Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities

The Chamber is teaming up with a new opportunity, CEO (Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) to share with the youth in Washington County. This opportunity will team Junior and Senior students with business leaders in the community to mentor students and show them the ins and outs of their business. It allows students to get the feel of being an entrepreneur while supporting them to follow their dreams. 

CEO - Immerses your high school students in your local business community so they see all of the businesses and other opportunities that exist in their hometowns. This helps them to develop a local professional network of 100 or more business leaders including being personally mentored by one of those business people.

CEO -  Instills an entrepreneurial mindset in those students through the creation and operation of real businesses. These are not mere classroom exercises. They are real businesses with real products and/or real services being exchanged for real money. Every CEO student leaves the class with their own operating business.

CEO - Inspires your community’s next generation of business and thought leaders. Those students are now invested in your community and see it as a great place to live, work, raise their families, and yes, operate their own businesses. CEO helps grow your entrepreneurial ecosystem which produces both economic development and workforce development. 
This entire process truly transforms your students from high school “kids” into young professionals.

•  CEO is never held in a classroom. Instead, participants spend each day, five days a week, in area businesses, absorbing essential skills from local business owners and community leaders. 
• Each student is guided through the creation of two real businesses, with the support of a local mentor. These aren't classroom exercises - they are real products, real services being exchanged for real money. 
• The program shows young people the opportunities that exist and challenges them to own their work, innovate creative solutions, and think big - because they have the support of the community behind them.