CEO Students Show Entrepreneurial Skills at Annual Investor Breakfast

By Josh Jones
Times Tribune Editor
[email protected]

COLLINSVILLE — Business owners, community leaders, mentors, students and more met to learn and celebrate the successes of the Collinsville, Triad, Maryville & Highland CEO program.

The CEO program’s Investor Appreciation Breakfast was recently held at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville. According to information provided, the CEO program enables students to learn business strategy and philosophy from existing leaders in the business community. It utilizes a hands-on approach creating class businesses to earn seed money for which students will ultimately apply to receive from their “bank” via a strategic plan development and application process like a Shark Tank program. They then use the funds to build their own individual businesses. They launch those businesses at the end of the year at a trade show that they also plan and execute.

Wendy Symer, board chair for the Collinsville, Triad, Maryville & Highland CEO program, was the first to speak at the breakfast. She recognized various people and organizations for helping to make the program possible including investors, schools, businesses, cities, business owners, guest speakers, parents, mentors and more.

“We want to thank you all for coming and welcome you… It is great to see everyone bright and early, this is what our students do every morning,” Symer said. “They were here and ready to go early and we appreciate that.”

After the introduction and recognitions a panel featuring this year’s CEO students was held. CEO program Facilitator Emily Reid asked the students various questions on their CEO experience. She commented on the fact that five different high schools are involved in this program locally.

“It is really neat where these students are collaborating with students from another school and instead of being known as a Collinsville student or a Triad student they come together and they become CEO students,” Reid said.

This year’s CEO class includes senior students Reece Bellm (Highland), Lucas Brown (Collinsville), Ashly Castillo (Maryville Christian), John Easley (Collinsville), Megan Helm (Highland), Jacqueline Hernandez (Collinsville), Olivia Kohler (Triad), Blase Kurwicki (Highland), Kylie Lawhorn (Highland), Jacob Lewis (Highland), Cole McClusky (Collinsville), Jonathan Meyer (Highland), Arely Onate (Collinsville), Journey Sampson (Collinsville), Benjamin Simpkins (Collinsville) and AJ Sutberry (Father McGivney).

When asked how they heard about the CEO program Kylie Lawhorn said she heard about the program from her high school counselor.

“My junior year we talked about what I wanted to major in college,” Lawhorn said. “I said business, so she thought it was a perfect fit for the class.”

As for why they decided to apply for the CEO program, Jacob Lewis said that he felt like the program could challenge him outside of school classes.

“Also because I wanted to learn more about my community and make connections with others,” Lewis said.

Reid next asked about what the class did during their first semester. John Easley said that their first semester was focused on their class business, which was Frost Fest. The event featured a 5K, breakfast, photos with Santa and more.

“It was a fun event and through that we learned skills like how to work together,” Easley said.

Journey Sampson also noted that before the festival they had a badge business.

“We have gotten better at communicating with other businesses and we have done so much better than what we would have expected from high school students,” Sampson said.

When asked what the greatest challenge of class has been, Reece Bellm said one of her greatest challenges was centered around the class business.

“As fun as it was, there were some times where it got kind of stressful and I wanted to work on the project outside of CEO time,” Reece said. “I was always anxious, but then I learned that I really need to focus on keeping my energy in that hour and 20 minutes. I can still think of class business outside of class, but I won’t let the stress or anxiety of it consume me.”

As for expectations for the program, Lucas Brown spoke on the hands-on aspect of the class.

“With how hands-on the class was, even the vocational classes don’t get as hands-on as this class does,” Brown said. “But it is an awesome experience that you just can’t miss out on.”

The program continued with more panel questions as well as a quick presentation of each of the students’ individual businesses. The businesses will be featured at the upcoming Collinsville Triad, Maryville and Highland CEO Trade Show, which will be from noon to 3 p.m. April 28th at the Old Herald, 115 E. Clay St. Collinsville. For more information on CEO and how to support as an investor, mentor etc. people may visit https://www.collinsvilletriadmaryvilleceo.com.