WILLIAMSPORT, PA
There is an exciting summer program that for nearly four decades has been exciting the imaginations of high school students throughout Pennsylvania about the world of business and private enterprise. That program, Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (PFEW), will be marking its 38th storied year this July and August.
Begun in 1979 by some farsighted business people in northwest Pennsylvania, PFEW was founded specifically to teach rising high school juniors and seniors about the American private enterprise system and what it means to our country. Starting with an initial class of fewer than 100 students for a single one-week session in 1979, PFEW now annually holds five sessions in July and August, four on the campus of Lycoming College in Williamsport and a fifth on the campus of the Pennsylvania College of Technology, both located in Williamsport, PA. PFEW expects to receive over 3,000 applications from students across the state eagerly hoping to be in one of the 2,200 seats slotted for this year’s program.
The focus of each session is to group the participants (strangers at first) into “management teams” of junior executives who have inherited imaginary “companies.” These teams, under the guiding hands of “executives-on-loan” called Company Advisers, operate their firms for a computer simulated three-year period of time. To add a sense of reality, they are competing against two other student “companies” manufacturing and distributing the same product. These fledgling corporate executives are faced with decisions that any real-life business person confronts daily. They work with balance sheets, statements of income, market share surveys, etc., and must also react to a variety of external factors as well. Global competition, political unrest, and government policy decisions are but a few of the “unknowns” that these young entrepreneurs must deal with as they operate their businesses.
Every student attends PFEW on a fully tax-deductible $575 scholarship (the actual value of the scholarship is about $1,500) which is provided by a local firm. All scholarship providers are thanked in a variety of ways and each student wears the name of their sponsor throughout the week and writes them after graduation to report on what they have learned. PFEW is also an approved organization through the PA Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program through the Department of Community and Economic Development.
If you would like to learn more about this award-winning program and how you can help, please call the Chamber directly or contact John Trombetta, president of the Foundation for Free Enterprise Education at (814) 833-9576 or e-mail him at john@pfew.org. PFEW is open to all current sophomores and juniors in Pennsylvania and information on attendance, as well as program applications, can also be found on the website. Questions can be directed to Ms. Amber Goss, Schools Assistant for PFEW, by calling her office at (814) 833-9576 ext. 103 or emailing her at amber@pfew.org.
Registration deadline is April 8th; beyond which applicants will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.
