Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities class doing exactly that for Streator, Woodland students

The core ideas behind the Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities program – or CEO – being offered at Streator and Woodland high schools for the first time this year are relatively simple:

To encourage local businesses to help develop future entrepreneurs in their community while encouraging future entrepreneurs to make meaningful, long-lasting connections with those businesses in their community.

For the inaugural, 11-student class in Streator, the Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship CEO program is doing exactly that during its off-campus, 90-minute meetings around Streatorland.

“Well, at first just being able to be off school for two hours was [a] pretty good [reason] to sign up,” CEO student Sean Bundy said. “But I guess just being able to obtain that business knowledge. I didn’t know what I wanted to do [for a career], and this is a perfect fit for that.

“It’s raw information you don’t normally get.”

Area professionals are invited by students to visit the CEO class – which currently counts as high school credit, and, in the near future, may also count for college credit – to share their advice and experiences. Students ultimately will pitch their own businesses ideas.

The program itself – created by Teutopolis school teacher Craig Lindvahl before being taken in and promoted by Midland States Bank under the Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship moniker, where it has grown to 56 CEO programs nationwide including 2,225 students from 229 schools – is funded entirely by donations from area businesses.

Streator High School Superintendent Matt Seaton, who is from southern Illinois where Midland States Bank is headquartered, was already familiar with the program and eager to bring it to Streator with strong support from school board President Earl Woeltje. Seaton then contacted his counterpart at Woodland, Ryan McGuckin, to see if Woodland would want to come on board.

“A lot of the programs are countywide or two or three school districts together,” Seaton said. “Because La Salle is such a big county and there are so many high schools here with hundreds of kids, we decided to go the other direction with Woodland, which is right down the road and shares a lot of the same businesses. Ryan and I spent the better part of the 2019-20 school year seeking out sponsorships, and then we got a team together to get it off the ground.

“What I tell people is, best-case scenario, we get a kid who is able to raise capital, start a business and fill a storefront downtown someday. Worst-case scenario? We’re going to take 10-12 seniors in high school and connect them with everybody in the business community, so if they want to start a business, they have a resource network in the Streator area like nowhere else.

“If they do run a business, Streator becomes a logical place for them to come back to.”

“It’s a different way of education,” McGuckin said. “It’s field trips to businesses four out of five days of the week. It allows for a broad perspective on a number of jobs. We have four in the program, and our boys – some have definite career plans, some don’t know what they want to do and some have some ideas – are getting exposure on the golf course, on banking, on small business, on manufacturing, on what it means to be a teacher.

“The broadness of this allows a child to go home and at the dinner table talk about what they learned – in perspective of the businesses and in perspective of themselves.”

The CEO program’s growth has extended outside southern Illinois to states including Indiana, Minnesota, Kansas, Ohio, Colorado and Alabama. Much of that, program developer Kristy Sayers said, is because of word-of-mouth.

“Craig [Lindvahl] knew it would be a positive thing for communities,” Sayers said. “Get kids out of the classroom ... meeting businesses. This is work, but it’s not like school. People in the area started to want it for their county, and that’s when it began to spread to different areas.

“When people hear of it or see what it does, they say, ‘We want this for our community.’ “

Instead of being the teacher of the program, Kirk Melody is considered the “facilitator.” It is a role he has relished.

“It’s my job as a facilitator to organize the speakers, organize the guests,” Melody said. “It’s kind of like a coaching role in getting [the students] to be accountable, getting them to start calling and networking with people.

“Really, it’s just been a fun experience sitting back and learning right alongside them.”

Each student may ultimately take away something completely different from the program depending on what he or she chooses to do with his or her life – but that’s the point.

“I have an interest in starting my own business doing my art and calligraphy,” CEO student Abby Seaton said. “We’ve had a lot of speakers give us life lessons, give us their stories and different tips as to how to start your own business and be successful. There’s a lot I’ve learned, honestly.

“I think we definitely have an advantage over kids who aren’t in the program because of the strong connection in the community we’re building. Those will help us later if we do want to start a business.”