When Janice Horton was a student at Tussey Mountain High School, she took bookkeeping and accounting, typing and short hand, preparing for a career after school. Her preparation paid off when she landed a job at a local company, Stoudnour Petroleum. Now, 25 years later she says she still enjoys her work at Stoudnour and still uses the skills she learned in high school everyday in her job. As part of a team at a small business, she wears many hats - receptionist, accounts receivable manager, helping with scheduling, taking orders, ordering supplies, budgeting, calculating sales tax payments, opening the mail, preparing gas certifications - the list seems endless. She says she "loves coming to work. I like the people I work for, I like the customers, I like the variety and challenge to make figures come out. Accounting is a challenge." Also challenging has been staying current with office technologies. When she started at Stoudnour's, all of the accounts were kept on cards. The office is now fully computerized, meaning that she's needed to learn a variety of software - word processing, data base, billing programs and spread sheets on the job. "It's definitely changed a lot, but it's also been fun," she says. She says one of the biggest pluses to her job has been that it allowed her to stay in Bedford County with her family. Horton and her husband raised two children. "I could put them on the bus in the morning and take time off to go to school activities," she said. "When you work for a family company, they understand when family problems arise. Living just 10 minutes from home has been wonderful."

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