The results from day 1 are posted!

The results from yesterday's team assessment are in and the results have been posted! Click here to view all the state scores.

Let the games begin!

The teams have landed, team activities have begun , and the competition is officially underway! Remember to turn in your coach of the year forms by 1pm tomorrow at the registration desk and don't forget to check the online scoreboard here to keep track of your team progress!

LifeSmarts participants register with Miss Tee

South Carolina celebrates being in LA

New Hampshire shows off LifeSmarts' five program areas

Team captains prepare to lead their teams to victory

Michigan goes over championship rules with Emily Stevenson

A member of the Student Advisory Panel shares his ideas for growing the LifeSmarts program

NCL Board Member Ted Debro welcomes the 2011 teams

Much thanks to all our sponsors

The LifeSmarts program wouldn't be possible without generous contributions from all our sponsors. The 2011 LifeSmarts National Championship is sponsored by:

Underwriter

Visa

Lead Sponsor

Western Union

LifeSmarts Champion

Experian

McNeil Consumer Healthcare

Team Builder

Toyota Financial Services

Question Master

Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC

Expert

American Express

Scorekeeper

CBM Credit Education

Members from the Hawaii team sign sponsor thank you cards

Summer Institute application

We need your help! This summer, LifeSmarts is holding a Summer Institute for coaches interested in strengthening the program by drafting new content. Click here to view the application.

Follow the championship action online!

This year, we created an online scoreboard so you can follow the action in real time. Click here to view.

Registration sign-in sheet

We want to keep in touch with you! Please fill out this form when you register by clicking here

Welcome to California!

Let the games begin! The LifeSmarts team has officially landed in warm, sunny Universal City, CA! The 2011 National LifeSmarts Championship kicks off tomorrow. See you tomorrow at the registration desk starting at 12pm- be sure to get your team photo taken!

Championship! Hollywood! Trivia!

Only three more days until the start of the 2011 LifeSmarts National Championship! With teams from 33 states headed to LA this weekend, let’s take a look at some Hollywood trivia:

• In 1923, Harry Chandler, a real estate agent and investor built the famous Hollywood Sign to advertise the area "Hollywoodland." The total expense for this advertisement was $21,000. Initially, it was built to last for only eighteen months. The Hollywood sign is no eighty-eight years old.

• As the sign wasn’t designed to be permanent, after a time, letters began to fall down. To restore the sign, in 1978, an auction of certain letters was held by Hugh Hefner, founder of "Playboy" magazine. This auction was held for a period of three months. Alice Cooper, American rock singer, sponsored the alphabet "O". Gene Autry and Paul Williams sponsored the alphabets "L" and "W" respectively.

• In 1995, a trust known as "Hollywood Sign Trust" was setup to maintain the Hollywood sign.

• The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a series of sidewalks along both sides of a 15-block segment of Hollywood Boulevard and a 3-block segment of Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA that serves as a permanent public monument to achievements in the entertainment industry.

• More than 2,400 5-pointed terrazzo and brass stars are embedded at 6-foot intervals over a combined 1.7 miles .

• To date, 47% of the stars have been awarded in the motion pictures category, 24% in television, 17% in audio recording, 10% in radio, and less than 2% in the live performance category.

• Twenty to thirty new stars, on average, are added to the Walk each year.

• Spago, a West Hollywood restaurant, was the birthplace of the “California Designer Pizza.”

• The iconic Capitol Records building on Vine St has a blinking light on the top of it’s tower that spells out "Hollywood" in Morse code, and has done so since the building's opening in 1956

Looking forward to greeting all of you on the 30th!

NCL gives a special thanks to Visa

The LifeSmarts program has a lot to be thankful for this year—consumer-savvy teens representing 33 states will compete at this year’s national event later this week in Hollywood. Program participation throughout the 2010-2011 year has been excellent: more than 22,000 teens answered more than 3 million consumer questions online for a chance to represent their states at the 2011 National LifeSmarts Championship.

Looking towards the future, LifeSmarts shows every sign of growing bigger and better than ever. Visa recently announced a three-year major grant to help underwrite the program, sponsor development of personal finance lessons and teaching tools, increase marketing efforts for LifeSmarts, and bolster NCL’s outreach on consumer fraud. With Visa’s help, LifeSmarts is looking forward to providing future generations of teens with the skills and knowledge they will need to successfully navigate the increasingly complex consumer landscape.

Thanks, Visa!

MA champions!

The winning MA team from Palmer High School, whose innovative fundraising technique we shared last week, just sent over some great photos from their state competition at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:

Palmer High celebrating the win

Palmer team with coach Helena Naglack

Team members passing around that shiny new trophy

Greetings from Gabbi, 2010 RI state Champion

The Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition sent us this video featuring Gabrielle Sclafani, a 2010 RI state champion who was awarded the first ever Consumer Rights & Responsibilities scholarship last year in Miami Beach. Gabbi talks about her experience at last year's national championship and gives this year's participants an idea of what they can expect! She is currently a freshman at Brown University in Providence, RI where she is majoring in Literary Arts. The LifeSmarts program is so proud of her, we always love hearing from our past competitors!

Join us! Be a part of the student advisory panel

Hey Guys,

We are still recruiting participants for our LifeSmarts Student Advisory Panel! If you will be at this year's national competition in Hollywood and are interested in meeting with your peers to talk about what you love about LifeSmarts click the link below to apply!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LSstudentadvisory

We extended the deadline by another week so be sure to apply by April 19th!