Next spring semester’s Apprentice Challenge @ Metro State was officially launched this week, with the selection of student participants and two kickoff events.

A program of the Alumni Association and Office of Alumni Relations, The Apprentice Challenge @ Metro State provides an educational twist to a favorite reality TV show. In the program, a team of Metro State juniors, from nine majors, will get a hands-on opportunity to work with successful business and nonprofit leaders on projects that impact the local community.

The students will form teams that compete each month to develop and implement community-based projects, while being mentored by icons in the local business and nonprofit communities. The winning “apprentice” will be named on May 1, 2008, at the finale event, “The Boardroom.” The winning student will receive a full-tuition scholarship for their senior year at Metro State and a paid internship with a local company.

The 10 student competitors represent a wide variety of interests and majors at the College, from computer information systems to political science to education. They are of various ethnicities and have a range of backgrounds: One served in the U.S. Navy, one is from Lithuania and another is a world-ranked air hockey player. The ten participants and their majors are:

Kaleigh Braun, Marketing
Cindy Cervantes, Management
David Foos, Finance
Ashley Gilchrist, English, Teacher Education
Benjamin Gillespie, Modern Languages
Heidi Harrold, Biology
Erin Kasch, Speech Communication
Giedre Stasiunaite, Political Science
Noah Steingraeber, Marketing
Chris Wilcox, Computer Information Systems

On Thursday, Nov. 29, the student participants were welcomed at a dinner at, fittingly, The Corner Office restaurant. At the informal gathering, “the students had an opportunity to network, meet key business and community leaders involved in this process, and enjoy a nice gathering at one of Denver's trendy new restaurants,” according to Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Joshua Anderson.

Speakers at the dinner included Alumni Association Executive Director Cherrelyn Napue, communications professional Gerie Gomez Howard, President Stephen Jordan, Metro State Foundation Board member Lola Salazar and Alumni Association President Eric Peterson.

A more formal kickoff reception is being held Tuesday, Dec. 4, at The Tap Room in Denver, in which participants will learn about the community-based projects they will be assigned. Look in next week’s @ Metro for more details about the Dec. 4 kickoff reception and the specific projects.

To read more about The Apprentice Challenge, go to http://www.mscd.edu/%7Ecollcom/artman/publish/apprentice_twv5090507.shtml. To learn more about the competitors go to http://www.mscd.edu/~alumni/apprenticechallenge/competitors.htm.