Program grows hometown entrepreneurs

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates proved it.

Students do not need a Harvard MBA to succeed. What they need is a different mind set from the masses.

An educational program called Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunity - privately owned and funded - claims to teach just that to senior year high school students since 2008.

So, how to teach a different mind-set? For starters, get the students out of the classroom. Immerse them in the real world of business, in their own communities.

To accomplish this, the local community has to be willing to cooperate.

Participation by guests at an informational luncheon organized by Dale Fowler Tuesday indicated leaders in education and business who attended the luncheon received the message positively.

Craig Lindvahl, a teacher for 34 years, saw this program presented once and immediately changed his retirement plans. He signed on with the Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship - a not-for-profit - and began promoting their CEO program.

"This is the most exciting educational concept I have encountered in my career," said Lindvahl.

Due to trends in educational thought he believes we are creating a generation of students who think "I tried" is good enough. Lindvahl thinks this trend will lead to bad consequences.

The CEO program is taught away from the schools, in participating businesses around the community.

He pointed out that the young entrepreneurs that come out of the program tend to stay in the communities in which they live and where they have an already existing network. This is great for the community. And, unlike the rivalries that exist in athletics, the CEO students develop a sense of camaraderie with the students from other high schools in the area. CEO includes students from all the area high schools. CEO works on a regional basis.

How it works

Community leaders and educators approve the program for their area and raise funds to institute it.

Half-time teaching positions are funded from the community business people. The teachers that the program looks for are to be the most excited learners in their classrooms. Only the fired up candidates need apply.

"Teachers should be facilitators, not lecturers," said Lindvahl.

Students apply to be included. Applications consider grades, but the goal is to find the creative and energetic minds among the applicants. These students do not always flower in an academic setting. CEO looks for trustworthy candidates with a good work ethic.

Class locations are selected in the business community.

Students attend the first two class periods of each day during the school year. College credit is possible for the class.

The community teachers teach the students in a one-on-one manner that is impossible in traditional school settings.

Students are challenged to create their own businesses, using their own ideas and guidance from the instructors. Their plans must lead to actual businesses which they start by year's end.

Close to the end of the year the CEO students put on a community trade show which showcases their ideas to the community. At year's end the students have a network of people they can go to for advice on efforts.

According to Lindvahl, in the three states in which the program is employed, local support for the trade shows is enthusiastic.

CEO was instituted in Effingham and the students there love it according to two students from Effingham who accompanied Lindvahl to the luncheon in Harrisburg.

Avery Brooks and Aaron Goeckner, both 18, said they developed a better work ethic and new way of looking at the world.

"I started a property management business, mostly for retired people. I have two employees and we do lawn care and handyman work," said Goeckner.

"I never did too great in school," said Brooks. "But I am learning work ethic and it is changing how I think."

"Kids are not stupid," said Lindvahl. "They are ignorant. The schools are not working. This is working."

Fowler said after the presentation that local financial support would not be a problem.