Daviess County CEO Students Visit Technology Park
February 23, 2016
Daviess County Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities (CEO) is an organization that provides high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to learn about businesses and business structure. In the program, students travel to various business sites and engage with owners and workers first-hand. On February 4, seventeen students from Daviess County Schools came to WestGate Academy Conferencing & Training Center to learn what it takes to run the facility.
This is the third year for the CEO class to take place in Daviess County schools, and CEO Facilitator Bill Turner has been involved with the program from the start. Turner says there were several key points the students took away from the WestGate@Crane Executive Director Cary Bledsoe.
'Students enjoy the hands-on approach to learning about starting a business. Meeting with local entrepreneurs and hearing their successes and failures is a great learning experience for the students. By asking questions, they guide their learning.'
Turner says by the end of the school year, these CEO students will visit more than 70 businesses and host over 40 guest speakers. He says students learned more about the value WestGate Academy provides to the area.
'WestGate was a unique experience. Instead of a business that offered a tangible product, the academy is very service oriented. Students have a hard time calculating price with a service vs. a tangible product. It also opened their eyes to the value of WestGate to not only the county, but the region.'
Turner added students learned about the Academy's connection with NSWC Crane, the variety of events, how WestGate determines price, and how the Academy is marketed to the region.
WestGate@Crane Executive Director Cary Bledsoe spoke to students about the diverse events that take place at the Academy.