PFEW's Life-Changing Experience
(Posted June 10, 2009)
An exciting, one-of-a-kind program open to all area 10th and 11th grade students will be celebrating thirty-one years of quality educational opportunities for PA youth this summer. That program, Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (PFEW) is completely funded, taught and staffed by practitioners from the Pennsylvania business and industry community. This year, Susanne House, JCEL Director of Business Outreach, will be attending PFEW - Week II as a Company Advisor. "I am glad that I have the opportunity to take part in such a great program," House said. "The program is very intense and extensive and I feel is extremely beneficial for the students who attend."
PFEW runs four one-week sessions in July and August held either at Lycoming College or Penn College, Williamsport, PA. Each student is assigned to a "management team" operating a computer-simulated "company" for the equivalent of three years. During that time, they make all of the decisions any real-life business person would make. Students work with balance sheets, profit & loss statements, and market share surveys. All companies, no matter what industry they are given, compete against one another.
During the week, the students hear speakers from all over PA talk about different subjects, including business and finance, the role and relationship of business and government, taxation, labor relations, business ethics, and much, much more. Does it work? Consider the following quote from Cathy Lee McNeill, a student from Newtown Square, who said, "I can honestly say this was the most life-changing experience I have ever had â?" in the space of only one week, I feel like I have learned more than in a year's worth of class at school!"
Each student attends PFEW on a fully tax-deductible scholarship. All scholarship providers are recognized in a variety of ways. The students wear the sponsor's name on their shirt throughout the week and write to their sponsors following the program to report on what they have learned. PFEW is an approved organization through the PA Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program.
If you would like to learn more about this award-winning program and how you can help, please contact John Trombetta, President & CEO of the Foundation for Free Enterprise Education at (814) 833-9576, or e-mail him at john@pfew.org.
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