Ms. Amanda Guinn

Dual Credit Coordinator
Southwestern Illinois College

On Wednesday, Ms. Amanda Guinn from Southwestern Illinois College helped the students sign up for their college course, MGMT 299.  They will receive four college credit hours for the CEO Program.  

Celebrating our New Badges

Besides Ms. Guinn, it was the first week without a business speaker or tour.  The students first celebrated with wearing their new badges proudly each day.   Although it took six weeks to get it around their necks, it was a great learning experience for them all.  Thanks to our project manager, Malik Marks-McRath for coordinating our first mini class business.  Learning how to work together, listening to everyone’s opinions without being personal, figuring out how much our brand is worth, soliciting advertisements through an email and one-on-one discussions with companies and investors, following up on questions, researching places who can make badges/lanyards and eventually working with Town Hall Archery on the design, and depositing money are just some of the lessons that the students learned through this experience

Business Discussions

The week was mainly focused on the class business.  Several ideas were being discussed.  Cosmic Bingo seems to be the event that the students have really rallied behind.  After researching all school, athletic, and Chamber of Commerce events, they have settled on Saturday, February 27, 2016.  Learning from their badge project, they already voted on their project leaders:  Aliyah Gillespie, Heather Gosebrink, and Emma Gregowiz.  Jessica Stern, who volunteered as the secretary, provided daily agendas.  Montez Douglas prepared the budget of expected revenue and expenses for the class business.  Committees were formed and responsibilities were assigned.  Even though there were some differences of opinions, the group worked very well through the issues and made some decisions that they all supported.  

Just a Reminder

Our door is always open. Entrepreneurs, visitors, guests, and friends are welcome and highly encouraged to join us. Drop in and share your story with our students or participate in our class discussions. Check out the schedule on the website.

If you are interested in hosting our students for an educational visit about your business operations or would like to speak to the class and share your story, please email the facilitator, Julie Siebers, at jsiebers@bths201.org or call or text her at 618.719.3177.

Journal Tidbits

“The business world is full of so many different fields and opportunities.  Being able to get hands-on experience is something a lot of people do not get to do until they have an internship in college or after when they get a job.  I am taking a lot of knowledge and experience from our speakers and visits through this program.  I am looking forward to continuing the class business and other visits we have planned.”

Heather Gosebrink

“In the video presentation we watched, Mr. Lindvahl spoke about the simple things people think may be great business ideas that do become successful outcomes.  We researched the product buttons sold on Amazon that allows people to have whatever product they may need delivered to their door in a day. These buttons aren’t made for brand new products either. They can be just as simple as applying the button to your kitchen cabinet and pressing it to have 10 new boxes of mac n’ cheese delivered to you the next day. This idea was so simple. Someone must have said, “Geez I’m out of Tide again! I don’t feel like going to Walmart. If only there was a way that I could have it sent to me?” And then they created this button that does just that. It’s a simple idea, but extraordinary!

The key topic I picked out of the video was that just because someone doesn’t see value in your ideas, doesn’t mean there isn’t any. Honestly, I needed to hear this. I’ve been going back n’ forth with my ideas because I feel like maybe no one will like them. …. To believe that you can create something, whether it will be a product or a service that will be useful and help people is the first step to creating a business in my eyes. I’m sure it’s the obvious step, but the believing part is what has separated many ideas from becoming realities.”

Malik Marks-McRath