By Abby Ober
Blue North
“A youth movement.”
In sports and other industries, these words can serve as an alarm or trigger, causing those in established positions concern of seeing their roles reduced or, worse, eliminated. For the past eight years, however, a youth movement featuring dozens of high school students participating in a three-week boot camp has been taking place.
Cultivating homegrown entrepreneurs to build the future of the Commonwealth for generations to come.
Abby Ober
Established in 2013, the Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs (GSE), “identifies and enables Kentucky high school students to become our Commonwealth’s next generation of entrepreneurs.” In years past, up to 72 students were accepted into GSE, where small teams learn about business models, design thinking and lean startup methodology. In 2021 the program has doubled its program size with an additional summer session to meet demand – including 20 students from Northern Kentucky.
Following intensive study with instructional coaches, mentors and guest speakers, the program reaches its graduation day of sorts with Demo Day. The event features each GSE team pitching their business to an audience and panel of judges. The top five teams earn the opportunity to win cash prizes, scholarships and more. Free to all participants thanks to a mix of public and private funding, this year’s GSE will take place in two sessions June 6-26 and a second from July 5–24.
The purpose of all this work? For GSE Executive Director Tasha Sams, it’s eliminating a struggle often found in adult entrepreneurs: Giving teens the confidence and know-how to start businesses while, “alleviating the fear that comes with taking that chance.”
“If you can give someone the gift of an entrepreneurial mindset, you’ve immediately changed the trajectory of their life, because they’re suddenly going to start seeing the world in solutions and not problems,” says Sams. “That simple switch, as simple as it may seem, is exceptionally hard to do. If we can do that for every single entrepreneur that comes to our program, the impact will last for the rest of their lives.”
GSE’s “solutions” mindset was on full display last year. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic saw the word “pivot” become a regular feature of many entrepreneurs’ vocabulary; Sams’ included. As COVID “really forced us to practice what we preach,” she said GSE pivoted to virtual programming as “everything we thought we knew and every kind of stable footing we thought we had was immediately gone.”
Once again, the resulting lessons are ones Sams says may be the hardest but most beneficial to learn, especially at an early age.
Natasha Sams
“A unique thing about GSE is being able to surround students with different entrepreneurs. They will learn firsthand, directly from the source, that failure is the mother of all success. We’re always going to have instances where we fail and we feel like we’re just not hitting the mark,” she says. “But if we can reframe that, step back and approach it from not necessarily a growth mindset – because that lends itself to a little bit of toxic positivity – but a rational, real one, you can take what you learned, re-apply it and move forward. That is such a powerful lesson because so many people let failure determine whether they’re going to move forward when in fact that decision should come from within.”
The development of a positive mindset isn’t just key to GSE’s success; it’s something needed in every Northern Kentucky resident so our region to grow and be successful, too. Sams “100%” acknowledges that people think of larger cities/areas like Boulder, Colo., and Silicon Valley when it comes to entrepreneurship. Ever-positive, she, however, likes to think of that as a plus – “there’s a lot of negative connotations with Silicon Valley,” she says.
That’s why Sams says it’s important for GSE’s partners like Blue North, MORTAR Covington, Aviatra Accelerators and NKU to create and push the region for the betterment of all parties involved. She points to Eastern Kentucky-based AppHarvest as an example of the startup success possible here with their successful marriage of a natural Commonwealth industry (agriculture) with the booming tech world.
Of course, one might wonder if GSE has produced any success stories to back up this hope. The answer to that question? A resounding “yes.”
There are people like Crestview Hills resident and current NKU student Andrew Reynolds, a 2017 GSE alumni now operating his own catering business. There’s Thad Bell, who founded his own landscaping company, while in high school after becoming an early adopter of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. She also points to Paige Neuhaus, a graduate of last year’s program who launched a small graphic design/clothing brand whose business is booming. Says Sams, “That young lady is in high school and that’s going to be her first business. It certainly won’t be her last.”
Stories like these prove our region has the talent to – and will – “start the companies of the future.”
“They will and what’s bigger than that is they’re going to hire other individuals who are in this state. It’s exciting to think about in that regard because our kids are going to grow up and solve problems, meet needs and create jobs for the entire state, which is wild, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
All you need is the mindset that believes it can happen, too.
Abby Ober is program director at Blue North. At Blue North it is the mission to empower startups and small businesses. They welcome any questions and encourage small business owners and entrepreneurs to contact them at www.bluenorthky.com.
