Every summer, Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (PFEW) brings high school juniors and seniors from across the Commonwealth to a college campus in Williamsport for one intense week of accelerated business training. Renkert Oil’s Mark Proudfoot is a regular there as a volunteer mentor, inspiring young minds with our company’s values. This is PFEW through his eyes. Questions about working with Renkert Oil? Contact us.

Ask Mark Proudfoot about volunteering with PFEW for the better part of a decade, and he lights up the same way he has every summer since he started.

“I like to teach people things,” Mark said. “And it’s clear that this is no summer camp. These kids have a chance to learn quite a lot.”

Students cheer for a motivational speaker at PFEW.

What Is PFEW?

PFEW is a highly selective program, inviting only one top student per Pennsylvania high school each year. It gives 10th and 11th graders a full week of college life alongside an intensive crash course in business.

Students arrive Sunday and move into dorms at Lycoming College or the Pennsylvania College of Technology, both in Williamsport. By Monday morning, they’re already running a company.

“Their entire week is planned and full,” Mark explained. Teams of roughly 20 students are grouped into industries, forming three competing companies per industry.

The main event is the BizSim Competition. Every team makes the same string of decisions a real executive would face: how much to produce, how much to spend on advertising, what price to charge, how much to invest in capacity. 

Those quarterly decisions feed into a computer simulation that plays out three years of company performance over the week.

“You have a lot of choices, and you can change them,” Mark said. “You don’t have to stick to any one plan.” Teams watch their competitors’ moves and adjust in real time.

Beyond creating the business structure and making profitability forecasts, each team also builds a full marketing plan with hand-drawn logos and advertising materials.

They produce 60-second radio and video ads, which they perform live on a stage. Both are timed to the second, with points lost for running over or under.

The week closes with a stockholders’ presentation complete with detailed financials.

Along the way, students hear from motivational speakers several times a day. For example, Rick Yarosh, a U.S. Army veteran who survived an IED blast, came one year to give his presentation on H.O.P.E. (“Hold On, Possibilities Exist.”)

More than 2,000 students and 250 business volunteers take part in PFEW each year. Over 53,000 Pennsylvania students have gone through the program since it began.

Mark’s Job Is to Ask, “What Do You Think?”

As a company advisor, Mark’s role isn’t to run the team. It’s to keep them from running off the rails while making sure the decisions stay theirs.

“I answer all their questions with, ‘What do you think?'” he said. “I make sure they don’t get stuck on some kind of technical problem, that they have the things they need, and that they pay attention and get started.”

“And once it gets started,” he added, “they get very, very excited about it.”

Within minutes, a group of 20 strangers sorts itself into roles. Some gravitate toward finance, some toward marketing, some want to run the show entirely.

The kids who want to lead will stand up and make the case for why they should be president, and the team will hold an election to decide.

Company teams compete in a business quiz.

Before that happens, there’s some time for the students to get to know each other. On “Junk Night,” advisors like Mark take odds and ends they’ve spent the year collecting and dump the items all in a pile. The teams take turns choosing random items as raw material before it’s gone.

Then each team has to build something out of it. Mark recalls students building a miniature golf course. Another group created a lawnmower that “flies.” Whatever product or service they can manage with what’s available to them, they have to sell to judges.

The real point isn’t the object. It’s figuring out, fast, who on the team leads, who’s reliable, and who has a knack for a particular kind of problem. This is when the team really starts to gel.

“Some kids struggle to get into the spirit of the event. But overall, I’d say 95% of them get a lot out of it,” Mark said.

The Fruits of Mark’s Labor

Years after one PFEW event, a former student reached out to Mark asking for a recommendation letter. Mark said no.

Instead, he wanted the student to consider his own strengths and draft a letter fueled by self-esteem. The student rose to the challenge. Mark was impressed. 

“I told him, I’ll sign this recommendation. I just edited it a little,” Mark recalled.

That student later told Mark he’d started his own small business in high school, washing, cleaning, and detailing cars, and that it was inspired directly by his week at PFEW.

“He was working hard, but he didn’t really notice that,” Mark said. “He just saw that he was a success. That was fun to see.”

How PFEW Reflects Renkert’s Values

Mark enjoys teaching students about how Renkert Oil does business and encouraging them to apply our values to whatever type of business they pursue.

Some of that involves how to work with a team. When two strong-willed 16-year-olds disagree on a decision, he doesn’t take sides. Instead, he helps the team work through it themselves, respecting everyone’s point of view.

He also teaches them how to work with customers in a manner that is helpful, respectful, and never pushy.

“Our sales technique is to just put a solution in front of people and let them choose. We don’t push,” Mark said. “It’s the same with the students. We give them some opportunities, and they decide what they want to do.”

Some want to run finance, some want to run marketing, some want to lead the team and stand up in front of the room. Not everyone fits every role, and that’s fine.

Students participate in a motivational speaker presentation.

But just as he does with Renkert Oil customers and colleagues, Mark doesn’t hold back when he has a strong opinion about the choices students are making.

“You try to be consistently truthful, and tell them what they need to hear rather than what they may want to hear. The idea is to just be straightforward, and help people where you can,” Mark said.

Another Renkert value the program encourages is gratitude. Just as we like to express our thanks to the customers that keep us in business, the students end the week writing thank-you letters to the sponsors that make their week possible.

That’s where you come in.

How You Can Get Involved

For 46 years, PFEW has run entirely on sponsorship and volunteer support at no cost to students. Pennsylvania businesses, civic groups, or individual sponsors cover their week of room, board, and program materials.

This year’s event just wrapped up, so there’s plenty of time to get involved with next year’s PFEW, July 2027! Here’s how:

• Companies interested in supporting a student, or in putting their name behind the program, can find sponsorship details on the Foundation for Free Enterprise Education’s giving page.
• For business professionals interested in mentoring a team the way Mark does, PFEW is always looking for company advisors. You can learn more through PFEW’s volunteer page.

Mark would love to see you there.

“There’s a great group of company advisors that are there,” Mark said. “They come from all different kinds of businesses, and adding a new one is always fun. You get to learn something new.”

Renkert Oil is proud to have Mark Proudfoot represent us at PFEW. It’s one more example of what we mean when we say our people bring their character and values to everything they do.

Whether that’s moving specialty oils safely and reliably, or helping a room full of 16-year-olds figure out how to run a company for the first time, it’s the same mindset.

We help people wherever we can.

Want to learn more about working with us? Let’s talk. Contact us today!

 

FAQs: Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week

1. What is Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (PFEW)?
   PFEW is a week-long summer program where Pennsylvania high school juniors and seniors live on a college campus and run a simulated company as a team, competing against two other companies in their industry.
2. Where is PFEW held?
   Sessions take place in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, at Lycoming College and Pennsylvania College of Technology.
3. How are students selected for PFEW?
   The program is highly selective. Only one student per Pennsylvania high school is invited to attend each year.
4. What do PFEW teams actually do during the week?
   Teams make quarterly production, pricing, advertising, and investment decisions for their simulated company, which feed into a computer simulation covering three years of company performance. They also build a marketing plan, produce radio and video ads, and deliver a stockholder presentation with a balance sheet and P&L.
5. What is a “company advisor” at PFEW?
   A company advisor is a business volunteer, like Renkert Oil VP Mark Proudfoot, who guides a student team through the week without making decisions for them, mostly by asking questions rather than giving answers.
6. What is “Junk Night” at PFEW?
   It’s an activity where advisors bring a collection of odds and ends, and teams have to grab what they can and build something out of it. It’s a fun exercise in fast teamwork and leadership.
7. Do students pay to attend PFEW?
   No. Each student’s week, including room, board, and program materials, is covered by a sponsoring business, civic group, or individual.
8. How many students and volunteers participate in PFEW each year?
   More than 2,000 students and 250 business volunteers take part annually, and over 53,000 Pennsylvania students have gone through the program since it began.
9. How can a business get involved with PFEW?
   Businesses can sponsor a student’s week of attendance or volunteer as a company advisor. Details are available through PFEW’s giving and volunteer pages.
10. How does PFEW connect to Renkert Oil’s values?
    Mark Proudfoot sees the same principles at work in both places: staying truthful, acting as a neutral guide rather than pushing an outcome, and presenting people with options so they can choose for themselves.