 Professionals and business leaders of the Bemidji area took over Bemidji High School today for the third annual CEO in the classroom. This year 20 different professionals presented at the event. Each year organizers try to bring in different career paths so students have a chance to interact with a variety of jobs. They were professionals from the manufacturing industry, entrepreneurs, and city officials. Even our own Lakeland PBS general manager Bill Sanford gave a presentation on what it's like to work in television. For my role it's been a great opportunity to to reach out to some of our members and some of the community leaders and provide this opportunity to come in and say hey can you tell your story what do you remember what it was like to be a freshman and can you relate that story of how your journey has taken you to where you are today and and be a voice of inspiration for tomorrow's leaders. The presentations answer questions students may have about topics like personal finance education and what they can do now to get started. CEO in the classroom was presented to the freshman class to hopefully get them thinking about their futures earlier. In the end we want our freshman to start thinking about life after high school whether it's the world of work whether it's going on to college but also thinking about a career pathway and which academy that they would like to choose while they're in high school. Right now we have 12 academies running and next year we'll add six so we're going to have 18 total options. We have information on how you can get involved with CEO in the classroom and with the Bemidji career academies on lptv.org with this story. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.