The monday after (by Carrie)

Hey did we win? Honestly, it doesn't even feel like I was there until I see all the pictures. You know how you always try to forget those times when you had the flu...you generally want to wipe that memory away? Well, I will never forget Friday, October 12, 2007! Thanks to everyone for their congratulations. But, thanks even more for the prayers and support to just give me 30 minutes without nausia for the final four round. God definately helped me up there and your guys' support was amazing. It's either that or the fact that I was a walking pharmacy! :)
Hooray for La Sierra!

Beyond the Bottom Line

I am back at work in the Office of Service-Learning at La Sierra University. Unofficially of course, so don't spread that around too soon. When we arrived here at LSU at about 3:00 this morning. At that time, I thought I would want to just sleep all day, but I just felt this strong need this morning to come to work.

I have been a complete World Cup Trophy hog the last couple of days. It was so much fun carrying it around to the airport and on the plane. I think my favorite moment yesterday was when I was sent through airport security with workers cheering and patting me on the back, and Adam Phillips, who was walking behind me, getting pulled aside to be searched.

I have the trophy here in my office right now, but today it will be sent to its rightful place traveling around the campus. One test of a champion is what comes after success. I have gotten to watch the new team act as true champions. Our work does not stop upon the receipt of recognition. I know the rest of the team woke up today as I did, with a hunger to get back to work and make a difference in the world around them. This team now has a very important responsibility. Teams around the world are now looking to them for inspiration and direction. The question may start with "how did they do it?" but that soon evolves into "how can we do more together?" Our goal was to share with teams around the world that Students in Free Enterprise have gone beyond only competition, to go beyond the bottom line as Dean Thomas taught us.

We build upon our failures and celebrate our success by increasing our efforts. These students are ready to do just that. The Students in Free Enterprise team at La Sierra University will continue to grow and build upon itself, increasing sustainability and working effectively with others around the world. This is not about a new team reaching the same level as an old team. This is about one team with the passion and committment to lead a student movement for an entire generation. And I believe that teams around the world now realize that they too are leaders in this movement, inspiring others, including us.

Picture Time!!!

Alright! I finally have some pictures to share.
This one to your left is of William Hickey, the President/CEO of the Sealed Air Corporation. They are the ones who produce Bubble Wrap, Cryovac, Instapak, and Jiffy Mailer, and just recently acquired ETHAFOAM. I was watching Mr. Hickey during the section of our presentation where we talk about our ethics project. In our project, we developed a student code of ethics based upon the Sealed Air Corporation Code of Conduct. He was sitting in the front row of judges tables (as he was one of our judges) and almost jumped out of his seat with excitement when we were giving our presentation. He came and found me afterwards and now we are developing a partnership to create a new ethics training program for Sealed Air and our other audiences.
The photo to your right is one of my favorites. After I finally made it out of the main presentation hall with the World Cup trophy, students from all other teams rushed to get a photo with the trophy and I (ok so just the trophy, but hey!). I have to find where the others like this one went, but there must have been at least 40 students in one of them. It was alot of fun. All of the students at the competition had such a great attitude and had so much passion. It was wonderful to be able to share the experience of holding the World Cup with them.

I think this image is pretty self-explanatory. But Carrie is still going to have some explaining to do when she gets home. If you zoom in on the Cup, you can get a great shot of a funny looking face. I'm sure you can visit this blog soon for retaliation photos of me from Carrie.

Here are some of the guys celebrating at the short reception following the closing ceremonies. And don't worry kids, it's only water.

More celebration!!!

And more to come...Time to go to the airport.

Finally I get to Blogg (Warren)

This past week has definately been one to tell stories of for years to come. It has been an honor to work with some of the most hard working people I have ever encountered. The past year, I have learned so much about leadership and keeping an organization sustainable with the concepts and philosophies implemented into our SIFE organization by John Razzouk. I encourage each and everyone of you to support next year's SIFE team. Have pride in your university and the message of service to the world. No matter how much money you make, I guarantee you, nothing will fullfill your life more than helping people. I realized this year that life is more than just the bottom line ( A message our SIFE Team shared with the world at competition).

I was given the opportunity to meet with people from around the world and learn more about my team members like Jose Ruiz ( A really cool guy) during this competition. The passion they have is amazing, and we as American who are blessed have a responsibility to empower people around the world. I love La Sierra University and have grown so much here (Right Cheryl? -inside joke) Henry Ford once said, " Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success."

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.

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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)