Hello Again!

I just got back from the SIFE regional competition at Rhode Island yesterday. As our first year being a SIFE team, We reaped two trophies : Second runner up & Rookie of the Year. I'm proud of everyone on my team and all those fantastic projects we did during the past year.

Oh, I should probably tell you a little more about SIFE. Students in Free Enterprise(SIFE) is one of the largest international college students organizations that mobilizes university students to make a difference in the community by empowering people and creating economic opportunities through the resources of free enterprise. Each year, SIFE teams from around the U.S. will compete both at the regional and national levels by presenting our projects we have done to top business executives, and the U.S. national champion will go on to compete at the SIFE World Cup. Pretty exciting, isn't it?

This year, we have developed 13 projects, such as the business plan competition partnering Manchester Young Professionals Network, Business-within-Business for a family resource center located in Derry, NH, breast cancer walk, and two other international projects in southern Africa and China under development. We have been working with businesses, nonprofits, educational instituions to committ to the future of the greater manchester area.

We have gone through a long way from getting officially recognized and supported on campus to actually getting ourselved in shape for the regional competition. Luckily, we received support from the President's office, Campus Programming and Leadership, School of Business, center of entrepreneurship and Student Government Association. SIFE SNHU chapter is getting bigger and stronger every day.

The regional champion told us after that they were impressed by such a outstanding "rookie" , and they will have to watch their back next year. :)

What impress me most are my teammates who are, I can say, perfect demonstrations of the saying: one never realizes one's full potential until he pushes the envelop. At the very beginning, we couldn't even pull together a complete presentation. Fortunate for us, our two sam walton fellows: Keith Moon and Lucy Moon, certainly know how to bring out the best of each individual on the team. We have been grilled real hard during this one-month preparation, I have to say. But everyting bit of hard work paid off really well in the end. We literally went from duckling to swans!

People always say that you must find what you are passionate about, and stick to it. For me personally, it's the moment I'm lost that I find the right thing. It's such a wonderful feeling to be part of a great organization that every second I spent for it is a beautiful brush stroke in a page of my life; that evey morning, I couldn't wait to jump out of my bed, knowing that I have some important work to do.

You know what's the best part? It's knowing that every action you take is going to make a huge difference in someone else's life. It's not just about you anymore, it's more about the world we live in. It's not an era of one super hero, it the age of responsible global citizens.

A head for business, A heart for the world... Proud to be a SIFer!

Posted by Lin Li at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the first day of spring and This is my first blog post. I'm always thrilled to see the sun come out. Everything is lovely and refreshing, and I feel that something good is around the corner.

I'm Lin Li, a junior in the 3Year Business Administration Honors Program. I think this program is awesome because I get to save 25% of the tuition, which is even more awesome under the current economic situation. :)

Spring break officially started a couple hours ago, and it's such a big relieve for me because my life has been on a non-stop spinning wheel for quite a while. Though I love a busy and fast-paced life, hey, everybody needs a break. One thing I learned when I came to the states from China is that we really need to control the pace of our life, otherwise, we will be stuck in "jams" and miss out on all the good things along the way.

I was just cleaning up my room today and I found something interesting. When I was a orientation leader last semester, Scott ( our lovely director of student life) asked each one of us to sign a leadership oath. It's basically a contract where each orientation leader promised that we will be a role model and treat everyone in respect and dignity... blah blah blah. When I signed that, I didn't turned the paper over to see what's in the back. Today, when I digged this paper out from my messy drawer, I found a "poem" on the back of the leadership oath, which kind of reminded me of the scene in the movie- National Treasurer where Nicolas Cage claimed there was a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
It turned out to be a real treasurer to me. Below is the poem:

A creed to Live By
Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others,
It's because we are different that each of us is special.

Don't set your goals by what other people deem important,
Only you know what is best for you.

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart
Cling to that as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless

Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or the future
By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life

Don't give up when you still have something to give
Nothing is really over...until the moment you stop trying

Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect,
It's the fragile thread that binds us to each other

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find
The quickest way to receive love is to give love
The fastest way to lose love is to hold on to tightly
and the best way to keep love is to give it wings

Don't dismiss your dreams. To be without dream is to be without hope.
To be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don't run through life so fast that you forget where you've been
But also know where you are going.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored every step of the way.

Amazing, isn't it? simple, but classic! This is just like one of those books when I closed my eyes after reading it, I will have a relieving smile on my face, and when I repeat it in my mind, I will have a clear vision of where I'm going.

I would like to dedicate this poem to all my friends and to this lovely spring! Happy Spring Break!

Talk soon!

Posted by Lin Li at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)