Hewlett advances to Virtual Enterprise finals

Two Hewlett High School teams, FlashComm and Future 1st Financial Services, were among the seven teams that took top honors at the fourth annual Long Island Virtual Enterprises Business Plan Competition at Farmingdale State College on Jan. 14 and advanced to the final round, which will be hosted by American Portfolio Financial Services Inc. in Holbrook on Feb. 26.

Sponsored by the Nassau BOCES Perkins Consortium in partnership with Easter and Western Suffolk BOCES Perkins Consortium, Virtual Enterprises International and CTE Technical Assistance Center of New York, the competition consisted of a written business plan and a 12-minute presentation of the firm’s business plan and an eight-minute question and answer period. More than 30 business partners representing colleges and large and small Long Island businesses served as competition judges.

Under the guidance of a teacher-facilitator, students create and manage every aspect of a virtual company, including product development, production, distribution, marketing, sales, accounting and human resources. Nationwide, Virtual Enterprises International transforms 500 classrooms into offices and 10,000 students into executives through this program every year.