Mr. Steingraeber would like to thank...

I need to do some shout outs, thank yous, hip-hip-hoorays and give out some pats on the backs for everyone that has contributed to my learning experience throughout this semester.

I may not have excelled at school like I normally do because of my "tenacious" involvement in the Apprentice program, but I think that is because this whole program was such a huge stepping stone down the right path for my career.  

 

So allow me to get started....

I absolutely must thank my team, the one & the only.....

5280 CLOSERS

YOU ALL ARE ROCKSTARS!!!!

DAVID

 

My hombre! Sir...these challenges would not have been the successes they were if it were not for you and your great dedication. I always could rely on you, no matter what! You were the backbone of the team and  you were always there sticking it through the thick and thin! Whether it be in the boardrooms, eating some grub, drinking some brewskis (or free "organic" margaritas @ La Loma!), listening to me complain about life, or just being the rock solid of a leader that kept me focused while we were running around downtown talking with restaurant owners to keeping kids from smacking each other during the science day (or from breaking $500 femur bones) and even keeping me alive on numerous death defying occasions (Snowboarding follies and scaling buildings with rickety old ladders). 

You were always there to lend a hand my friend. As silly as it may sound, I definitely consider you as a brother from another mother!  No more staying up till 5AM working on projects or getting lost in underground parking garages (Dude! Where's my car!), but all the work has paid off sir...3 wins & 1 loss = one hell of an inaugural Apprentice Challenge season!! We almost sweeped'em! You got MVP in my book sir and I know that we would not have been nearly as successful if it wasn't for your contributions. Thank you! I appreciate you and all your efforts because without you, I know we would not have been nearly as successful as we have been. 

GIEDRE

Where do I start with you, my crazy, yet favorite Lithuanian! You have done it, you have accomplished the Apprentice Challenge and with flying colors! I congratulate you on your win and I am very happy for you. I definitely do not mind coming in second place because you are one HELL of a woman to compete with! I swear you are either part machine, a cyborg, or an android from some secret Lithuanian government agency lab that engineered/created you. Maybe my imagination and creativity are taking too much control over my thoughts, but I can vouch for your great work ethic, dedication, involvement and overall commitment to always doing the best you can.  You always keep trying your best, even though you achieved it long ago. It boggles me how much you continue to impress me with your un-human-like determination. YOU are a ROCKSTAR!

I guess you were truly more hungry for victory then I.  It makes me question my hefty appetite for success, but it is always good to be kept on your toes, so I thank you for that. You have taught the team and I what perseverance is all about and to never lose sight of the goals we were trying to achieve, even if we were constantly disagreeing with you. That is something that many people cannot do, charging past all the criticism and barriers that may block your way to the point or goal you are trying to reach. You gave us all great support and I cannot thank you enough for that. You were motivating and supportive, in essence- you are kind of like a female Tony Robbins with a Lithuanian accent. Crazy comparison, maybe, but you are a motivator and a true leader. Know that everyone is very proud of you for your accomplishments. I know I am. You are a TRAILBLAZER and I congratulate you on being Metro State's 1st APPRENTICE!!

HEIDI

Oh little Heidi...you may have been unseen the past few months, but little did everyone know of the great things you were doing behind closed doors and into the wee hours of the mornings. The best way I can explain it is comparing you to Santa's little workers, better known as elves. (bare with me, this should make sense)...Santa would not be recognized as the gift giving saint that he is, without the help of his thousands (maybe millions) of elves working behind the closed doors slaving away over all the toys. Thus, our team - the 5280 Closers - would not have been as successful if it wasn't for the all the hard work you did while you were awake during the graveyard shift, behind closed doors. You are dedicated to working and that has been evident, especially with the team not being around when you were chugging away at the projects due to us sleeping.  Your organization and focus kept us on the straight and narrow whenever we began to weeble-wobble in the projects. (Weeble wobbles, you know... the little kids toys that, well, weeble and wobble??) I appreciate that along with your contributions and joining in on my sillyness when we were trying to focus to get stuff done. 

You are heading down a great path and I thank you for sticking it through to the end with the program. I hope you get a great score on your MCATS and I know that you will make a great and wonderful doctor someday. Always remember to wiggle your toes in your shoes when you are presenting. No one ever looks at your shoes when you speak. Oh, and no puking... people don't like that so much, especially when you are presenting on/or about food. I further promise to stay far away from any form of COMET. (inside jokes people, sorry if you do not get them, ask Heidi to fill you in). Skiddly- DOO!

ERIN

First things first...Don't worry, your dog is not defecating all over your house just because you have not been there in the last 20 minutes. Besides, everyone and everything poops. Also, make sure to never move your car ever again from that perfect parking spot you got right in front of your house! It will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever be available again because God has decided that you are only allowed to park there once in a lifetime (yeah, God and I talk and that is what he told me). I appreciated the time you were able to contribute to the whole program. It was a difficult thing to participate in throughout the hectic semester.  Great job Erin and I know you will go far with your many skills. I really appreciated your cheery attitude throughout the whole program. It was always nice to see a smiling face. 

Aye carumba...What a challenge

We have just wrapped up our 4th and final project! It is kind of exciting to be done with everything, but sad as well. 

This 4th project was quite an experience. To start it off the teams were switched up slightly with Ben Gillespie being traded to the 5280 Closers for Giedre Stasiunaite. It made things awkward and slightly upsetting to have this switch occur since the 5280 Closers had a pretty good mojo going, but it was a great experience to get to know Ben better and to interact with a different kind of mind set. I must say, I was concerned because I was unsure of Ben's work ethic, but I can state now that he was awesome and helped us through the project. Not all individuals on Team 5280 Eco Closers were able to help out as much, but they all tried their best and sometimes that is all you can do, is your best.

I can admit that when I heard the other team won I was both happy and upset. Happy that they won and upset that we didn't. I know the other team had done quite an excellent job on their project and you can definitely tell with their presentation. I think that is what it boiled down to, the presentation. The 5280 Eco Closers had an excellent presentation and Ben definitely pulled through with the enthusiasm in the end. Thanks for finishing strong for us in the end on that Ben. I know I was struggling with the lack of sleep we all got and my crazy "red" eye

ball probably freaked out the judges a little bit.

 

We conducted an Eco audit on Tamales by La Casita, a Mexican restaurant and tamale production facility located off 36th and Tejon. An Eco audit basically consists of analyzing a business to identify their water and energy usage and how much waste is being generated. It is a measurement of how big their carbon footprint is. After getting all that info figured out we had to do  a lot of research and come up with solutions that provide a return on investment. 

We tried to focus on the ROI a lot since our owner was focused on it.  Our restaurant was definitely not involved with the whole process in any way near the other teams (Kate's at 35Th), which created two completely different dynamics to be judged. The reason for that is due to the current expansion Tamales by La Casita is in the process of with their building a new location at DIA. 

I feel that the Eco Closers did a fantastic job in dealing with all the obstacles and road blocks that we encountered, both internally within the team and externally with the restaurant. We did after all open Mr. Paul Sandoval's eyes to how he can green up his business while gaining better profits. 

This project truly tested us with the barriers it put up along with school coming to a close for the semester. Everyone had projects due, tests, jobs and their own personal lives to deal with on top of this huge task of conducting an audit, finding solutions for the results and putting together a huge report. I really have to thank David and Ben for their huge contributions and Heidi coming to the rescue in the end along with Erin's graphic design skills. 

Now I am off to begin my last project...finishing out the semester!

I must also thank: 

Ms. Diane Dandeneau from the Green Heart Institute

(www.ghici.org) Find out what you can do to make the world a better place, get an eco audit!

Professor Darrin Duber-Smith and President of Green Marketing    (www.greenmarketing.net) Got marketing strategy? Go green in order to make the green with your business!

Mr. David Steele of Enduring Energy  GO SOLAR! It just makes sense to.

(www.enduringenergy.com)

Mr. Vince Curran from Pedro's Planet

(www.pedrosplanet.com) Need office supplies? Get green ones from a local source, call Pedro!

Mr. Derek Anguilm of Denver Investment Advisors 

(www.denveria.com) Not sure what to do with all that $$ you have? Invest it with Denver Investment Advisors and make your $$ work for you. 

 

Mr. Paul Sandoval and Gabe Sandoval of Tamales by La Casita 

Go try their delicious and great tasting tamales. I dare you to have just one. Triple dog dare you. 

Ms. Kendra Sandoval of Alliance for Sustainable Colorado 

(www.sustainablecolorado.org) 

ASC Header" width="760" height="100">

Without their help, our project would have not been anywhere near what it was. I must thank Stella's coffee house and my girlfriend, Kimberly, for our caffeinated energized project cram sessions as well.

**Losing market share or need to redefine your business? Get Green Marketing to standout amongst your competitors!

www.greenmarketing.net

**Get all your office supplies from Pedro's Planet because they provide free recycling for

 your office and they are a completely sustainable business. All $$ made from their recycling goes straight to Community Shares of Colorado, their vehicles are powered by bio-diesel and they try to source everything from local suppliers that are also sustainable. A true example in having as small of a carbon footprint as possible. www.pedrosplanet.com

***Don't go to Starbucks people, go to Stella's for your coffee and place to study, they are a local business with fair trade coffee and they have FREE wireless internet. Not only that, but the atmosphere is much more conducive to studying or meeting with your teammate/classmates.*** 

sesame street - its not easy being green

Kermit knows what he is talking about. It is not that easy being green. People tend to you pass you over because you are not standing out like flashy sprakels in the sky, or the stars in the sky. Green can be cool and freidnly like. Green is as important as a mountain and as big as an ocean...according to Kermit. It's beautiful.

This video is for my Spanish speaking Apprentice teammates...I think it is Spanish..maybe Portugese.

OUCH! 3rd Project Reward rattled my noggin!

The Closer's reward for winning the 3rd project kicked my butt!! We were given ski train tickets to Winter Park, all-day lift tickets and free equipment rental.

Before I continue on with my blog, I must take a second to thank Kaleigh for 

teaching everyone how to snowboard and helping us get down the mountain safely. We appreciated it greatly. Now Kaleigh may not be the saint you are imaging her to be because she was one of the ones that was constantly laughing at us. I think she took the falls of all the 5280 Closers as an extra bonus for, but I am sure it was pretty silly to see us all acting like some goofy footed goobers on the slopes of Winter Park. 

I think that the equipment is at fault for my spills and clumsy actions on the mountain, but I am sure others may disagree. I think being dehydrated and my not being used to the altitude played a significant part as well in my abilities of snowboarding. I am usually quite coordinated, but I did fall multiple times both backwards and forwards and I somehow fell to the right and left as well. It was a very long day for me and some of the others except for David and Erin.

David was snowboarding as well, but Erin skied. David has never snowboarded a day in his life (to my knowledge), but his Krav Macaw? Mcgraw?...Krav Maga - his Israeli martial arts training - helped out in his learning curve. Since I have not been too active with my Aikido (Japanese martial art) training, actually not at all since the start of Fall semester, my learning curve was not as great as his. David got snowboarding down pretty quickly

Erin was skiing the majority of the time, which she is fairly proficient at, so she was constantly looking up the mountain at all of us falling down everywhere. I am sure it was a site to see all of her teammates tumbling down the slopes going all over the place. I think I almost log rolled a 5 year old boy, but luckily the kid was tethered to his father who quickly pulled him out of the way of his demise. 

By the time of the last run I was pretty unsure of myself in getting down the mountain safely. The reason why is due to the fact that I had fallen back extremely hard once while going through this small tunnel on one of the green slopes where someone else had previously  fallen creating a huge divot, or hole in the snow. This caused my board to catch and send me flying backwards, whacking my noggin and popping my helmet off my head like it was a bottle rocket shooting into the sky. This was the just the first time that I fell that hard. There was a second time with similar results of sending my helmet off my head and into the sky, but luckily this last fall was right in front of the lift to take us to the bottom of the mountain. Thank the lord! I was off the mountain and into the train in a flash. 

I am surprised I remembered all of that after the falls I had. Nonetheless, it was a great time and I look forward to utilizing my new found skills the next time I hit the slopes, but I may revert back to skiing. Practice makes perfect though, as long as I can get a board that can accommodate my frame. 

MEAN GREEN!!

YEAH! THE ULTIMATE GREEN MACHINE!!!

I wish I was the Incredible Hulk to POUND the common sense into people about the conservation of energy, recycling and being less wasteful. It just makes sense to be mindful of the reosources we use in our day to day activities. The Earth is a finite piece of property that we cannot re-manufacture another version of.

I truly feel that to have a sustainable and thriving business today you must conserve your resources. By conserving you save money, by saving money you increase your profits. Not only conservation will increase your overall profit, but reusing durable goods and eliminating as much waste as possible will also bump up the money being made because you are not wasting it on new goods, or high trash bills. Of course these ideas are just the very tip of the ice berg in how businesses can operate efficiently in todays economy. By being green will allow you to make the green ($$), but with the added benefit of feeling like you are making a difference in your local community.

I pose this question to you...what are you doing to lessen your impact on this Earth? What simple things can you do on a daily basis to help improve the world we live in? Think about it....and I will come back with some answers for you to implement in your day to day life to help reduce your impact on the Earth.

Dreaming the big dream. Getting middle school aged children excited about math and science

THE 3RD PROJECT...Aye, aye, aye! I got whacked over 1,000 times with the reflex hammers that your doctor uses on you to test your knee reflexes! No bruises, but I think I know why Heidi chose me to be the teacher at that station in our Dreamers activity day...I am the biggest one in our team, so OF COURSE the big guy can take the hits. Some of those little middle schoolers have some strength! 

If you have not read the other blogs of the other participants in the program, then I will give you a quick rundown about what it is exactly I am talking about. 

On this project CH2M Hill and the Colorado "I have a Dream" Foundation came together and collaborated a plan for us (Apprentice Teams) to expand on to get young children (middle school aged) excited about science and math. CH2M is a private engineer

ing corporation owned by the employees and the Colorado "I Have a Dream" Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps underprivileged children succeed in school from 3rd grade up through their graduation from high school. These children are referred to as "Dreamers". I need to b

e frank with you...I hate math and I am a business major, so there is a minor co

nflict there especially with me being a Marketing major. After meeting with CH2M and the Dreamers Mentors my team got off to a huge start with our teams two project leads, Heidi and Erin. The activity day we set up for the Dreamers had 3 sections: Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Biology had 5 separate sections in its own.

 

Heidi set up a great biology section for the Dreamers to participate in with a lot of hands on activities. Little did I know that I was going to be a big part of the hands on participation by being hammered on with the little rubber reflex hammers that Heidi had found in some dark dungeon of torture. the five stations are detailed below:

1. There were dead cats that the kids got to dissect
2. a bone scavenger hunt
3. how the heart works station
4. sheep brains section where the kids learned how the human brain works along with the ability to touch and poke the sheep brain. 
   
5. Whack-a-Noah section. Actually, it was a knee-jerk reflex section discussing how it takes only 51 milliseconds for the reaction to occur along with other reflexes of the human body, but mainly a way for the kids to exert some pent up energy by whacking me with the hammers.

The 2ND section of the day was held in the MSCD physics lab with Physic

s Profess

or Doug Howey. Professor Howey taught the kids velocity, acceleration, and other types of movement by utilizing cars on a track with a motion sensing device that graphed the speed and movement of the car. The kids had fun with this activity, especially with launching the cars off the track! Made me almost make me dirty my knickers and trousers until Professor Howey showed me that the cars were designed to take a beating. Thank the lord!

The 3rd se

ction consisted of Chemistry experiments. There were 5 stations as well in this section that Dr. Eric Ball from MSCD's Chemistry experiment helped us out with. They were:

1. Collapsing cans with David and I. This demonstrated how atmospheric pressure and temperature can cause a can to implode and crush itself when heated then dropped into a cold vat of water
2. Slime and silly putty with Giedre, the French teacher. I say French because the Dreamers thought she was from France. This was the most fun station for the kids because they got to understand how polymers, when put together, can form certain products like Slime. 
3. Intro to Stem Kits - The STEM kit is a kit my team put together to further the Dreamers interest by enabling them to conduct experiments at home with household products. Heidi demonstrated the Cartesian Diver and Chromatography experiments that were included in their kits. 
4. Erin taught how acids and bases interacted by utilizing cabbage juice as our base and dropping in different types of acids ranging from ammonia to citrus juice.
5.  Dr. Ball demonstrated the "screaming Gummy bear" and other experiments that required a protective window and ventilation to be demonstrated. The Dreamers really liked this station due to the fire, noise, and explosions. Pretty cool stuff

The Dreamers really enjoyed their day at Metro with my team and I. They were engaged and had expressed an impressive amount of interest in the experiments we conducted. I remember one of the Dreamers, Tracy, expressing that he wanted to be an Astronomer. I thought that was pretty cool for him to want to learn more to possibly become a future scientist of the stars. 

Blog, blogger, bloggy, blogacious, blogtacular, blog, blog, blog...

I feel as though I need to clear up some very minor things prior to starting my blogs going forth.

I know that my blogs are not of a serious nature and they may lack some educational or wisdom sharing content, but I think I laid some ground rules earlier on when I stated that I was going to have fun with my blogging. It is all about the entertainment, what America is known for now days. I was thinking about outsourcing my blog to India, but I thought that may not really show, or illustrate, who I am to you- the reader, the audience. I hope you have had some fun along the way, but the end is near and approaching quite rapidly. Chris Wilcox stated:

"The end is just a Hop, skip, and jump away"

as he wrinkled his painted bunny nose at me when he was in his bunny costume this past Easter. Kidding, Chris does not dress up as the Easter bunny...maybe in his spare time in private, but not in public. Ha ha ha...jsut another example of me not taking things completely serious.

I was chatting with my teammate Giedre about her Blogs and how informative, intelligent and reflective her blogs are. I think she called my blogs those of a "silly boy", which does somewhat encompass who I am, but I consider myself a silly "MAN", not a boy (Many may argue with me on that). Giedre does really tell the reader about what is going on in the Apprentice quite well. I seem to touch on it here and there.

SO..with that said, I am going to try and have more blogs dedicated to the program, but with my off-the wall ones mixed in. I have already accomplished this task so far, but I am going to try and stick to it the best I can.

I will try to post blogs on a daily basis, but this may be more of a challenge for me then the actual Apprentice Challenge. I must continue on though with my blog about the 3rd Project in the Apprentice Challenge. Until the next Noah Blog...Cheerio!