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Business & Tech

It's All Business for Westfield Entrepreneurs

Two local business owners are serving as Leadership New Jersey Fellows.

Westfield entrepreneurs Jonathan Jaffe and Steve Needle found more ways to keep busy outside of work this past year.

While Jaffe has been heading up his public relations and publishing company, Jaffe Communications, Needle has been building green homes with his company, Needle Point Homes. At the same time, both spent the last year participating as Leadership New Jersey Fellows.

Jaffe and Needle applied to the year long seminar program, which engages New Jersey's business leaders in their communities as civic leaders. According to the program's website, the goal of the program, which is in its 24th year, is to inform the fellows about key issues shaping the future of the state and challenge them to take on wider responsibilities to make New Jersey a better place in which to live and work.

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Once a month, Jaffe and Needle went on two day seminars all across the state learning about issues affecting New Jersey, including the correctional system, charter schools and the welfare system.

"I wanted to learn as much as possible about the state and about the people who live here," Jaffe said about why he decided to participate in the program.

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Jaffe and Needle have found themselves in some interesting learning situations.

In a seminar recently in Paterson, the group, which is composed of 60 fellows, learned how to use food stamps. They were given a limited amount of money and were told to make a nutritious meal.

They've also gone to a soup kitchen in New Brunswick, visited charter schools in Camden and toured a maximum security prison in Trenton.

"They throw you in these amazing and unique situations where you get a clear idea of what it's like being in a certain demographic and community in New Jersey," Jaffe said.

Jaffe and Needle said after each seminar the group talked and debated the issues they've learned and how the situation could be changed or improved. At the same time, Jaffe and Needle said they were networking and developing contacts with some of the state's up-and-coming decision makers.

Jaffe and Needle hope to bring all that they've learned back to their businesses in Westfield. The two said they understand that knowing how to use food stamps or what its like in a New Jersey prison, won't help them in their day-to-day business, but they said the experiences will give them perspective and in business, perspective, often provides the edge over competition.

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