NHP biz students win comptroller contest

Richard Tedesco

Five seniors from New Hyde Park Memorial High School informally incorporated as the Nassau Solar Power Authority pitched the winning business plan in the recent Nassau County Comptrollers Entrepreneurial Challenge.

Nassau Solar’s business plan was to sell solar roof panels from a location in one corner of the new Nassau Colisseum, according to their faculty advisor Zoe DelVecchio.

“From the beginning we wanted to stick with a business that had the ‘green approach’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ approach, because in all honesty that is where the future industries and markets are headed and that’s when big money comes into play,” said student CEO Samantha Longo.

Longo said Nassau Solar planned to pitch solar power alternatives to the coliseum and surrounding businesses.

 DelVecchio, who teaches business education at New Hyde Park Memorial, said Longo, Abie Varughese, Hassan Fuller, Roberto Varela and Renee Harrison developed a 25-page business plan that forecast sales and costs projected potential liabilities, charted licensing, assessed competition and legal issues and covered marketing research.

“This was a project we were working on for the entire fall semester,” DelVecchio said.

Longo said the concept was a collective effort from the start with all five students making suggestions to “tweak” the plan as it was developed. The group also embellished their business presentation with the appropriate attire.

“To follow our green approach on the day of competition at the  Nassau County Legislatures Building, we all dressed in green button downs and dress sweaters,” Longo said. 

DelVecchio said the students were required to make a 10-minute presentation using software. The judges, including Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, were given five minutes to ask the student entrepreneurs questions about their plan.

The New Hyde Park group was selected as one of five teams for the finals of the competition from a field of 18 to 20 teams, Del Vecchio said. The five teams selected for finals had two minutes to hit the high  points of their respective plans, followed by a five-minute Q&A with the judges.

The winning team received $5,000 from HealthPlex, one of the competition’s corporate sponsors. 

DelVecchio said members of the team also received a total of $10,000 in scholarships to either Hofstra University or Adelphi University. DelVecchio said since none of the seniors will be attending either school, they can use the scholarship money to take summer or winter courses at either one.

“My teammates were so ecstatic about winning. It was a very surreal moment and with out the help and knowledge from each other that we all shared, it would of been impossible to win,” Longo said.

Longo, who aspires to be a real-life CEO, is student council president, class of 2014 vice president, a future Business Leader of America member, an Academy of Finance Senior and a certified first responder.

The Academy of Finance is a program the Sewanhaka school district maintains as part of its business management program.

DelVecchio said she selected the Nassau Solar Power Authority Project from among several projects developed by groups of students in her management class. She said the class aims to teach students how to develop business plans, and communication and presentation skills as well as how to operate a management team.

“I think the students are exceptional. I think that this was a rewarding experience,” DelVecchio said of the winning team. “They’re really going to prosper from creating a business plan and competing in it.”

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