I attended an event last week at Smithtown West High School in Smithtown, Long Island. It was the 17^th year, that’s right, the 17^th year for the Smithtown School of Business Annual Business Olympics. Over 200 high school students from both Smithtown High School East and Smithtown High School West participated in teams. The students presented their concept for a new business in the field of “Apps”. If you don’t know what an App is, it’s something that everyone under 25 knows, uses and desires. Those of us over 50 (okay, maybe over 60 too!) might know about Apps and even use them. The business of Apps is growing every year.

I was a judge at this Business Olympics and saw the talent, knowledge and enthusiasm of the students who created, developed, designed, promoted, marketed and sold their unique App to an audience of teachers, parents, students and business people. It was Fantastic!

Did  the Long Island media and press cover this event? No, they did not! The media should have covered this event. Why? Because all students will work (HOPE acronym for WORK = Worthwhile Opportunity Requiring Knowledge) in some type of business when they get out of school and the media should let everyone know about this unique academic event.

Young people are leaving the island every year because there are fewer jobs for them. Even if there were jobs, our high schools are not teaching students job & business related skills they’ll need when they graduate. High schools need to teach business skills to every student.

Please take time to learn about the Smithtown Business Olympics and see what you, can do to assure that business courses are taught in ALL Long Island High Schools!

Hopefully you agree with me on this. Every student needs to learn business skills that they need to transition from school to business – any business! Every students needs to know how to sell (yes, I said sell!) themselves, their degree and knowledge when they graduate from school! They need a “competitive edge”, which is found at www.hopeskills.com.