Macoupin County CEO
On any given morning, the students of Macoupin County CEO might find themselves inside a local business, sitting across the table from a business owner, touring a facility, asking questions of a community leader or learning firsthand how an organization operates.
And that is the classroom.
Macoupin County CEO is a year-long, community-based entrepreneurship program for area high school students. But spend even a little time around the program and you quickly realize that “entrepreneurship” is only part of what these students are learning.
They’re learning how to walk into a room and introduce themselves. How to ask good questions. How to communicate with professionals. How businesses make decisions. How leaders build teams and culture. How ideas become plans, and plans become something real.
Most importantly, they’re learning all of it from the people doing that work right here in Macoupin County.
A Different Kind of Classroom
The CEO model intentionally takes students outside of a traditional classroom and puts them directly into the local business community.
Over the course of the year, students visit more than 40 businesses and hear from more than 40 local experts. They work with mentors, make connections with business and community leaders and get an inside look at organizations representing a wide range of industries and careers.
And they don't just observe.
Together, the students develop and operate a class business. Later, each student takes what they've learned and creates an individual business of their own, from developing the idea and business plan to marketing and ultimately selling their product or service at the annual CEO Trade Show.
That means students aren't simply learning what entrepreneurship looks like.
They're doing it.
Building More Than Businesses
Starting a business is an important part of CEO, but some of the program's greatest impact is harder to measure on a spreadsheet.
Confidence. Communication. Leadership. Problem-solving. Professionalism. Relationships.
Students are continually placed in situations that ask them to step outside their comfort zones, interact with people they may never have met otherwise and begin seeing themselves differently.
They also begin seeing their own community differently.
Every business visit introduces another career, another industry, another leader and another possibility. Students get to see firsthand the businesses, organizations and people building things, solving problems and creating opportunities throughout Macoupin County.
For young people deciding what comes next, that exposure matters.
It Takes a Community
One of the things that makes CEO so unique is that the business community isn't simply supporting the program from the sidelines.
It is part of the program.
Local businesses open their doors for visits. Business and community leaders share their experiences and expertise. Mentors give their time. Investors help make the program possible. Volunteers serve on the board and help connect students with opportunities throughout the county.
Those relationships are at the heart of the CEO model.
We saw that firsthand recently when Macoupin County CEO students joined the Chamber Member Masterminds at Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics. They sat alongside local business and community leaders for a conversation with CAH&C CEO Brian Burnside about scaling, momentum, strategy, workplace culture and leading with positivity.
There wasn't a separate lesson created for the students that morning.
They were simply invited into the room.
And maybe that's one of the best ways to understand what CEO does.
It gives young people a seat at the table.
An Investment That Keeps Growing
Macoupin County CEO launched in 2016, which means there is now something especially exciting happening alongside each new class of students: former CEO students are coming back.
Alumni return to speak with current classes. They become mentors and community connectors. Some have even stepped into leadership roles within the program itself.
The students who once walked into local businesses wondering what their futures might look like are beginning to become the professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders welcoming the next group through the door.
That's a pretty remarkable return on an investment made years earlier.
And it's why Macoupin County CEO makes perfect sense as a Chamber member.
A strong local business community isn't only about supporting the businesses we have today. It's also about creating the conditions for the people, ideas and leaders who will shape what comes next.
Macoupin County CEO is doing exactly that.
One student, one connection and one opportunity at a time.
Find out more about the CEO program and how to get involved!
Website: https://www.macoupinceo.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/macoupinceo