On Wednesday, 17 Harvey students participated in the annual ECITY Business Plan Competition at Lubrizol Headquarters. ECITY is a program partner with two non profit organizations, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Ohio and Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU). ECITY helps teens develop an entrepreneurial mindset and acquire financial capabilities by learning how to create business plans and conduct market research using the award-winning Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) curriculum. The ECITY program is taught by Harvey High School business teacher, Ms. Nell Rapport. The students each spent months developing business plans for new products or services. These plans included a product design, marketing, a mission statement, and a financial plan. The judges for the 2018 Harvey High School ECITY Business Plan Competition were: John Gadd (Hotcards), Linda Reed (Eastern Lake County Chamber of Commerce) and Beth Debevc (Debonne Vineyards )
Winners
1st place Taison Tran - Pocket Pals, mentor, AL DiFranco, Junior Achievement of Cleveland
2nd place Kevin Heintz -String Things, mentor Mike Sturdevant, President and Chief Engineer, Virtec Enterprises Taison Tran and Kevin Heintz will advance to the Ernst & Young, Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition. This event will feature 1st and 2nd place winners from all of the ECITY programs in the area. Harvey students have won Young Entrepreneur of the Year 8 out of the past 10 years. Three out of the past five years we placed 1st and 2nd.
The Ernst & Young, Young Entrepreneur of the Year event will be May 16th at the Ernst and Young Offices in downtown Cleveland.
We would like to give special thanks to Mary Jane Sanders of the Lubrizol Corporation for sponsoring the Harvey High School ECITY Class Business Plan Competition.
Painesville City Local Schools also greatly appreciates the individuals who dedicated many hours mentoring the ECITY students this year:
| Al DiFranco | Program Director | Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland |
| Paul Catalano | Mortgage Loan Officer | Home Savings Bank |
| Karen Fagnilli | CEO, Co-Founder | The Lakehouse Inn |
| Jim Federico | President/Owner | Federico Tire |
| Marcia Gabriel | Business Process Analyst | Lubrizol |
| Bob Kehres | Plant Manager | Federal Hose |
| Lisa Keller | Owner | Water Extraction Team Inc. |
| Trisha Johnston | President | Parkem Media |
| Tia Lawrence | Director of Programs | Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast OH |
| Jim Levine | Owner | Express Employment |
| Shannon Majewski | Community Coordinator | Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast OH |
| Mike Martin | Pastor | 1st Church of Christ |
| Douglas Mekinda | Branch Officer | Dollar Bank |
| Joe Michalski | Partner | NMS CPAs |
| Mary Jane Sanders | Community Specialist | Lubrizol |
| John Simon | Management Trainee | Cintas |
| John Smith | Director, Sports Medicine | Lake Health |
| Mike Sturdevant | President, Chief Engineer | Virtec Enterprises |
| Anita Walters | CEO | LCE Federal Credit Union |