Final Presentation Video Working

The video of our World Cup winning presentation is now available

2007 World Cup Champion - USA from SIFE on Vimeo.

Everyone is trying to get photos together, so we should be getting those up as soon as we get back. Our faculty fellow Andy Truong and I just finished watching it. I was getting goosebumps just as much as when I am doing the presentation with the team on stage. Everyone did such a great job. And I saw myself beaming on stage while watching the other presenters deliver their message with such passion. We are already working on how to take things to the next level. Under the leadership of the new team, the potential for our projects has increased exponentially.

World Cup Champions!!!

We won!!! I still can't believe it. I am sitting in my hotel room staring at the World Cup trophy! We went up on that stage and gave the best presentation of our lives to a room full of CEO judges, students from around the world, and the rest of our amazing team. I was getting goosebumps the entire time. I didn't get a chance to watch the video of our final presentation but I couldn't stop smiling every time one of the other presenters said something. Everyone had so much passion it was like a wave passing over the entire room.

Everyone was on fire! Carrie had been up all night sick but delivered her presentation with so much passion that the rest of us had to kick things into a higher gear to match her. Warren captured everyone's attention with the first sentence of the entire presentation. Deisy nearly had judges standing to cheer her on as she spoke. And Adam totally stepped up and blew people away during the 5-min Q&A period where the judges could ask us any questions they wanted to. Watching all of that unfold around me during the presentation, I was so excited that I had to work to keep my hands steady and my microphone from going all over the place by the end of the presentation. It was just so incredible! We just kept feeding off of each other's passion. The entire audience stood and cheered after Carrie delivered the final line.

Several of us had spent two years of our lives moving towards this moment. We wanted the opportunity to share with the world that we don't have to wait until we are 20-30 years into a career. We can change the world right now as students. College is where you find what you are truly made of, what your limits are, what your true potential could be. Well this team of students gets it, and we are spreading that message all over the world. It is the responsibility of our generation to work together to make a real, sustainable change in the world. One of my favorite new writers, Alex Steffen, said in a recent article "Don't just be the change, mass-produce it." This is what we shared with the world today. We are no longer satisfied only working in our own isolated areas. We must do more and we can do more right now.

We had the chance to meet students from all around the world who feel this same way. We just had a global gathering of individuals not afraid to ask the question "why not?" There is no reason why we shouldn't work together to deal with real world problems. And so we do.

At La Sierra University we are at a real advantage. Our diversity is an incredible strength upon which we must build. When we put students together from entirely different backgrounds, the potential for development of new ideas increases exponentially. This is what makes our SIFE team successful. We have individuals who can be entirely different from one another but still share a common goal, for their education to actually have meaning and purpose. And what better purpose for education than for it to be utilized in service to others.

I couldn't be more proud of our La Sierra University SIFE Team. They are serving as an inspiration to students around the world and now leading the way in the movement for this generation to make a difference in this world.

Please give your support to the new LSU SIFE President Ryan Blackerby and the new team. We are already watching them go far beyond the success and impact of the team I have had the opportunity to lead the last two years. Their passion and hard work makes our results mean something. We can know that our efforts are sustainable and will not just fade away into nothingness. And knowing that is an incredible feeling.

This World Cup has been an incredible experience for all of us. It is now time for our old leadership team and presentation team to complete the transition and make way for the new leaders and presenters. And from what I've seen, this new team is going to teach the rest of us a thing or two about impact.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Look for some blog posts from the other members of the presentation team over the next few days. Due to limited availability of internet access and time factors, it has been difficult for them to have the opportunity to put anything on here. We'll be sure to get all kinds of fun photos, video, and messages from the presenters on very soon. There are so many people to thank regarding SIFE this week, but I would like to give a special thanks to Larry Becker and Ron "Webmaster!" Forbes for getting such a great news page put together for us. Many of you might be reading this because of the link from that page.

Thank you all for your support. We are looking forward to returning home to celebrate with our friends and family at La Sierra University. Jeremy Ramos and I also happen to have a test on Monday (Hi Dr. Kugler!)...

(More to come)

(And don't forget to leave a comment or two)

Message from Dr. Wisbey

I can't even begin to describe the sense of pride and excitement that each of us are experiencing as we watch our team. John, Carrie, Adam, Deisy, and Warren are remarkable, and they have an uncanny ability to share all that we have learned about service with uncanny poise. I can hardly wait to see them take the stage and share our campus' determination to see the world transformed.

I spoke with Elder Don Schneider, President of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. They will soon be in meetings with all of our world church leaders, and he is keeping our team in prayer. He looks forward to sharing with the church leaders this evening that LSU has represented our church with incredible enthusiasm.

Final Four!!!

The team is now gathered right outside the main presentation hall preparing to give our final four presentation at the World Cup. One of the top four teams will be selected to represent the world as global SIFE champion. Deisy and Yennie are sitting next to me making sure their names get in to the blog. Now they are laughing. Right now we are trying to just relax and focus on the presentation we are about to make. The whole team is gathered around us here and encouraging us as we prepare. Dr. Wisbey just kneeled behind me to ensure this blog is meeting university standards. I kid. He sends his warmest greetings to you all. Keep us in your prayers. We are taking the stage in just a few minutes. This has been such an incredible year for the team and it is so exciting to be able to share our story this last time on the world stage.

On to the semi-final round

We are on to the next round!!! After some tough competition, we have moved on along with 15 other SIFE teams from around the world. Tomorrow we compete again as we work toward the final four round. The teams in our league are (in order).

Singapore

Zimbabwe

United States (at 10:25 EST)

Uzbekistan

We just received the packet of judges comments from today. There were some great responses that we had been hoping for. We also got some great feedback to help us improve ourselves for the next round. 

Opening Round Starts Tomorrow

We just got back from the opening ceremonies for the world cup here in New York City. The night concluded with an automated distribution of the teams into eight leagues for the first round of competition tomorrow. This world cup competition includes 44 teams from countries around the world. Each of these teams is the national champion for their country. This will not be an easy competition by any means. Tomorrow we are in a league with the teams from:

Senegal
Puerto Rico
Singapore
Germany
Lesotho
United States (that's us whooooooo!!!)

We get to give our presentation last in the schedule at 3:45 EST. Winners of the opening round will be announced in the evening. We are being narrowed down from 44 to 16 teams in this process, in preparation for the final four round.

We had such a great time tonight meeting teams from all around the world. It was so incredible to have our team called up on stage to represent the U.S. as we host this World Cup Competition. Keep us in your prayers. We are looking forward to sharing our story tomorrow.

And leave some comments for us (or questions). The team loves to feel that connection with everyone back home.

The Waiting

The team took the red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York City last night/this morning. Almost all of us have finally gotten to our rooms. A few of us (myself included) are still waiting for ours to open up. So we don't look too impressive right now, but we took the opportunity while waiting for our room to go and meet some of the other SIFE teams around the lobby here in the New York City Hilton. We had a great time meeting students from the teams from Amsterdam and Kazakhstan. We are looking forward to meeting all of the other teams tonight at the cultural fair and opening ceremonies. More later...Our room just opened up!!!

Fire in the Hole!!!

This past year has been quite a journey for the team. It had been in the works since the end of the previous competition cycle. Everyone was so dedicated and so passionate about their work that it was only natural that the same came out in the actual presentation of our operations and results. We are leaving for New York City tonight to share that story. Adam and I primarily present on the Build-a-Village project and our on-campus village that we are building (Fire in the Hole). The whole decision to stay at LSU at least an extra year to work on an M.B.A. (last year) was based initially upon the fact that I would have the opportunity to work on this project with American-Sudanese Partnerships. Everytime I read the updates on their blog AmericanSudanesepartnerships.blogspot.com I want to jump up out of my chair and cheer. I am really excited about this week. We are leaving for the airport in less than five hours. It won't be easy trying to sleep on the flight to NY. There's just so much to think about. Well for now, check out this fun highlights video of our journey to the final round of the National competition in Dallas earlier this year.

The Blogging Begins

Hi,

John Razzouk here. La Sierra University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Team President 2005-2007. The team is gearing up for the World Cup this week. We will be representing La Sierra University, Riverside, California, and the United States of America (wooooooh!!!). We're pretty excited about it too.

Throughout this week, I, and the rest of the five member presentation team will be giving you fun updates of the competition process and thoughts about the SIFE experience.

Join us, leave comments, good times!!!