Juniors Attend Columbia Summer Business Program

Hi Aimee/Annette,

Hope you both are having a great summer spending time with your family! I wanted to share some exciting news with you on Samantha and Gerald's business camp at Columbia U that began 2 weeks ago. Their assignment was to analyze Medco, a pharmacy benefit management company and prepare an analysis with a shareholder's report on how to acquire Express Script. As you can imagine, this is a whole new territory for them, but they managed to learn the meaning of mergers and acquisition, EDITDA, Market Cap, etc. There were 7 students to each team and each one held a Management position. They spend from 12-16 hours a day doing research and preparing reports. Sam said Gerald didn't sleep for 3 days. Samantha was the CFO and she had to prepare a Shareholders Report. By the end of the first week, they had to dress up in business attire and go into negotiations with another team. They won the round at negotiations.

During the 2nd week, they stayed at Crowne Plaza in Secacus. They got bused into Manhattan to visit and "network" with law firms and brokerage houses, Goldman, Deutsch Bank, Shearman and Sterling, etc. On Thursday, they found out that they were amongst 1 of 4 teams out of 24 teams in NY that will proceed to the Championship competition next week back at Columbia U. There will be teams from Chicago and Nashville next week. Can you believe your kids are working on M&A? Maybe they could do a presentation for you when they return to school....Aimee: I want to thank you for your leadership skills in shaping CSI HSIS into what it is today with its comprehensive program. I think it's given Samantha the foundation to move onto College and someday be successful in her career. Annette: Thanks for always being on top of all the programs out there and sending out all the notices to parents. I would have never known about this if it wasn't for your resourcefulness and great communication skills.

By the way, Sam and I went to take a look at the new school and we think it's beautiful. She likes the big football field. Her first reason for being so happy about the new school is that she will get her own locker. We will be heading up to Boston on 8/29 thru 8/31 to see Sam's #1 choice of school- Northeastern. It's her birthday so we're taking her to see a Red Sox game (her favorite team). I'm still a Yankee fan. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Best regards,Debbie

08-08-08

I hope you all don't mind me posting here, but I wanted to reach out to the community on this auspicious evening. As I watch the television replay of the Olympic Opening Ceremony I am awe-struck by the beauty of the performance, the number of people involved in the art and in the sports in the weeks to come, and the variety of color and culture you can see as the delegations enter the arena. The commentators for NBC are sharing interesting tid-bits about certain countries (i.e. there has never been a female athlete from Saudi Arabia, at least partially because no female can travel without the permission of a male guardian) and the athletes are gathering in the center of the field, creating a colorful tapestry of costumes and smiles.

I hope that everyone in the CSIHSIS community will embrace the Olympics and this amazing time not only as a chance to see greatness in athletics, but also as an opportunity to learn about some countries, cultures, and people currently unfamiliar to us. The world is a truly magnificent place with secrets tucked away in places you might not even recognize as countries, and we all have a lot to learn.