Seneca Valley first place
team (back row L-R):
Antonio Amelio, Connor
Anderson, Zach Garcia
with Seneca Valley Senior
High School Gifted
Support Teacher Dean
Walker. Front row L-R:
Sydney McMurray, with
Seneca Valley Senior
High School Gifted
Support Teacher Brieana
Nassan, Brianna Buccini
and Vibha Hodachalli.
THINKING INSIDE
THE BOX
I
t’s 9:13 a.m., two minutes before Butler
County Community College’s (BC3)
second consecutive Entrepreneurship
Challenge, when Zach Garcia separates
himself from other Seneca Valley High
teammates, the black-suited junior
pacing alone to the side of 14 tables
within BC3’s Founders Hall, gesturing, lips
moving, one last practice for his role in
the competition that has drawn students
from six counties.
“Just getting some finalized touches
down,” Garcia said, “and making
sure I could calm my nerves for the
presentation.”
That presentation, from Garcia and
his Seneca Valley teammates, won
BC3’s Entrepreneurship Challenge
on Nov. 6, with a plan to create a
subscription service that would deliver
to classmates Raider Crates containing
items that advertise school spirit, and
coupon packets to alert students of
area businesses – and with proceeds
supporting a charity that provides soaps
to children in underfunded schools.
Six judges assembled on the college’s
main campus in Butler Township by
BC3’s Center for Economic Education
considered 15-minute business plan
presentations by teams representing
nine high schools before awarding
first place to Seneca Valley’s Antonio
Amelio, Connor Anderson, Brianna
Buccini, Vibha Hodachalli, Sydney
McMurray, Marc Amado, Harry Foss,
Allison Jaecke, Andrew Drozynski, Ryan
Jones and Garcia. Seneca Valley’s BC3
Entrepreneurship Challenge presentation
also received the most votes as being the
best in a survey of students from Ellwood
City, Farrell, Freeport, Fort Cherry,
Jamestown, Lakeview, Penns Manor and
Punxsutawney high schools.
BC3’s Entrepreneurship Challenge
program teaches students the basics of
starting a business, said David Huseman,
a professor of humanities and social
sciences at BC3 and the director of the
college’s Center for Economic Education,
which promotes financial literacy for
those in kindergarten through 12th
grade.
Students were judged on factors
that included the creativity of their
business plan, the effectiveness of their
introductory speech, and the ability to
identify the competitive advantage their
business would have, Huseman said.
Raider Crate, whose business plan
forecast 100 subscriptions within three
years, appealed to judges because all
of its profits would benefit Starts with
Soap, according to Jessica Spanogle, an
instructor at Mercyhurst University, Erie,
and one of the BC3 Entrepreneurship
Challenge judges.
Raider Crate would donate its proceeds
to Starts with Soap “so that students
only have to worry about their learning,
and not where to wash their hands,”
according to the Raider Crate business
plan.
Seneca Valley’s team will apply
the $250 it received as BC3’s
Entrepreneurship Challenge winner to
buy its first products and launch Raider
Crate, possibly by January, Garcia said.
Those products, available for a three-
month subscription of $45, could include
“items that students may need in their
day,” Seneca Valley’s Vibha Hodachalli
said, “or items they would like to have.”
Items may include scrunchies,
bracelets, hats, socks, lanyards, coffee
mugs, sweatbands, keychains and school
supplies – “personalized with our school’s
logo,” Hodachalli said, and also gum,
mints, candies and coupon packets to
area businesses.
BC3’s Entrepreneurship Challenge
motivated his students, Seneca Valley
teacher Dean Walker said.
Lora Spence, an economic education
consultant and retired University of
Pittsburgh professor who served as a BC3
Entrepreneurship Challenge judge, said
the competition is unique and represents
“a global education for the students.”
“They learn so much more than they
would in the classroom,” Spence said.
“They are going to use the things they’ve
learned here in their lives.”
Judges for BC3’s second consecutive
Entrepreneurship Challenge also included
Charles Stitt, an independent consultant;
William Fraser, former owner of Butler area
automobile dealerships; Mark Klopfer,
adjunct faculty at BC3 and owner of
Stadium Solutions; and James Hrabosky,
vice president for administration and
finance at BC3.
The Center for Economic Education also
coordinates 24-week and 12-week Stock
Market Games – in which students receive
a hypothetical $100,000, make buy-and-
trade decisions and track how those
decisions would have played out in the
markets had they been real.
More than 105 teams from Freeport,
Lakeview, Moniteau and Seneca Valley
school districts are competing in the 24-
week game and more than 110 squads
from Butler, Knoch, Mars, Mercer and
Union school districts in the fall semester’s
12-week game.
CRANBERRY ❘ WINTER 2019
39