 Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota, produced by Lakeland Public Television with host Ray Gildow. Production funding for Lakeland Currents is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. For information available at BemidjiAirport.org. Closed captioning for Lakeland Currents is sponsored by Niswa Tech Service, tax preparation for businesses and individuals online at niswatex.com. Hello again everyone and welcome to Lakeland Currents, where tonight we're going to be talking about an interstream program for high school juniors and seniors in central Minnesota. It's called the Central Minnesota CEO, and it probably doesn't stand for what you might be thinking it stands for. We're going to find out what it stands for in just a moment. The facilitator is Cindy Cole, and Cindy, is that your title? What is your exact title for this program? I am called the facilitator, because the learning really goes on with the students. It is student-driven more so than our typical education, so we address the needs that the students have, and if they are most interested in something in electronics like Lucas was, then they can let me know that, and we will try to find a resource person or a business that we can tour that will answer their needs. So we have two graduates from the program, Molly Lindgren, who is a Staples-Motley High School senior, and you've been through the program, right Molly? So you're an alumni, and Lucas Doyle is from Wadena Deer Creek, and he is also an alumni, and welcome to the show. So it's an opportunity for us to talk about what this program is. It's pretty unique, and I know Cindy, you said it started out of the state. It's not a Minnesota-driven program to start with, but maybe you could give us an overview of what CEO is. Actually the curriculum was developed by a retired band director in Effingham, Illinois. A band director? A band director who felt that, you know, we teach our students a lot of things. We provide a lot of offerings for them in a typical high school setting, but there are many things that they need to be successful in life that we're not necessarily addressing in a typical high school class. So this, it's called Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities, and we provide resources. The class is always held in a business, not in a high school classroom, and it is funded by local investors, and students actually tour about 50 different businesses over the course of the school year, and we have resource people who are business people, but they might also be people who are involved in city government, county government, attorneys, insurance people, so they get a whole lot of information, and then they are paired with a business person mentor, and they actually start their own small business, and we end the class with the trade show. So it's very much student-driven, student-directed, depending on what their interests are, but they learn a whole lot about what the community has to offer. I have learned so much about what the community has to offer as far as employment options for the future, and that you don't necessarily have to go away to college and work in a metro area, that you can get a very successful, have a very successful career in central Minnesota. So what is your background before you actually got into doing this? I was a family and consumer science educator for 34 years, FCCLA advisor, which I am still doing, but my family and consumer science background has taught me that students really need a lot of hands-on things, and not every student is cut out to go to a four-year college and get a job that requires that four-year degree, that there are a lot of valuable occupations that don't necessarily require you to live somewhere else, that you can be very successful and be a part of our local communities. So you said that there are investors for the program. What do the investors do? What's their investment in? If they are considered an investor according to the CEO guidelines, they contribute $1,000 a year for three years in a row, and anyone can be a friend of CEO and contribute lesser amounts, but our investors are the companies and people that are really responsible for bringing a CEO to central Minnesota, and they have contributed $1,000 for three years in a row. So your chapter focuses sort of on that Staple's Motley, Wadden and Deer Creek area? And Verndale. And are there other chapters in Minnesota like yours? Other classes. There is one in Wright County, and Wright County still has... That's not like near Buffalo, Minnesota? In Buffalo, and they still have a vocational center that we used to have in the 70s, and they draw students from eight different high schools, and then there is one in Candio High County in Wilmer. Okay. I'm familiar with the Buffalo Technical Center there. It's been in business, like you said, for a long time, had an excellent reputation for training students in all kinds of different fields. If you look at Wisconsin and neighboring states, are there other programs in the neighboring states, or do you have to go down to Illinois to find the next one? There are about 40 currently, and most of those are in Illinois, but there are several now in Indiana. There are some in Colorado. I believe Missouri has started, but there are only three currently in Minnesota, but two more are coming on board in the next school year. So in your particular program with the region that you serve, how many students are involved? Currently, there are only seven students in the class. Last year, there were 14. And part of that is we meet at 7.30 a.m. every day, 7.30 until 9. And it's difficult, a challenge for students to fit that in their schedule. So that's something... That's been a challenge for us here. And I can't speak for other communities, but that has been one of our challenges for students to be able to fit that in. And I think these young people can attest to that, that you have to be a bit tenacious to make it work in your schedule. So do you have an ideal number that you would be trying to strive for? Is it bigger? Is it better? Or are you more concerned about quality and keeping a core group of people that are manageable? As an educator, I think maybe 10 to 15 would be an ideal number. And you get more than that, then it's hard to maybe spend the time on each individual business as they get going with that. And I find too that with a smaller group, a student who might be more shy is more willing to speak out if it's a smaller group. And we do expect students to ask questions when we go on tours and when we have guests that we expect them to ask so they can get as much information as possible. So how do you go about recruiting in the schools that you work with? How do you get the information out about this program? That's partly why we're here, to get that information out. But we also have done a presentation in each of the high schools, so the students themselves can convey what the class is about and how it's a non-traditional class and some of the things that they're getting out of that. And that's what we have done, plus we have put together this brochure that I brought along and that's in some of our local businesses and our board people try to advertise and promote it as well. So you do have a board, I see that, and do you have school district members on the board or is it just local businesses or how is your board constructed? It is some of each. Currently our board chairman is Bob Jackson who is the general manager at Stern Rubber and he was one of the people who was responsible for bringing it to Central Minnesota. And we also have a principal from Staples Motley and we have a superintendent from Medina Deer Creek. And it's good to have that connection with the school so you are keeping abreast of what's going on with the student schedules and that type of thing. But they also have valuable input on helping to recruit. So Molly, you're a senior this year. What attracted you to this program when you first got involved? So you would have been a junior when you started? So what really attracted me was getting to learn more about my own community and then getting to be in a class that's not in school and so it was a bit more non-traditional and more hands-on but also getting to be in a class with kids from a different school district and really making those connections with other people because I'm a people person and I love meeting new people so that I think was the biggest draw for me. So when you heard about entrepreneurship, did you really know what that meant at the time? At the time I did I was introduced to entrepreneurship through FFA and the experiences that I've gotten through that but I didn't really have a good base knowledge of what entrepreneurship did or was so when I got into CEO I had the opportunity to learn a lot more about what that meant. So you're meeting at 7.30 in the morning I'm assuming that you're not cutting out any of your core classes in school this is probably in addition to is that correct? Kind of. So a CEO meets from 7.30 to 9 o'clock in the morning so it actually takes up two of your hours especially because we switch off so in the first semester we meet in Staples and the second semester we meet in Wadena and so it does take up two hours of your day and so like Mrs. Cole said it does take up a lot of your some more time but I've still been able to get all my core classes in so far. So is the transportation from one community to the other your responsibility or is that partially funded through the program? When you meet in your home community so like when we met in Staples I was responsible for getting myself to where we met or the business we were touring that morning but when we met in Wadena transportation was provided for that. Okay nice Lucas what was your attraction to coming into this program? I'd have to say for me to go into this program I looked at the entrepreneurship opportunity I was curious I was kind of setting feelers out to see if I was interested in the business aspect I have family members that are in small business and I just wanted to see how that acted and also I wasn't I wasn't as much of a people person I wanted to expand those that learning process and just be able to public speak and talk to adults and you know we learn how to give good handshakes and that kind of stuff and it was just it was really eye-opening for that. So you saw it as an opportunity to develop your own professional skills which as a junior that's good for you yeah a lot of juniors don't recognize when they don't have those skills I think that's pretty unique that these folks have recognized that when you first start your program and Cindy is probably a question for you what what is it the first couple weeks that you really focus on? We really try to to make the atmosphere the climate when someone walks into the classroom because we have an open door policy anyone can come and visit our class at any time even though they're not enrolled they can still come and observe. Anyone can come any relative friend adult any um and we especially welcome our investors and our board members to come and and see what's going on because we are we are always conscious that we would not have this opportunity if those people hadn't been involved our board members and our investors but we try to create a bit of a wall factor that it's not your ordinary high school class because when anyone enters the room the conference room that we're we're meeting in the students all get up shake hands introduce themselves and we make sure that we thank the person and they're expected to to ask some good questions and after you have been exposed to different business people um they become much more comfortable asking the right kind of questions no not you know how much do you get paid necessarily but you know what made you decide to go in this business what's your background you know what are your overhead costs those types of things you know how does our our business climate compare to a business climate in another state that type of thing it's it's really interesting a lot of the most successful people in our us a today didn't go to college or they went for a day or two i have a couple clients that i work with in my fishing industry uh one went to the university minnesota for one day and he said i just knew it wasn't for me and he's literally a billionaire today and so you have the innate skills and the ability to develop this and the world is full of english majors social studies majors philosophy majors who can't find meaningful employment so i really think this is such a great and unique program because the workforce shortages the workforce surges are everywhere from here to florida you see these want add signs and it's not for low skill people it's for people who have skills in certain areas so when you look at this program what areas have you decided you find interesting and attractive to what to where you're at now as a senior molly what are you looking at what's what's appealing to you um it's really i was able to really tune into um the part of me that likes to be around people but more than that likes to help people and so i think when i look at careers or look at majors i go into that's one of the biggest things i focus on is will this job help me help others so that's what was i looked at for myself so you see yourself going on to college now but you see yourself at an end point that maybe is different than just the major in college exactly and how about you lucas what what are you what are you looking at as you go to the next level along with molly just being able to help you see these businesses that they try and help other people and you know they they're not the big fortune 500s that are this is about money and they really would care about people and i saw that as i need i want to help people and just serve so is that typical as typical student reaction or is it just very unique to each student i think it's unique to each student as they go through their own small business creation and and running it for example jessica from a class our first class her business that she struggled to come up with an idea of what she was going to do for her business and she decided that she was going to do pet sitting and she called it the furry dog mother she's got little magnetic signs she puts on her her vehicle and and through help working with julie hoffman at the four legged lodge she learned how to create some paperwork that she needed to do disclaimers and that type of thing so she wouldn't be held liable for damaging something in somebody's houses those kinds of things she actually did that throughout the second half of her her junior year when she was in the class she continued to do it her senior year and and now i haven't spoken to her recently but was going to do that in diluth as a college student you know it's not full time employment but it's a part time you know economic gig for her and she's good at it and it's worked out really well for her coming from the college environment that i did i saw students so often who walked into the college and never were there before they came in and they signed up for classes and they paid their tuition and i always tell students would you go and get in a $50,000 car that you had never seen never driven and not experienced it they had well everybody says no and in my comment always says why would you go anywhere for your education if you don't test it out and i remember working with some students who wanted to be nurses and they went to the hospital in the ER and one day of blood made them decide it wasn't for them they could not stand it so i think it's so important what you're doing and i'm kind of curious about your feeling of these places that your businesses that you visit what's that experience been like for you for both of you i really enjoyed the business tours partly because i got to see a side of our community that i never really had realized there before but it's also very i like what what are some examples barma hats so barma hats is a hat making company in staples and they actually make like the australian like type hats that you see and i actually live about like four miles away from the factory but i never knew it was there until ceo and that's a worldwide and that's a worldwide factory isn't it yeah so what are some other unique things that you found in the communities that where you visited these places either one of you i what some things you just had no clue that they were in that area i had no clue that we had a 3m plant in staples really just to know that something like that that large scale of 3m to be so close to home is just really eye opening for me and when you saw some of these businesses obviously 3m is not a small entrepreneurial business but when you saw some of them did you find areas that perked your peak that your interest i know we went to savantis and uh brainered here and uh that was really cool they do internet like state uh protection like servers and stuff and that was i found that really interesting i've always kind of liked electronics and i just found that that business was really nice to see so when you go on to college do you have a track yet in mind i kind of have an idea i haven't solidly decided but i like to go along with the i like to help people i want to go criminal justice kind of along with an rotc background going to the military love to police and just help people now you said you had some family members that are entrepreneurs correct is that your immediate uh my grand my grandfather owns a electrical contracting business in washington state spend three generation since open since i think 47 oh really yeah it's survived the test of time i think they're up to 100 some employees they've worked on oh a lot of different stuff i just i've always found that fascinating and what he does i've job shadowed him before it's it's really cool i'm not looking for names here but if you have you visited companies and businesses you think i don't want anything to do with this kind of work have you had that experience or not so much um i don't i haven't ran into anything so most of the things you experience were unique and interesting to you what's your relationship with your peers when they come and ask you about this kind of a program what do you what do you tell them i tell them it was pretty life-changing and eye-opening um most of my friends are like in my grade but for the my younger peers that i've met through ffa that are really looking into more of that hands-on class i tell them about this um class and the great opportunities you get from it because you get to network and make connections lifelong connections with many people from across the state of minnesota that will really benefit you in the future um and you get to really fine tune your interpersonal skills as well and professional skills how about you lucas um i get when i get asked about it i just i tell them how great and how good the the program was for me and how if you're into not just business but you want to become a better adult in the future just to be able to speak with an adult in all that kind of stuff this is the program for you so you both have confidence in yourselves have you found that working through this program that's increased your confidence for sure for sure i i'd say between i was i wouldn't probably have never done this before the class along with me on tv yeah for sure but like between ceo and going to boy state it just it was so so eye-opening so that was life changing yes yeah wow and when you spend time with business owners what kind of feedback have you gotten from them when you visited their places they're surprised how adult like we act sometimes really yeah there's an application process and um you have to write an essay and you know some you have to get letters recommendation from people and um i think that's a way to make sure that people want to do this class you can't just oh this sounds interesting like most other high school classes you have to actually want to do this and i think that's what keeps people to or makes people into this class what they are the good students that they are two of the things that determine success for students and new people going into work is soft skills their communication skills and that sort of thing and the other is their their personality and their warmness and both of you have that so i think you're both going to fit in very well cindy do you turn down applicants in this program that's a possibility yeah and what what determines that and i have nothing to do with that application process really because the facilitator should not be handpicking the students okay that will be in the class so it is done by a committee of our board members so i can suggest to students that i may know that you know this would be a good thing for you to do but i have nothing to do with the application process so molly and lucas you both had to sit down with board members when you came into the program and do a little interview no we just had to uh they just go over our um over your resume so yeah but so you didn't have to have any face-to-face stuff going on and actually the names are not on the applications when the uh the committee looks at them so it's more of an anonymous type of application so you're you have donors or you have people who are investors is that your primary source of revenue yes it is yes and do you are you responsible for going out and raising that money or does that go through your board too they do not want me to have anything to do with that because when i call a business person we don't want to have that business person thinking oh no somebody's calling for money again okay so i have nothing to do with the the fundraising from your perspective it is it is and then i can can contact any business person or or resource person that i think might be a good mentor or a good speaker without having to feel like they're they're dreading hearing from me we have a program in the Brainerd Rotary called STRIVE where we go out and mentor seniors uh we're doing it in Brainerd Pine River and Pillager right now and one of the things that's happened through the STRIVE program we have speakers that come in they have identified people they want to have worked for them and they've been offered a job at the end of the school year have you had any employers look at you and say uh you if you're really interested come back when you're done with your college and be happy to talk to you have you experienced that at all not that i haven't i haven't not yet i can speak to that because each student is paired with a business person mentor about mid-year prior to to mid-year actually and it can be someone who they have a similar interest because of their business idea or it can just be somebody that they click with personally and um and i'm sure they won't mind if i use their names but matt olander from olander tooling was a mentor last year to dominic who was in the class and then dominic actually got a part-time job working for him because they they just clicked personally not that dominic's business idea had anything to do with with machining but they they just get along well personally so i think that's a huge advantage of this program as well because now they have that connection with this mentor person who will remember them 10 years down the road and they may you know keep up corresponding through their life so that's another added benefit and the resource people that come into our class the tour host any one of these CEO alumni could contact them in the future and say hey i was in this CEO class you know do you have some suggestions maybe for some job openings or you know i i want to move back here with my family 10 years down the road we're down to about our last minute here but um when you have speakers come in what how do you identify what kind of speakers do you have and come to and talk to them well there will be some speakers that i will ask to come each year just because they're good such a good message um dan skullgun has has been a great support person and and is a great speaker former state senator right and let's see who else did we just have last week our board members especially those that are highly enthusiastic about our community kyle davis is a one of our new board members and he loves central minnesota and he gives the students all sorts of ideas for how they can be successful in central minnesota and they can maybe speak to some speakers that they thought were really interesting but i actually out of time so i'm not going to put you on the spot but if somebody wants to look at doing this in our community what can they contact you cindy sure how do they do that um i have a uh well we have a central minnesota ceo website and it's central mn ceo.com so that's one way they can find out about us otherwise um bob jackson is the chairperson of our our ceo board and he would be an excellent person to contact great find him at stern rubber stern rubber and staples thank you for coming on the show i think it's a great program and it looks like it's been very successful for you folks thanks a lot thank you for having us you've been watching lakeland currents where we're talking about what you're talking about i'm ray gildow so long until next time