{"id":190736,"date":"2026-05-13T01:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190736\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T01:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:54:07","slug":"greater-hazleton-area-wins-tecbridge-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190736\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Hazleton Area wins tecBRIDGE competition"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
\n \"<p>Lisman
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Lisman Holdings Chief Executive Officer Jerry Lisman, Ruhani Shah (MMI), Kenedy Lutz (MMI), CAN DO Director of Economic Development Jocelyn Sterenchock, and CAN DO Program Coordinator Ana Perez.<\/p>\n

Submitted Photo<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"<p>Lisman
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Lisman Holdings Chief Executive Officer Jerry Lisman, Ruhani Shah (MMI), Kenedy Lutz (MMI), CAN DO Director of Economic Development Jocelyn Sterenchock, MMI Preparatory Head of School Theresa Long, Sharan Parikh (MMI), Rishi Patel (MMI), CAN DO Program Coordinator Ana Perez, and MMI Preparatory School Director of Advancement Kim McNulty.<\/p>\n

Submitted Photo<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"<p>Lisman
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Lisman Holdings Chief Executive Officer Jerry Lisman, Thomas Nowak (HAAS), CAN DO Director of Economic Development Jocelyn Sterenchock, and CAN DO Program Coordinator Ana Perez.<\/p>\n

Submitted Photo<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"<p>Mariannyi
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Mariannyi Brache Minaya (HAAS), Thomas Nowak (HAAS), Lisman Holdings Chief Executive Officer Jerry Lisman, CAN DO Director of Economic Development Jocelyn Sterenchock, CAN DO Program Coordinator Ana Perez, Libio Espiritu-Santo (HAAS), and Hazleton Area Academy of Sciences School Counselor Stephanie Hopkins.<\/p>\n

Submitted Photo<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u276e<\/a>
\n \u276f<\/a>
\n \t\t\t <\/p>\n

Students from the Greater Hazleton Area were named winners of the high school division at the 24th annual tecBRIDGE Business Plan Competition Award Ceremony held on Wednesday, April 30, at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n

The competition challenges students across Northeast Pennsylvania to develop and present original business ideas.<\/p>\n

Ruhani Shah and Kenedy Lutz, juniors at MMI Preparatory School, took home first place with their business, Kayari, an athlete-focused hair care system designed to protect and restore hair affected by sweat, friction, and buildup from athletic gear. It marks the third consecutive year that an MMI team won first place in the competition.<\/p>\n

Their win also secured the first-ever Sterenchock Lisman Cup, a new traveling trophy awarded annually to the school of the winning team. It is named in honor of Jocelyn Sterenchock, CAN DO Director of Economic Development, and Jerry Lisman, Chief Executive Officer of Lisman Holdings, in recognition of their sustained mentorship and leadership in the program.<\/p>\n

Thomas Nowak, a senior of the Hazleton Area Academy of Sciences, earned third place for his concept, Shadow Reality, a virtual reality-based career simulation platform designed to provide students with hands-on exposure to skilled trades and career pathways.<\/p>\n

Additional Hazleton-area finalists included Mariannyi Brache Minaya and Libio Espiritu-Santo of the Hazleton Area Academy of Sciences, who showcased Skill Sprout; and Parikh and Rishi Patel of MMI Preparatory School, who presented PyroPath.<\/p>\n

The Greater Hazleton Area was also represented in the Big Idea Essay Competition, where Sharan Parikh, a senior of MMI Preparatory School, earned third place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly proud of every student we had the opportunity to work with this year,\u201d said Sterenchock. \u201cFrom the initial concept through final presentation, each team demonstrated a level of ownership, preparation, and pride in their ideas that set them apart. To see that translate into four of the five finalists coming from Greater Hazleton speaks not only to the strength of these students, but to the momentum we\u2019re continuing to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lisman Holdings Chief Executive Officer Jerry Lisman, Ruhani Shah (MMI), Kenedy Lutz (MMI), CAN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-190736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}