Members of the White County Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities or “CEO” program have spent the weeks since school started visiting area businesses and seeing first-hand the ins and outs of running a company. Soon, the students in the program will shift their focus and begin to create, from concept to reality, a business of their own that they will showcase at the White County CEO annual trade show this spring.
But before that, all members of the class must first come together to collaborate in demonstrating everything they’ve learned in their CEO experience to date, to create a “class business.” For the class business, all students must agree on an idea for an event, write a business plan, present it to their program’s advisory board for approval, identify committees within their group with well-defined responsibilities to coordinate all logistics.
An amazing accomplishment for any group of individuals, let alone high school students.
At a time when the skills gap of young people entering the workforce continues to grow greater, it’s experiential learning experiences like these in the CEO Program that prepare our young people to be responsible, entrepreneurial thinkers who contribute to their communities. The 21st-century skills of problem-solving, teamwork, self-motivation, responsibility, higher-order thinking, communication, and inquiry are at the heart of the course, and are demonstrated through the students’ work to create events like these and the individual businesses showcased in the spring.
This year the White County CEO Program will demonstrate these skills and present their class business The Green Project at the Elastec parking lot in Carmi on January 25 from 11am-1:30pm.
The class will be selling their Green Bags, desserts, silent auction, shop local t-shirts, and there will also be a food truck. This is a come and go event. One can also bring their recyclable glass, plastic, aluminum and tin to be recycled through Carmi’s recycling center. Those with questions should e-mail [email protected].
