"The Innovators" at Calvin

February 8, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

It's not quite The Apprentice. But it's close.

On Saturday, February 12 the student life division at Calvin College will
present an Apprentice-like contest called The Innovators.

And like TV's The Apprentice this contest will match teams of contestants
against each other in a real-life project with a final "boardroom" judging and
a cash prize to the team with the most innovative project.

Teams will get their task at 10 am that morning from "The Shirley," Calvin
vice president for student life Shirley Hoogstra.

They then will have nine hours to complete their assignment. At 7 pm that
evening all the participants (there will be five teams with 10 people per team)
will gather in the Fine Arts Center auditorium - "the boardroom."

There, in front of "The Shirley" and a studio audience (fellow students,
faculty and staff) the judging will take place.

Each member of the winning team will take home a crisp $100 bill and there
will be other prizes (gift certificates and two iPod Shuffles) for the
audience.

At the conclusion of the show all five teams and the audience will be invited
to Calvin's Commons Dining Hall for a pizza party.

Hoogstra says the event is a way to have fun, but also accomplish an important
task for the college.

"I can't say too much about the task because we need to keep it secret until
that day." she says, "but I can say it is something our (student life) division
has been considering. In the course of our brainstorming we realized we needed
more student input on the issue. And so we came up with this contest as a way
to have a fun student activity and also get some important work done."

Each team will be provided with paper, easels, markers, a digital camera,
computer access (including internet), an hour of scheduled conference calls and
meals. At the end of the contest each team will be allowed up to 15 minutes in
the boardroom for presentation and evaluation.

Hoogstra credits two of her colleagues - Joy Bouwman and Betsy Cooper - for
coming up with the idea and running with it.

"They've been great," she says. "We're all having a lot of fun planning this
and we think it will be a great event."

Hoogstra is quick to point out, however, that her "The Shirley" bio on the
Innovators website is fictional.

See http://www.calvin.edu/admin/student_life/innovators/index.htm

Contact Shirley Hoogstra at 526-6453, Betsy Cooper at 526-7528 or Joy'l
Bouwman at 526-7549

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Received on Tue Feb 8 14:20:06 2005