Whiteside Area Career Center’s CEO students present businesses at 2024 trade show

STERLING — Whiteside Area Career Center’s CEO trade show drew parents, former CEO students, local business professionals and community members to Northland Mall in Sterling this week to support the CEO students’ businesses at the 11th annual trade show.

The trade show was held Wednesday and Thursday nights, with 31 student-run businesses selling everything from jewelry and video promotions to made-to-order grilled cheese sandwiches.

WACC opened at the beginning of the 1966-67 school year. It was the first area vocational school in Illinois. These systems provide career programming among member schools and report data to the Illinois State Board of Education. The current member schools of WACC are Amboy, Ashton-Franklin Center, Bureau Valley, Dixon, Eastland, Erie, Forreston, Fulton, Milledgeville, Morrison, Ohio, Oregon, Polo, Prophetstown, Rock Falls, Sterling, Newman Central Catholic, Unity Christian and Faith Christian.

The 33 junior and senior-standing students who make up the east and west CEO classes of 2024 worked all year to create, pitch and market their businesses. Although each business is unique and impressive, the owners are the most remarkable part.

“We [the facilitators] see them every day and we see the change happening, but we don’t really pay attention to it. Then, all of a sudden, you get to the end of the year, and you see that moment and you go ‘holy smokes,’” LeAndra Hartman, the west-side CEO facilitator, said in an interview with Shaw Local.

During their time in the CEO program, listening to speaker presentations done by various professionals around the community, visiting local businesses and learning from a mentor, each student shows up at the trade show a changed person.

“[The students in the east-side class] were very quiet, very timid and had a tough time asking questions...they were great students, but they were just very introverted,” Emily Zimmerman, the facilitator for the East CEO class, said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Makenzie Toms, an east-side CEO student and a junior at Dixon High School, said that her time in the program helped her gain confidence when talking to people. That confidence was apparent as she smiled and chatted with each costumer that stopped by her booth.

Her business, Uprooted, sells plants in various repurposed glasses and pots. Toms explained how she found a lot of the unique pots at different thrift stores and the majority of her plants for sale were donated by members of the community.

“The other thing with the growth that you see is that shift in mindset from an education where it’s what do I have to do to get an A to now let’s not worry about grades as much as let’s talk about learning,” Hartman said.

Destini Chambers, a junior at Newman Central Catholic, said that the biggest lesson she learned from her time in the CEO program was that it’s OK to make mistakes.

Chambers, the owner of Groovy Kitchen, an organic meal prep business with a colorful 1970s theme, described how she was scrambling at the last minute getting her booth set up. She said in the future she’s going to make sure to have everything prepared ahead of time.

“Unfortunately, or fortunately, you learn more when you make mistakes like I will never do that again. Emily and I, our job is to set up a very safe place to make those mistakes,” Hartman said.

Throughout the year, students are brought into local businesses and listen to different speakers talk about their industries.

Olivia Clark, owner of Pure Radiance, an all-natural body care business, is a junior at Newman Central Catholic. She noted how valuable those business tours were because they helped her figure out her plans for her future career. Before she was a CEO student, she always thought she wanted to be a gynecologist or some kind of doctor.

“After going through the CEO program and visiting hospitals, I realized that it’s going to be way too much schooling. I want to do something where I can get out into the world faster,” Clark said.

Her plans now include going to a four-year university and majoring in psychology. After that she wants to do something related to mental health care, like counseling.

Toms had a similar experience. Before she went through the CEO program, she had no idea what she wanted to do after high school. Now, she’s decided that she wants to be a business owner.

This year, between both the west and east classes, students went on 83 business tours. Additionally, eight businesses donated office and conference space for the CEO class to utilize as their meeting locations.

Hartman, who has been a CEO facilitator since its very first class, said the support the program’s received from the community is the one thing that hasn’t changed.

The WACC CEO program is run entirely by investors. The program has 75 total investors.

“It’s an army of people that make this work,” Hartman said.