Culver-Stockton College IMA Apprentice Competition

See and read the Apprentice stories from WGEM! (click the camera icon in the upper right of the screen once the page loads to view the viedo)
Part I
Part II
Part III (Finale)

Article by Caly Kite and Joe Selby

The Apprentice competition was launched by the Culver-Stockton College student chapter of the IMA as a fun way to promote the activities of the organization while bringing together sudents from across the campus in a friendly competition. Thirty-five students braved the camera and created one-minute auditions for the 16 available slots. The audition tape was shown to a local business whose employees made their recommendations for the 16 candidates to participate.

The chosen students will compete for eight weeks on various tasks that are presented and judged each Wednesday evening in Mabee Auditorium (HER 207). The culmination of the program will be to name the Apprentice who has been defined as the student who has been able to both collaborate and compete within the game to emerge as the best Culver- Stockton College student based on creativity, cunning, ethics, and skill. The 16 contestants were divided into two teams. The first team, The Chilidippers, originally began with Chelsea Scheer, Robert Kuhnle, Troy Hamilton, Chris Lee, Carl Circkl, David Reekie, Stacey Bregenzer, and Kara Mueller. The second team selected the name The Chosen Ones and consisted of Adrian Cummings, Chelsea Taylor, Jessica DeMarco, Andrew Gessling, Jan Jud, Lorenzo Jaimez, Aaron Feisler, and Lucas Cramsey.

The first competition kicked off on September 27th and was conducted during the inaugural Business Division Ethics Week. The task was to create a Student Code of Ethics and present it on tape to be shown to selected business classes which voted for their favorite presentation. The Chosen Ones were selected as the winner of task one for their humorous presentation. The prize awarded to The Chosen Ones was Press Box seating for the November 4th home game.

The task for week two of The Apprentice competition was all about sales and this time the Chilidippers came out on top. The teams together earned over $1,100, of which $100 will be donated to the American Cancer Society. The remained of the funds raised will help support the activities of the IMA student chapter. Congratulations went to the Chilidippers again for winning task three and creating an awesome plan for spending $5,000,000 to improve Culver-Stockton College. Both teams came up with excellent suggestions. While The Chosen Ones did not win the task, they were given kudos for their positive presentation about the campus in general.

Task four ended with the Chilidippers winning their third straight challange. This time, the group designed a catchy billboard that would appeal to students traveling on US 61. As a result, The Chosen Ones voted Jessica DeMarco and Chelsea Taylor out as the Week 4 Pepsi Winners of the Week. In a surprise move, the Chosen Ones then chose Chelsea Scheer from the Chilidippers to balance out the teams. Wow the Chilidippers did it again and won their fourth week in a row! Despite a long debate among the judges, The Chosen Ones were once again on the losing end of the competition to design a recycling or energy conservation program. Both teams chose to implement recycling bins, but the Chilidippers had a more complete plan for picking up and disposing of the contents. The Chilidippers also chose to include the community of Canton. Congratulations to both teams for their great ideas and hard work. Lorenzo Jaimez and Chelsea Scheer were voted out of the competition and were the Week 5 Pepsi Winners of the Week. The Chosen Ones took Kara Mueller from the Chilidippers.

The task for weeks six and seven was to gather canned items for local families in need during the holiday season. Items collected will help further the WGEM Fall Harvest sponsored by County Market. The food drive ended on November 15th with The Chosen Ones pulling out the victory. The Chilidippers voted Crhis Lee and Dave Reekie out of the competition and chose Robert Kuehnle as the newest Chilidipper. The final four contestants competed in a trivia competition on Monday, November 27th with Lucas and Kara winning. This left only two to battle it out to see who would be the first ever C-SC Apprentice. The final task was a dinner interview with five judges. The announcement came on Wednesday, November 29th in front of a large and excited crowd as Lucas Cramsey was crowned the winner. Lucas will receive a trip to Washington D.C. with Mrs. Lynn Fox and $300 spending money. Kara didn't go home disappointed, however, as Mrs. Fox announced that she would take Kara along on the trip as well.

The Apprentice Winner