SO EXCITED!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!!! We're doing the finale event tomorrow night! I'm so stinkin' excited I think I could jump and shout for joy!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!

You all should definitely come out and support me; and even if you can't come and vote for me, you could at least put in a good word for me to all the other people that you know coming! 8D Especially since I know all you people are coming! Hehe.

If only we could fit more than 400 or so people in that Tivoli Turnhalle. That would be exciting! But I don't know, 400 is the biggest crowd I've ever been in front of, so we'll see how this one goes. Maybe this will be the launching pad for my public speaking career that I never thought of before. Or maybe it will be the defining moment when I realize that I could make $1,000,000 + per hour just for speaking to a crowd of people just like Donald Trump! You never know! You all just keep your eyes and ears open and just maybe one day, you'll hear the name Benjamin Gillespie on the futuristic holograph stand in your living room while nursing a brand new brewsky. You never know! :D

What I do know is that I'm super thrilled to be a part of this whole event and I am really wound up and looking forward to tomorrow night's event! I look forward to getting to meet a lot of you tomorrow, and getting to hear about what part you enjoyed most about this inaugural event or what part you had to play in it. :D

For all you VIP ticket holders, I'll see you tomorrow at 5:30pm at the Tivoli Turnhalle, and for all of you who have regular event tickets, I can't wait to talk about the whole program and vote for who you want "THE APPRENTICE"
to be. And for all you out there who don't have a ticket, you should really put some thought into maybe finding some time to come out and see what this whole thing was and how it went down and be a part of it yourself.

Until tomorrow night! Hats off to all of you who helped put this together for a magnificent job well done!

 

Ta-ta for now!

COME ONE, COME ALL!!!

Be a part of the first Apprentice Challenge Boardroom Finale Event

You can be one of the first people to vote for your winning APPRENTICE:

What: Apprentice Challenge @ Metro State Boardroom Finale Event

Where: Tivoli Turnhalle

Tickets are available at the door for $25

When: May 1^st, 2008

7:00pm – 9:30pm

Dress: Business Casual

Who: The 10 Apprentice Challenge Competitors

Family and Friends

Sponsors

Staff

YOURSELF

Come vote for me! (Yes, YOU get to vote for the Apprentice!)

All done?

Hey all!

 

Well, it's hard to actually say this, but we're done. The final project has been completed and we're on the wind-down moving toward Thursday's Boardroom Finale! It has been one incredible ride and I can definitely say that I will miss it. We've learned so much and gained an incredible amount of experience from this program. And, I must also note that, The A Team has MARKED A WIN!!!! Congratulations to Chris, Kaleigh, Cindy, Ashley and Giedre!!! You guys worked your tails off for this project and definitely deserve this win! I can't express to you in any other manner how excited I was to see your responses Kaleigh and Ashley, and Chris it was even better to see your leadership guide you all to a win. It was a wonderful effort! I hope you all enjoy your dinner with Dr. Jordan!

 

Now, I also want to say "THANK YOU!" to my teammates for this project. Noah, I first of all want to thank you for your great leadership and encouragement! The way you kept us in line and on top of things for this project was excellent and your work on that report was Awesome!!! David, thank you for helping me organize all the software information and helping us with all that research! Erin and Heidi thank you for what help you could afford. I know you guys were incredibly busy during the last three weeks and I really appreciate the work you were able to put in to help us out. I really enjoyed getting the chance to work with you all on this last project and getting to see a different teams perspective on dealing with the projects. I thank you all for graciously accepting me into your team and working with me so enthusiastically! We did a great job guys, with or without a win, we pulled off a ton in the last three weeks.

 

To all of you, I must also add, that as the youngest person in this group, you have each given me examples. Examples of how to live life, of how to work responsibly, of how to have fun no matter what, of how to enjoy the company of those around you, and of how to work things out, no matter how hard they seem to get (thanks Kaleigh). Again, this whole program was one incredible ride and if given the chance again, regardless of how much work it has taken, I would still do it again!!!

 

I want to also say thank you to all the staff at the Alumni House. Cherelyn, this was an excellent idea and is definitely worth considering for next year! Thank you for the opportunity! Janell, thank you for always cheering me up and talking me through things. You were an awful lot of help to me and I could not thank you enough for it. Josh, thank you for all that hard work that you did behind the scenes (all that intensive scheduling and arranging of things), and Stefanie, thank you as well for all your hard work on the website and other logistics stuff. I know that we aren't aware of everything that you guys did, and I also know that it was astronomical in size, so thank you very much!!!! Also, thank you to Gini and Melissa for your assistance at the Alumni House as well as being ears when we were all in grumpy moods. And thank you to David Sandusky my excellent mentor and guide, as well as Derek Anguilm and all the other people who gave us direction or encouragement throughout the project. My thanks also go to the Media Center for their wonderful work with all of the filming for this project and especially to Franklin for his care and concern to make sure that we all got filmed as much as he could make happen, even at personal life expenses sometimes. Thank you Franklin for being a great college and excellent friend! :D

Furthermore, I want to thank my parents and family for putting up with me when I was grumpy and tired after staying up to God-knows-when hours in the morning trying to finish up project work, and for giving me their ears as well when I was upset or angry. Especially, to my dad for his endless love and devotion to supporting and encouraging me through this program and who always seemed to have words that would help pick me up of the ground.

 

Finally, I want to give special thanks to my fiancé, Lydia! We've gone through a ton this semester honey, and I could never express my full thanks to you in any manner! Your love and support has been the primary thing that has kept me going throughout this project. Your encouragement has been wonderful and your patience has helped so much! Thank you so much Sunshine! I love you!

 

Again, Congratulations to the A Team and Thank you to everyone involved with this program. It has been excellent!!! I will check back in when we find out who has become THE APPRENTICE!!! Talk to you all soon.

CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEY!!!!

So I just found out this weekend that I am not the only happy person to get engaged on this wonderful project. That's right this weekend our dear little Ashley got engaged! Congratulations Ash, and the best of wishes to you!

Hey, maybe we should think about marketing this whole Apprentice thing differently. It could go something like...

Try the Apprentice Challenge! Meet important people, get life experience, and maybe even get hitched.

8D

Or maybe...

The Apprentice Challenge @ Metro State. There's more to life than just work. Consider engagement.

=D

Ok, so I'm slap-happy and tired. I'm off to bed, you all.

Have an extraordinary week!!!!

Ahh... High School.

Think.

Think back.

Think back to the days of Letter Jackets, Homecoming, varsity sports, and above all PROM! Well, that's what I've been thinking about for the past couple of days, after I watched my beautiful, and all grown-up, sister, Lexi, go to her Senior Prom. She had a gorgeous dress that she and our mom made, and that one of my other sisters, Bethany, designed (she's only 16 and she's already designing dresses!!! Rock on girlie). Four of our other siblings all asisted Lexi in getting ready for Prom. Shannon and Megan helped with hair, Bethany with trimming any left over threads from making the dress and doing Lexi's nails, Andrew helped running around getting any needed objects, and our youngest sister Caileigh helped with her hair as well. (I believe that's the order of help).

Overall, this was a family designed, family assisted Prom for Lexi and I don't think she could have been any happier. Her smile went from ear to ear and she was all giddy when we were getting ready to go to her dinner. They had an awesome dinner setup, thanks to the parents of one of Lexi's friends Lauren, and finally, they had a rocking Cadilac Escalade limo to take them to Red Rocks Amphitheater for the Dance. It was really cool to watch and it blows my mind to see my little sister so close to graduating and heading off to college.



Lexi, I'm so proud of you and all you have accomplished to get you so far. You have so much going your way and as you keep moving ahead, trust God and He will lead you everywhere. I know you will do so well. I love you little sis!

Gotta have a little fun. :D

Hehe, so I was reviewing my pictures from the last three projects and came across a couple of us playing around. I figured I would show you all them as a little reminder, to you (my readers) and to all my fellow competitors, that in all of our busy lives, remember to have fun, because without it life becomes nothing but a dull bore, a life of non-importance. Have Fun!!!

Stiring things up…

Well, the introduction to Project #4 today was nothing that I expected. In fact, it totally Surprised me! It was intense (see picture below) and full of new things for us all! First of all, our meeting was approximately two hours longer than the normal training session, ending us around 2:30pm. Second of all, we learned that we will be doing an eco-audit of the restaurant La Casita. For everyone who doesn't know, this place has rocking food of the Mexican influence, and have, at least, state-wide known Tamales! AND it's pretty cheap (I think the most expensive item on the menu is $5.85). The third, and probably largest change, is the one that had the most impact on our make up as teams.

That's right; the teams have been mixed up. The process was all based on random drawing and led to the combination of Heidi Harrold, Noah Steingraeber, Erin Kasch, David Foos, and I all to be on the new team, and Kaleigh Braun, Cindy Cervantes, Chris Wilcox, Ashley Gilchrist, and Giedre Stasiunaite on the other team. This will be an interesting mix, as the teams haven't really changed much, but enough to put things in different perspective. I would like to wish everyone on the other team, an incredibly exciting project, and I can't wait to see what you all come up with to present for the end of this project.

Well, those are the pretty big key points of the beginning to this project. I look forward to getting to explain more as we go on. Keep checking in. :D

(and for those of you who were at the meeting, you might recognize this photo. So yeah, maybe I did play a little bit during our training, but I just had to show my readers what I look like in the middle of an intense, information loaded meeting).

:D