January 24, 2006

Attorney General Corbett Announces Winning Schools Headed to LifeSmarts State Championship Competition; PA to Host National Finals in Philadelphia

HARRISBURG - Attorney General Tom Corbett today released the names of the winning Pennsylvania schools that will advance to the 2006 State Championship of LifeSmarts, a consumer challenge competition for high school students across the nation. The state championship competition will be held this Feb. 28 at the Forum Building in Harrisburg.

The National Consumer League in partnership with nonprofit organizations, government agencies and education organizations make the competition available to teens in every state. The Attorney General's Office plans and implements the program for Pennsylvania.

The nine Pennsylvania schools that qualified to compete in the state championship round are located throughout Berks, Bucks, Chester, Cumberland, Delaware, Erie, Lancaster and Westmoreland counties.

"I am extremely proud of our finalists and all the students who participated in the preliminaries," Corbett said. "Pennsylvania set a new national record of 876 students participating from a single state in the preliminaries. I commend everyone who competed in this one-of-a kind challenge, that teaches young people how to be wise and savvy consumers." 

Corbett said the top nine scoring teams were invited to the state finals and were chosen based on their scores on three separate tests that were posted online last September.

The Internet-based competition asked students a host of questions related to such topics as personal finances, the environment, technology, consumer rights and responsibilities and health and safety.

Each student earned points for the questions answered correctly. Their team score was determined by the average of the top four student scores from each school. Only nine teams were then invited to compete for the state title. 
 
The coaches of the winning teams are using a variety of methods to practice for the state finals. Many say to hone their skills as a team they are conducting live mock demonstrations of the finals which is similar to the game show Jeopardy.   

Corbett said the following schools will compete in the state finals:

Berks County
Schuylkill Valley High School
929 Lakeshore Drive, Leesport

Bucks County
William Tennent High School
333 Centennial Road, Warminster
             
Chester County 
Coatesville Area High School
1445 East Lincoln Highway, Coatesville

Chester County
Conestoga Senior High School
200 Irish Road, Berwyn 
  
Cumberland County
Cumberland Valley High School
6746 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg

Delaware County
Radnor Senior High School
130 King of Prussia Road, Radnor
    
Erie County
North East High School
1901 Freeport Road, North East 
  
Lancaster County
Conestoga Valley High School
2110 Horseshoe Road, Lancaster
  
Westmoreland County
Greater Latrobe Senior High School
131 High School Road, Latrobe

Corbett said, "I urge all student groups or classes, plus the classmates, family members and friends of the state finalists to attend this upcoming competition and watch these games in-person. It's a fantastic learning experience for spectators and a good way to cheer-on these teams, one of which will represent the Commonwealth in the National Competition."

Pennsylvania will host the National LifeSmarts Competition in Philadelphia this April 22-25. The competition will be held at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel.  Admission is free for both the state and national competitions. 

For additional information on the LifeSmarts Program visit www.lifesmarts.org. To learn how to enter the 2007 competition contact the Attorney General's LifeSmarts Coordinator, Joyce O'Brien at 717-787-9716 or visit www.attorneygeneral.gov.

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