money should be placed towards groceries, toys, and a savings account. They found these tough decisions will follow them throughout life and saving money should be their first priority. Following this activity, many 5th graders were excited about opening their first savings account. -Andy Lavender

Oct 23, Homecoming Continued

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:54:48 GMT

SIFE had great success this past Homecoming weekend! The Leadership Council met with the Business Advisory Board for breakfast and an update on our projects this year. The BAB gave beneficial feedback and ideas for the projects that will no doubt be valuable throughout the year. Calee mentioned the fundraisers The Africa Collaboration Team (A.C.T.) made about $800, selling almost 2/3 of their inventory. This was a wonderful benefit for the ACT team as they can now purchase more necklaces and continue finding a sustainable source of income for the women of Kibera slums. The Yes! Lamoni team made $220 by selling sustainable bags that promote the Lamoni community. This money will go towards the Leadership Councils fundraising goal of $5,000. Keep it up team, theres still a long way to go. Yesterday in SIFE class, the Getting your Business Online and Running team presented to the class. Their presentation will be used in eight seminars throughout America as part of their $26,000 stipend. SIFE is officially going to Thailand for Winter term this year. 13 SIFErs have been chosen to go based on their participation in SIFE. The projects are still undetermined, but we will work with ProThailand, a part of the ProWorld program we have worked with the past three years. SIFE students will only have to pay a minimal amount as a donor has kindly given a substantial amount of the trip. Thank you! We are half way through the semester, and projects are going great. Keep it up! -Zoe Naylor

Oct 10, GU Homecoming

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:38:18 GMT

Its Homecoming week here at Graceland! Our entire campus is alive with spirit and Graceland SIFE is no exception! We are excited to welcome members of our SIFE Business Advisory Board for a meeting over breakfast this Saturday morning. Thank you to all of our Business Advisory Board members. Your support is greatly appreciated! Another SIFE activity we are looking forward to this weekend can be found at the heart of campus, right outside the Higdon Administration Building. Among the many other tables, we hope youll look for our Africa Collaboration Team which will be selling the bead/bone necklaces and bracelets that Kirk talked about in his blog. We will also be selling canvas shopping bags as a more eco-friendly choice than the usual paper or plastic. A quick update on a recent team success: The Yes! Lamoni team held a campus-wide survey this past week to get information about student knowledge and use of Lamoni businesses. With over 120 students participating in the survey, the team hopes to give Lamoni business owners valuable information regarding students shopping habits. The goal is to use this information to work with business owners in order to help them develop more effective advertising and increase sales. Coming soon will be a similar survey for Graceland faculty. Enjoy the fun-filled weekend! -Calee Bullard

Oct 8, Flurry of Activity

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:20:53 GMT

A third of the semester is now gone and our SIFE team has responded with a flurry of activity. As a member of our leadership council I have a unique look into our projects and the motivated students that make them possible. We have over twenty projects this fall and all of them have taken the necessary strides to succeed. Each year certain projects or groups have breakthroughs and events that provide momentum for the entire team. Our Financial Literacy team took their presentation into the campus classrooms for the first time this year. They engaged Graceland freshmen with an interactive and informative presentation. The team will continue to be in the classrooms throughout the semester and they have several other events planned for the school year. Another team that has had an eventful week is our Yes Lamoni group. They just finished facilitating a survey of Graceland students that will provide insight into their needs and how the businesses in Lamoni can fill these needs. It is a great step and we are encouraged by the number of students who willing fully participated. Our Business Plan Workshop and Events Planning teams have events and activities that will occur later this semester. The Sustainable Living team is encouraging student participation in the Art Societys initiative called Wasted? It is an opportunity to spawn creativity by using everyday items that are essentially wasted or not recycled. Recently, our Sustainable Agriculture group attended an organic farming seminar that was administered and sponsored by an extension of Iowa States agriculture department. The workshop was an extremely directing and insightful look into organic farming and it has ignited ideas about how best to utilize Gracelands current farm ground. The semester is progressing quicker than any of us have expected and our SIFE team and specifically our project groups are keeping extremely busy. I would encourage everyone to check our blog and keep updated on our SIFE team and its activities. Also, I would like to mention that several members of our Business Advisory Board will be visiting this next weekend because of Homecoming. Without a doubt, this is an exciting time of the year and our teams are motivated to impact not only our local community, but other communities. -Abraham Forth

Oct 6, Today, Tomorrow, and the Future

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:10:18 GMT

Well hello readers, my name is Kirk Tabor and I think you should know that our SIFE program is alive and doing great things! There has been a lot of recent success. First on everyones list is the winter term that has just been secured through a donor family. In January of 2009 a group of SIFE students will travel to Thailand to team up with the non-profit, ProThailand, a subsidiary of ProWorld. Winter terms can be truly a transformational experience for students. I have been a member of the Africa Collaboration Team (also known as ACT) since its origins in the fall of 2007. ACT partnered with a non-profit, CSG, in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Our team decided it would be beneficial for us to travel to the sight to gain inside knowledge that would otherwise be impossible to obtain. I can remember the trip in the summer of 08 to Kenya, Africa. The experiences and people I met have had a profound impact on me. I was able to see people in dire need and actually see opportunities in which I could assist them in creating change. GU SIFE was the force that allowed me to accomplish this. ACT has been extremely busy this semester. We have been marketing the bead/bone necklaces and bracelets both on an individual as well as a corporate scale. Look for the necklaces over Homecoming! We will be out and about selling them. The proceeds with go to benefit a school in Africa as well as raising funds for our return trip to Africa in May 2009. The opportunities that Graceland and SIFE creates for us are incredible! Thailand will be another opportunity for students to impact local people lives (ripple effect) and be influenced by these valuable life experiences. -Kirk Tabor

Oct 2, In The Beginning

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:06:49 GMT

Hello fellow SIFERS and Gracelanders. This is the first in a series of blogs authored by the Graceland SIFE Leadership Council, made up of myself, Calee Bullard, Abe Forth, Andrew Lavender, Zoe Naylor and Kirk Tabor. GU SIFE kicked off the year with a Chipotle Orientation this past Sunday, September7th. The 2nd annual fall event was record breaking with an amazing 65 Graceland Students in attendance. Our Sam Walton Fellow, Andy Simpson, the new Associate Director of the Sandage Center, Justin Akers, and the Leadership Council were ecstatic to tell the team about the 36 project opportunities that are available for this Fall. Projects ranged from innovative ideas, such as Facebook for Good (a fundraiser for various charitable causes) to Graceland SIFE's nationally recognized Anti-Piracy campaign. During Monday's class, each SIFE student submitted the projects they were interested in. Through much deliberation 25+ projects were picked for this fall semester. Since my time in SIFE is coming to a close, this being my last semester at Graceland, I have never been more excited about the opportunities available to Graceland SIFE. Not only are our students "thinking big", but our community members and Graceland Faculty see no boundaries as well. The student turnout for the past week of meetings has been incredible. We have more freshmen interested in SIFE than ever and plenty of SIFE veterans to lend them a hand. Not only are people excited about the projects, but there is a great deal of interest in the SIFE Winterterm possibilities this year, Thailand & Kenya. I was blessed to have had the chance to go on a two-week long SIFE Winterterm both my freshman and sophomore years at Graceland. These opportunities were life changing for me, and I would recommend the experience to ANYONE. Shannon Graybill

Apr 1, Graceland SIFE Wins Regionals!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:16:15 GMT

Hey Everyone! I am very excited to announce that GU SIFE was just recently crowned Regional Champion on March 27th at the SIFE 2008 Regional Competition in Rogers, Arkansas. It was a very fun filled and busy day for nearly 50 GU SIFE team members as they watched presentations and supported SIFE teams from all over the nation. We even got to see Ozark Technical Community College , a participant in our Intellectual Property project, as they presented their enormous success with their anti-piracy public service announcement (Congratulations on over 500 million gross impressions!). We had a really great time in Arkansas, and I'm not the first when I say I say thank you to everyone who supported us at regionals, and to everyone who has supported us along the way. We look forward to seeing you at SIFE Nationals in Chicago May 13-15. Have a great day! Kasey Johnson SIFE Executive Leadership Council

Feb 6, Presentations

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:45:22 GMT

The Presentation tryouts will be held on Friday, February 8, 2008. Best of luck to all!