Shenango hosts marketing competition for local high school students

Penn State Shenango will host the first of three parts of its inaugural Marketing Competition for high school students at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20, in the campus’ auditorium. The event is being held in conjunction with the Greater Sharon Associates (GSA) and its Downtown Sharon Spring Fling. Local high school teams of two to five students, including e-Academy at LindenPointe, Farrell, Hickory, Lakeview, Mercer County Career Center, and West Middlesex, will compete to see who can create and present the best integrated marketing plan for this year’s Sharon Spring Fling.

“We are really pleased to have six local schools participating in our business marketing competition,” said Chuck Greggs, associate director of admissions. “We originally discussed crafting an event where the students could create a plan for a fictitious organization; however, after meeting with Laura Ackley, who is instrumental in organizing Sharon’s Spring Fling each year, we came up with the idea to have the students put together an actual marketing plan for an actual event.”

Following this Saturday’s event, the teams will have six weeks to prepare their integrated marketing plan before they return to the Shenango campus on April 2 to present in front of a panel of judges. In addition to their commitment to spending two Saturday’s at the Shenango campus, one member from each team will also have an opportunity to meet and talk with GSA members about the Downtown Sharon Spring Fling at the group’s next monthly meeting in March.

The first Saturday event will include a presentation on “Building an Integrated Marketing Plan” by Penn State Shenango Business Instructor Georgia Macris, followed by the Sharon Spring Fling Project Introduction by Laura Ackley, general manager and director of marketing, Donna’s Diner, Buhl Mansion Guest House and Tara-A Country Inn. Students will also have an opportunity to hear from several media account representatives, including Su Killar, iHeart Radio; Stefan Marcella, The Sharon Herald; Eric Doan, WFMJ; and Sara McCauley, Visit Mercer County PA/Social Sara.  Students will have time at the end of the event to review what they’ve learned and to ask questions.

For more information, contact Chuck Greggs at [email protected] or call 724-983-2803.