In brief...

Career panel October 20
The first 2009 Hudson Community First career panel will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 20, in the Hudson High School media center. It will be directed toward high school students interested in the fields of science and health care. Tentative panelists will include a doctor, pharmacist, chemist, engineer and physical therapist.

A second panel also has been scheduled at the High School for Thursday, December 3, and a third for the chapel at Western Reserve Academy on January 20. Details still are being arranged for the later sessions.

The panels are an effort by Hudson Community First to excite and enlighten high school students about future career choices.

Be Entrepreneurial
The demand for a new Junior Achievement program, JA Be Entrepreneurial, is already growing.

Last fall, JA of Greater Cleveland was chosen as one of the local affiliates to pilot the new program, which challenges high school students to start an entrepreneurial venture while still in high school. During the seven-session program, students develop the essential components of a business plan and answer questions such as: What's my business? Who's my customer? What's my advantage?

More than 100 students participated from four Cuyahoga County high schools last year. The program will be released nationally this fall. In the Cleveland area, it is already a hit.

"We've had five programs requested and teachers aren't even back to school yet," Program Manager Kelly Patten Hatgas said in mid-August.

Ohio Business Week winners
A tool to speed up gardening and a pen to hide skin blemishes were winners at the 2009 Ohio Business Week competitions. The weeklong camps, one at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus and the other at Youngstown State University, brought together high school students interested in learning about entrepreneurship. Student teams spent the week creating a business to sell a product or service and presented their plans to a panel of judges.

"Confidently Clear," a company that proposed making a pen-shaped, roller ball applicator for skin blemish treatment won first place at Ohio Dominican. "Quick Dig," a company that would produce a gardening device to increase the efficiency of digging holes for planting, took first place at YSU.

The Burton D. Morgan Foundation provided $14,000 to the Ohio Business Week Foundation for scholarships and financial aid for 25 students from Northeast Ohio to participate.