LifeSmarts in the News

With state competitions heating up and excitement for nationals at an all time high, LifeSmarts is making the news. Check out this Fox 6 Milwaukee clip on the valuable life skills participants gain from the LifeSmarts program!



Congratulations to the winning team from Shullsburg! See you in Hollywood!

Welcome LifeSmarts Participants!

By Lisa Hertzberg, LifeSmarts Program Director

As I shoveled 17 inches of snow over the weekend and watched four-foot icicles form off my roof, it was nice to think that in just over two months we’ll be convening in sunny southern California for the National LifeSmarts Championship.

As the weather starts to heat up, competition is heating up, too. We’ve crowned about half of our state champion teams, and teams from Oklahoma to New York will be competing between now and March 30 to round out the field.

National Competition Checklist

As state champion coaches and students begin planning for nationals, here is a checklist to help you prepare:

1. Send NCL photos of your team competing at state to lisah@nclnet.org or danield@nclnet.org

2. Make hotel reservations

3. Send your state champion form to NCL (this was in the packet you received from your state coordinator when you won the state competition).

4. Send your activity form to NCL to reserve tickets to Universal Studios for the afternoon of May 2 (this was also in the packet from your state coordinator).

5. Warm up with the 200-question All Topics TeamSmarts quiz available now through March 31. MA and NY coaches will use this as a pre-competition before their state competitions. All other coaches can request the passcode from their state coordinator.

6. Coaches, mark your calendars to join the LifeSmarts staff for a coach conference call on March 31 or April 5 (the same information will be covered on both calls, plan to join us for one of them).

7. Practice (use the Daily Quiz, LifeSmarts Daily Calendars , and as many practice quizzes as you can to have fun prepping with your team)

8. Pack your sunscreen and swimsuit. Flip flops are optional on the pool deck!

Watch this blog for more news about nationals. Updates will be posted
twice a week.

Good luck and see you all at the National Championship!

2010 National LifeSmarts Championship a huge success

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Once again, our NCL LifeSmarts team outdid itself - the competitions in Miami finished today amid a great deal of excitement and nail biting as the four semifinalists Arizona, Maryland, Kansas, and North Dakota began their morning competitions, leading to the finals where North Dakota and Maryland squared off, and with the Maryland team scoring a decisive victory and becoming our LifeSmarts champions for 2010.

The Maryland team's coach, a homeschooling and farmer Mom, whose son was captain of the team, explained to me the intense work that went into her kids taking first prize. Since they are all homeschooled, they have more flexibility in their day. She reached out to private and public schools to get their participation, but the officials she talked to said they or their kids were just too busy to devote the kind of time she expected.

So she arranged for her team to meet twice a week for three hours, and they've been doing that since last September. The hardest part for the kids is learning the names of federal agencies and what agencies under them do - like the fact that the Bureau of Land Management falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Interior. If you live in Washington DC, knowing this kind of information is part of your DNA. However, if you live in rural Frederick County, Maryland and you're 15 or 16 or 17 years old, you have to commit these details to memory. The team visited real people who could teach them valuable information, such as a mortgage officer in a bank and a funeral home owner, to learn about rules regulating funeral home practices under the Federal Trade Commission regulations. They tested each other and researched topics on their own to bring back to the group.

The knowledge these kids from Maryland clearly had gained in preparing for LifeSmarts showed throughout the three days of competitions. They had quick answers to most questions, even on the most complex topics, and seemed at ease with the process. But then again, many of the teams were well prepared and every one of our young participants is surely a savvier consumer after participating in our program.

Our LifeSmarts Team at NCL - led by Lisa Hertzberg and assisted by Brandi Williams, Emily Stevenson, Carol McKay, Theresa Smith, Terry Kush, and Dana Brunson - with a huge assist from Seth Woods, NCL board member and alum of LifeSmarts from Kentucky, surpassed past national competitions by all accounts. Congratulations to the kids, their coaches, their families and thanks to our sponsors for supporting the cause of creating a new generation of consumer-savvy teens.

LifeSmarts in the news!

Thanks to NBC Miami's Willard Shepard for covering our event! Check out the story that aired last night here.

Congratulations to this year's five LifeSmarts topic area winners! Each topic area champion received a $500 scholarship from NCL.

• Environment: Ricky Tabandera, Hawaii
• Personal Finance: Robert Dickens, Maryland
• Health and Safety: Hafsa Khanum, Connecticut
• Consumer Rights and Responsibilities: Gabrielle Sclafani, Rhode Island
• Technology: Pierce Donovan,Pennsylvania

Maryland crowned 2010 National LifeSmarts Champions

Defeating their sister team from North Dakota, the state champions from Maryland were declared national champs in Miami Beach.

If you missed the live action at http://www.lifesmarts.org/, you can watch the archive.

Maryland vs. North Dakota in national championship match

LIVE now at www.lifesmarts.org

Kansas vs. Maryland streaming live now at www.lifesmarts.org/

Rankings going into Quarter Finals

1. Arizona
2. Kansas
3. New Hampshire
4. Florida
5. North Dakota
6. Maryland
7. South Carolina
8. Rhode Island
9. Massachusetts
10. Pennsylvania
11. Hawaii
12. New Jersey
13. Delaware
14. Washington
15. Connecticut
16. Illinois
17. Wisconsin
18. Vermont
19. Missouri
20. Minnesota
21. Kentucky
22. Indiana
23. Virginia
24. New York
25. Tennessee
26. Nebraska
27. Ohio
28. Oklahoma
29. Texas
30. Alabama
31. District of Columbia
32. California

Semi-finalists are in!

Arizona, Kansas, Maryland, and North Dakota have advanced to the semi-finals!

Starting at 9 am Eastern Tuesday, you can watch the teams compete live online! Hosted by MSNBC's Consumer Man Herb Weisbaum, Kansas and Maryland will face off at 9 am, with Arizona vs. North Dakota following.

Check out the action at www.lifesmarts.org!

Quarter finals underway!

The 8 quarter finalist teams are competing now, in today's last set of matches, to determine who will go on to the semi-finals tomorrow!

Arizona vs. Rhode Island
Kansas vs. South Carolina
New Hampshire vs. Maryland
Florida vs. North Dakota

Check back here this afternoon to meet our semi-finalists, and don't forget to watch them compete live tomorrow AM starting at 9 Eastern at lifesmarts.org

The 2010 National LifeSmarts Championship has all teams competing seven times at Nationals this year. More teamwork, more knowledge, and more learning happening than ever before -- and, as a result, teams have the possibility of earning more points.

Storm's a-brewin' ...

... literally and figuratively in Miami Beach!

Rain is coming down in sheets outside, which means our fabulous pool party this evening (thank you, American Express, for sponsoring this event!) will likely be relocated to the Starlight Ballroom on the 18th floor, which boasts a tremendous view of the ocean and city. On the first floor, competition rooms are filled with tension. Teams in contention for the Quarter Finals (those ranked in the top 8 by mid-day today) are checking out the competition, figuring out who they'll be up against next, and doing some last-minute studying.

Check back for news about the Quarter Finalists this afternoon!