J'Burg High School Wins First Place

A team of students from Johnsonburg Area High School took first place in the 5th Annual Pitt-Bradford SIFE High School Business Plan Competition.

The contest was sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and the university’s chapter of Students in Free Enterprise.

The second place team was Bolivar-Richburg (N.Y.) Central School. In third place was Smethport Area Junior/Senior High School. Also competing was Cameron County Junior/Senior High School.

All schools in McKean, Warren, Cameron, Elk, Potter and Cattaraugus (N.Y.) counties were invited to submit a written marketing plan for a business that they could realistically start today.

SIFE students and Pitt-Bradford faculty and staff helped the students fine tune their plans to present before a panel of judges. Others speaking or teaching were Jill Foys of the North Central Regional Planning and Development Commission, Carl Knoblock and Karan Waigand of the Small Business Administration, and Steve Williams, senior accountant at Pitt-Bradford.

They gave students guidance on estimating expenses and start-up costs, projecting sales and what to include on their income and cash-flow statements and balance sheets.

Members of the winning team were Tiffany Wolfe, Derrick Field, Taylor Harvey, Randy Tassone and Kurt Martonik. Their proposed business was a Web site development company.

Each student on the team received a one-time $500 grant should they choose to enroll at Pitt-Bradford as a full-time student. Additionally, the top three teams earned Wal-Mart gift cards, and all students and teachers received Pitt-Bradford items.

Judges were Williams and Ann Robinson of Pitt-Bradford, Steve Cottillion of Northwest Savings Bank and Fred Feightner of W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co.

Pictured, from Johnsonburg Area High School are, from left, Kurt Martonik, Charlene Yonker, Taylor Harvey, Derrick Field, Tiffany Wolfe and Randy Tassone.
(Photo courtesy of Pitt-Bradford)