KOKOMO — More than 100 business people recently gathered at Oakbrook Church for a half-day entrepreneurial conference. In every tangible way, it proceeded as if it were professionally managed. Yet the organizers were 14 high school students enrolled in a cutting-edge program known as Kokomo CEO, which stands for Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities.
“The students did everything,” said Morgan Young, the program’s facilitator. “They hosted the event, designed the website, picked the venue and organized the speakers. They even handled the finances.”
Kokomo CEO is sponsored in part by Indiana University Kokomo and funded in part by a grant from the Indiana University Council for Regional Engagement and Economic Development’s Regional Economic Development Fund. As one of several RED Fund programs IU supports statewide, the Kokomo CEO program was a featured item during CREED’s quarterly meeting Wednesday at IU Kokomo.
Seniors from Kokomo, Northwestern, Tri-Central, Eastern and Lewis Cass high schools were selected for the program’s inaugural year, with juniors and seniors from nine Kokomo-area high schools eligible to participate. Its students never meet in a classroom. Instead, the two-credit course convenes 90 minutes a day at a “homebase” business in Kokomo that changes about every six weeks, Young said.
As stated on its website, Kokomo CEO prepares youth “to be responsible, enterprising individuals who become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers” and contribute to the region’s economy. The January summit was part of a progression of projects that students will apply toward launching their own businesses later this spring.
Yet halfway through the program’s inaugural year, Young has noticed secondary effects as well.
“Their view of Kokomo is very different from other students their age,” he said. “They’re learning about businesses they never knew existed before — businesses that not only are locally successful, but nationally successful. They’re interacting with business owners and meeting entrepreneurs. They’re building a better network of contacts than some of their parents have.”
SOWING THE SEEDS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Kokomo CEO is one of 28 such programs offered or planned through the Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Indiana. At present, Kokomo CEO and Daviess County CEO in Washington are the only such programs in Indiana, with a third in the works at Saint Joseph High School in South Bend.
The first CEO program was launched in 2008 in Effingham County, Ill., by Craig Lindvahl, a documentary filmmaker, educator and 1989 recipient of the Milken National Educator Award. Lindvahl is executive director of the Midland Institute and in February was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Education.
“Someone with the Greater Kokomo Chamber of Commerce, which is constantly looking to create new business, saw what they had done in Effingham,” he said. “From there, the chamber was able to get local businesses and entrepreneurs to buy in, as well as the Kokomo school districts and other districts across the county.”
Through annual investments of at least $1,000 each, the Howard County Community Foundation and 45 “business partners” — including IU Kokomo through CREED’s RED Fund — provide funds for Kokomo CEO. The money covers class expenses, program operations and Young’s teaching salary.
A fixture in Kokomo’s business community since 1984, Young brings a variety of entrepreneurial experience to the program. He owns his own photography business, MorganYoungPhotos.com, and launched Kokomo’s Main Street Café with his wife, Sandra, in 2012. He also serves as associate pastor at Oakbrook Church, where he handles its business operations.
“In my time at Oakbrook, we built a $9 million facility and had to deal with financing in the midst of a recession. Our annual budget is $1.1 million to $1.2 million. And we’re non-denominational,” he said. “So how do we make it all happen? A lot of fundraising, a lot of work by our senior leadership and a lot of entrepreneurial skill.”
MOLDING INNOVATIVE MINDS
Throughout the school year, Young’s students hear from one or two Kokomo-area business people a week. Discussion topics range from personal responsibility to entrepreneurial challenges they may face. In addition, up to three trips weekly are made to local businesses, where owners and key managers explain their operations and the markets they serve.
“These aren’t just lectures and tours. There is emphasis placed upon students to ask good questions, so they come prepared and there is a very interactive exchange. There is no syllabus. My job as a facilitator is finding out what the students need, who they need to talk to and what they need to learn. If it happens to be something I don’t understand, then I track down the proper person who can explain it to them.”
— Morgan Young, Kokomo entrepreneur and Kokomo CEO faciliator
Two of IU-Kokomo’s newest leaders, Chancellor Susan Sciame-Giesecke and business school Dean Alan Krabbenhoft, also took time to meet with Kokomo CEO members.
“The chancellor invited them to a breakfast and spoke about 10 key things that could help them adjust to college life next year. Three of her senior staff also gave three small talks,” Young said. “When I needed someone to talk about how to prepare a business plan, Dean Krabbenhoft did a phenomenal job explaining what can be a complex topic to kids who are still in high school.”
About halfway through the school year, Kokomo CEO began work on the first of several interrelated projects that put the group’s entrepreneurial skills to the test. The initial effort involved writing a business plan for a profitable project — January’s CEO Summit — then carrying it out to its fruition.
As with any real-world venture, profit pressures were high, as conference proceeds serve as seed money for the students’ capstone project: launching their own businesses by the end of the school year.
Yet the class found a way to land Avin Kline, a Florida Web-marketing guru who grew up near Kokomo, as a keynote speaker along with Lindvahl. Breakout presenters included Sciame-Giesecke, Hoosier Heartland Small Business Development Center business adviser Monty Henderson, Kokomo social media maven Drew Larison, interior designer Whittney Parkinson and Susan Hanfland, who also helped design and launch the original CEO class.
When the summit concluded, the students earned a net profit of $5,000 and allocated $300 per class member to jump-start their individual ventures, Young said. The possibilities seem boundless. In their online profiles, Kokomo CEO participants discuss interests that include sports and business management, marketing, game design, industrial engineering, economics, robotics, informatics, graphic and Web design and the culinary arts.
“I am striving to become a video game designer and potentially the owner of my own video game company,” said Zach Baird of Kokomo High School. “I am enjoying the CEO class and I am learning a tremendous amount of new information about business as well as just general life skills every day. This is a great opportunity and I would encourage anyone given this opportunity to take this class.”
Upon graduating Eastern High School, Alexis Hasting plans to earn a bachelor’s degree in baking and pastry arts at Rhode Island’s Johnson & Wales University, then gain experience as a cruise ship pastry chef before putting her business plans into motion.
“My ultimate goal is to own a worldwide chain of themed bakeries and a chocolate shop,” she said. “I believe that (Kokomo) CEO will prepare me for my future business endeavors and will inevitably allow me to share my passions with the world.”
Students interested in joining Kokomo CEO must apply through their school’s guidance counselor. The process requires an essay and recommendations from influential people in the applicant’s life. A student’s grade-point average is not a consideration in being selected for the class.
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Indiana University is designated as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. This recognizes IU’s commitment across all its campuses to being a leading institution in fostering regional economic development. The RED Fund supports regional economic development efforts by providing competitively awarded grant funds to IU campus-led initiatives. Since November 2011, the RED Fund has awarded $32,550 in matching dollars to 17 programs from six of IU’s nine campuses statewide.
[…] such programs is the Kokomo CEO (Creating Entrepreneurial Experiences) program aimed at Howard County high school students. It is partly supported by a RED Fund grant pursued by […]