Smithtown West's Virtual Enterprise firm, Kahuna, recently competed and advanced to the National Semifinals in the VE National Business Plan Competition, ranking them in the Top 20 in the country! The competition took place at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York with VE teams from across the United States. The firm is led by junior CEO Isabella Paliwoda and is an educational technology company that uses artificial intelligence to help students stay more focused and attentive in the classroom, enhancing student engagement with real-world applications. The Kahuna presentation team advanced to the furthest point in Smithtown Virtual Enterprise program's history in the competition and has received national praise from VEInternational for their successes. Kahuna consists of 18 students at Smithtown West who have taken a variety of business courses through the Smithtown School of Business.
The National Business Plan presentation team included Gabrielle Guttieri, Maribella Marciano, Isabella Paliwoda, and Ashlynn Renkowski and was facilitated by business education teacher Patrick Rosa. The Virtual Enterprise program is a capstone course in the Smithtown School of Business, which is a part of the Career and Technical Education department, overseen by CTE Director, Christine LoFrese.
