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Fifteen high school students displayed the results of a new yearlong program intended to prepare enterprising young people for careers in the business community.
Southwest Minnesota Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities began in the fall of 2018 as a cooperative vocational education option for up to 22 students in Luverne, Ellsworth, Edgerton, Adrian, Hills-Beaver Creek and Pipestone school districts.
Sixteen students ultimately participated in the new program sponsored by local businesses, and 15 young entrepreneurs displayed their unique businesses at the CEO Showcase at Grand Prairie Events in Luverne May 15.
CEO facilitator Cody Henrichs said the businesses were in various stages of development.
Some students sold merchandise while others sold services. One student business gets off the ground this spring with customers at the ready.
Student businesses feature handmade items
Hills-Beaver Creek junior Madison Spath created “Paths,” a home décor business.
She said creating the 14 items featured in her business allowed her to spend time with her dad, Mike, in the woodworking shop.
Spath named her business Paths as a play on her last name.
Offering one-of-a-kind merchandise was also the basis for creating businesses for:
•Edgerton High School’s Courtney Fey, whose business “Scrunchoxox,” sold homemade scrunchies, a fabric-covered elastic band used to fasten hair into ponytails
•McCall Stegenga, a senior from Luverne, created “Cozy Calf,” which featured handmade baby blankets with looped satin ribbons along the edges. The tabs are meant to stimulate and/or comfort an infant or toddler through their fingering of the blanket’s tabs.
•Homemade cakes and cupcakes was the business idea of Luverne senior Halle Hough. She created “Magnolia Gourmet Cakes” to provide clients with specialized cakes for birthdays, weddings, graduations and other special events.
•Southwest Minnesota Christian High School’s Andra Homandberg created Hom&Berg, which specializes in creating weighted blankets and sleep masks. She uses Himalayan salt as weight material instead of plastic pellets. The healthy minerals “can help with sickness and sores along with giving that special hug-like stimulus.”
Other students market unique items to consumers
Some students researched products and became distributors for unique items for their business idea.
Mallory Jean Remund from Pipestone High School created “Mallory Jean,” a fitness company that sells women’s active wear and accessories.
Her mission statement: “At Mallory Jean our mission is to help people become the best version of themselves while looking great.”
Remund said she intends to continue her business while in college with long-term goals of owning her own fitness center.
Other students and their distributed items include:
•“Bears Pairs” by Luverne High School junior Claire Baustian provides fun, unique socks for anyone to wear. The company promises: “If you buy a pair, we donate a percentage of the proceeds to charity.”
•Sara Knips, an Adrian High School senior, created “Nobles & Co.,” a T-shirt company whose products “emote confidence and energy” that supports women and promotes kindness.
•Joe Van Essen, Edgerton High School, expanded his interest in the family farm by expanding his own feeder cattle business under the name Van Essen Farms.
Developing a business with personal skills
The promotion of a personal skill allowed some students to create service-oriented businesses.
Hills-Beaver Creek senior Kiara Honken designed a business based on her love of animals.
“Kiara’s Pet Sitting” was the result of her participation in the CEO class. She expanded her client base by understanding the importance of communication in business.
“I honestly didn’t want to talk to people,” she said.
Other students promoting a service to help others included:
•Luverne High School senior Lilli Donahue who created “Write Grant,” a grant writing service for artists, community projects and nonprofit organizations.
•“Royal Playhouse Children’s Theatre” is the creation of Hills-Beaver Creek High School senior Josie Scholten. She shares her love of theatre and performance with children through education and staging of community presentations.
•Sixta Barrios from Pipestone High School created “Dual Conversations” to provide classroom instruction for Spanish- and English-language learners with everyday conversational phases.
•Luverne High School senior Matthew Ziegler founded “eMERGE Digital Marketing.” His company specializes in social media marketing management and advanced marketing analytics.
Student’s business idea becomes career choice
One student’s business, however, became more than just a classroom assignment.
Adrian High School senior Beau Loosbrock developed “BCL Televising,” a pipe and sewer camera service, a business he plans to continue as a career choice.
Loosbrock’s family owns a tiling company near Wilmont and would often subcontract with an outside company to film inside tile and sewer pipes because no one locally provided the service.
Beau Loosbrock worked with a loan officer to finance the video monitor and motorized camera. He remodeled an enclosed trailer and purchased a pickup.
He estimated he has $140,000 invested in his company.
Several jobs have already been scheduled, which Loosbrock plans to complete after graduating from high school later this month.
“This program has been phenomenal in the area for our kids,” Loosbrock’s mom, Miki, said. “For Beau, it’s been pivotal.”