The White County CEO program is now in it’s 8th year. That means current seniors taking part were in 5th grade when the program launched. Class CEO Maggie Gross says the program has been on her radar for several years.
“I think for me, it was probably, I mean I knew about it in like 8th grade and then maybe thought about it freshman year and kept thinking about it all through high school. I just knew especially last year, I had friends in the CEO class last year and I knew 100% I’m gonna try and do that.”
Hise was an entrepreneur even before CEO launching Scents by Sadie years ago. Talking to her, you get the feeling this capitalist mentality has been brewing inside her from an early age.
“I feel like it started even before I launched the business. I would see videos online and people making orders so I don’t remember what it was, but I posted something and I sold it. I don’t think I was even in high school. My parents didn’t know about it until I was like ‘I need to go to the post office and ship this’ and then after that it kind of went from there.”
The 18 students in the program have been learning from and spending time directly with business leaders throughout the region in the first half of school. Gross describes some of the things they’ve experienced.
“Starting out, we immediately had speakers that come talk to us in the mornings. We’ve gone to both Carmi and Norris City’s Chamber dinners. That was intimidating. We also did our $5 to $100 project where we had to sell a product or service to turn $5 into $100, that was our first project and Mercedes did amazing at that. After that, we’ve had speakers and moved into our class project. The speakers though, you learn something different every single time…the different businesses and people in the community and how they got to where they are in the community, it’s amazing. It’s helpful to learn that my path is here and it may not look like what I think it’s going to, but I’m going to get there eventually because that’s how these people got to where they are.”
Having 18 students working together on a project, you would think, could lead to some heated debates and arguments. Gross says the group has been pretty cohesive however in their plans for Buckaroo Bango which is coming up on February 3rd at the White County Fairgrounds Floral Hall.
“I was kind of nervous as a leader in the class, like what if we’re not on the same page, but we were. We brought up bingo for Carmi because Washington School used to do Cosmic Bingo and in Norris City the Student Council there does bingo every year. So we all agreed it would be really cool to just put our own twist on it. We used the SWOT analysis that Sandra Bryant taught us and we just did pros and cons all the time. In the end, the western themed bingo, everyone agreed on it, which was great.”
In addition to Buckaroo Bango, there will be a dessert auction, 50/50 raffle, and a kiss the pig contest.
Tickets must be purchased in advance and the deadline for tickets is January 26th. You can reach out to any one of the 18 students to get tickets. If you don’t have an inside track with one of the kids, you can also find White County CEO on facebook, send a message that you’re hunting tickets, and someone will get you squared away.
Once the class project is over, students will start working on their individual businesses in preparation for the CEO Trade Show scheduled tentatively for late April. Some of the kids already have a pretty good idea what they’re planning to do, but changes are still possible.
A sample of the type of offerings you might find this spring at the annual Trade Show
“Cupcakes, all natural dog treats, jelly, BattleCards with Bible verses, woodworking projects, home décor and refurbished furniture, hats with school colors and designs, painting murals, goat milk based soap and lotions, making cookies, sugar and salt scrubs, flower seeds”
Learn more about White County CEO and the students involved by finding their page on facebook.
