Palm Beach Atlantic (Day 4)

The first thing our students did today is a very important aspect of our FELC program. Saying thank you! Each of the students wrote a letter to the wonderful donors who make this whole program possible. It's close to $600 per students to put on the 5-day program but because of the amazing people who believe in free enterprise and believe in the FELC program, each students pays about one-sixth of that price. All we ask in return is for our students to write a letter thanking them for their opportunity to participate in the free enterprise leadership challenge!

Now it's time for my personal favorite part of the week - the speech contest. Each company elected two representatives from their group to shine and give a speech on a specific topic. This year's topic is "does capitalism encourage greed?" The students could say "yes" or "no" but what the judges were looking for is how they supported their theory. Was it logical? Were their points clear? We also looked at public speaking skills such as body language, clarity, appearance, eye contact, etc.

The students were in for a real treat today! Tia Diaz-Balart made a visit to the Palm Beach Atlantic
campus to speak about how to achieve your dreams and build a business. Diaz-Balart is the current director of the Schools for Educational Evolution and Development (SEED) South Florida.

"With a 'Yes, you can!' attitude, you can open a successful business in as little as three days!" says Diaz-Balart.

Diaz-Balart is also the founder of EcoChamber, the first and only global green chamber of commerce. She was also the previous vice president at rbb Public Relations, the national marketing manager at Hewlett-Packard's USA operations, and director at GDB Miami.

We also had our commercial contest today! It's always so entertaining to see the talent and creativity show through this project. Check out some of the commercials below!

Here is Picture This! Publications commercial:

Here is the Tye-Dye Ninjas commercial:

There were many more commercials, but I don't currently have the link for them!

Tonight, one of the entertainment companies put on an awesome karaoke party! In my opinion, they could have charged a little bit more for an entrance fee - that place was hoppin'! Picture This! Publications set up a photo booth right outside the karaoke party to attract as many customers as possible. Concessions had A LOT of thirsty karaoke singers and dancers and style had a wicked-looking t-shirt for every camper. What a success!

Tonight was the last night of selling! Tomorrow the companies will have only a few hours to sell the remainder of their inventory - then it's time to turn in the cash.