Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce President Pam Henshall is headed to Erie, Pa. to volunteer as a judge for Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (PFEW), a one-of-a-kind summer program that offers in-coming high school juniors and seniors a unique and challenging opportunity to see what it is like to run their own business.
Twenty-six students from six Northeast Philadelphia area high schools are scheduled to participate.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the GNPCC to connect with a fabulous program that provides hands-on experience for students interested in business,” Ms. Henshall said. “We have great representation from Northeast Philadelphia, so I will feel very much at home and among Northeast residents when I am in Erie.”
Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week is a summer program that connects students and businesses. It educates sophomore and junior high school students about the American free enterprise system. Last year over 2,000 students participated. Since the program’s inception in 1979, over 40,000 young adults have learned about what it takes to be successful in business.
Participants will make up an “imaginary” management team where they will learn first-hand about the Free Enterprise System. Their task – turn their failing company into a financial success!
They will develop their own marketing strategies, design a website and in essence, make all of the decisions that are demanded of real life company executives. All work and no fun? No chance! PFEW provides students with a chance like no other – to experience what it is like to live on a college campus.
For example, Kiana Ly attended the Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week last summer on a scholarship given by the Exton Chamber. Ly spoke of the challenges she faced that week: meeting new people, sharing responsibilities with strangers and putting those strangers to work as a strong team. Ly had set her college goal on obtaining a major in a science field, but following her week at PFEW, she is now planning to add business classes to her schedule.