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SALISBURY, MD---After receiving a record number of business plans for the 2007 Bernstein Achievement Award for Excellence, ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business has announced four finalists.

These individuals and teams were selected from among some 51 submissions, said Dr. Stephen Adams, who teaches entrepreneurship in SU’s Perdue School and is director of the Bernstein Awards.

The winner of the competition will be named at a banquet on Saturday, April 28.  The top prize is $5,000.

One of this year’s finalists, Nicolette Engler of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥, is a second-generation Bernstein nominee.  She is the daughter of 1989 winner Pete Engler, and will present her plan for the “Ocean City Provision Company.”

This year’s other finalists are: “Exquisite Occasions,” by Stephanie Parker of Millsboro, DE; “Layton's Chance Winery,” by Jennifer Layton of Vienna, MD; and “Visual Assembly,” by Ryan DeRose of Oswego, NY, Sara Greaver of Baltimore and Adam Rones of Ellicott City, MD.

The competition was launched in 1987, by local entrepreneur and SU alumnus Richard Bernstein (’76), now president and CEO of BAI Aerosystems, Inc. in Easton. He created the competition to recognize students who develop original, well-researched, and potentially successful proposals for a business startup or for the transformation of an existing business.

The award is designed to encourage and to provide resources for young entrepreneurs to move forward with their visions. SU graduate and undergraduate students in any program of study may participate.  Several award winners have gone on to operate successful businesses.

This year’s presentations by the finalists are 2 p.m. in Room 114 of Holloway Hall.  This event is free and the public is invited.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.