I wish there were a way to capture what it looks like inside the room right now.
The chaos.
The moments of clarity.
The frustrations.
The “wait…what if we did THIS?” moments.
The verbal debates.
The thoughtful considerations.
The energy building.
The excitement.
The little wins that suddenly feel like BIG wins.
Because something is happening.
I'm watching committees form.
I'm watching small groups huddle around ideas.
I'm watching students make suggestions to the larger group.
I'm watching them challenge ideas, rethink things, work through problems and slowly—really slowly sometimes —watching it all come together.
This is the Class Business experience.
Our Class of 2027 has been charged with creating a real business venture from the ground up.
Not a hypothetical business plan.
A real one.
They are learning the ins and outs of developing a business plan, marketing, sponsorships, registration, budgeting, forecasting, vendor relationships, logistics and, ultimately, execution.
And there is no perfect roadmap.
They have to figure some of this out together.
The goal is to create an event that serves our community well while generating enough profit to:
- Provide seed money for their second-semester individual businesses
- Re-invest back into the Gateway CEO program
- And hopefully have enough left over for our end-of-year work hard/play hard day!
Tomorrow, they take the next big step.
After weeks of wading through ideas, analyzing possibilities, tracking down dates, finding vendors, asking questions, making adjustments and putting a plan together, they will present their business venture to the Gateway CEO Board.
Will everything be perfect? Absolutely not. And that's kind of the point.
Because they are learning that building something requires communication, compromise, creativity, persistence, problem-solving and the willingness to keep going when the first idea doesn't work.
I'm incredibly proud watching them move from “What could we do?” to “Okay…here's what we're going to do.”
It's coming together. And we can't wait for you to hear more very soon!
#GatewayCEO #ClassOf2027 #ClassBusiness #Entrepreneurship #YoungEntrepreneurs #Leadership #HandsOnLearning #InvestInTheNextGeneration
