Students at the Expo

The annual Mid-Ohio Valley Entrepreneurship Expo at Marietta College is not just a time for small business owners, organization leaders, and problem-solvers to come together to talk about entrepreneurship; it’s also a learning opportunity for college and local high school students. This year’s Expo, entitled Energizing Small Business and sponsored by the River City Credit Union, included five different tracks; Growth & Expansion, Management & Strategy, Stand Out & Speak Up, Social Entrepreneurship & Nonprofits, and Law & Order.

Through funding provided by the Marietta Community Foundation and the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, forty local high school students had the opportunity to attend this event. Students from Belpre High School, Marietta High School, Veritas, and the Washington County Career Center traveled to Marietta College. For many students, this was their first professional conference experience. To introduce the students to the conference, BB2C staff members Tonya Davis & Pamela Lankford provided a pre-conference workshop on topics including how to network, choosing sessions, and general conference etiquette. The students then joined the luncheon with keynote speaker Dr. Heidi Neck, the Academic Director of the Babson Academy – a dedicated unit within Babson that inspires change in the way universities teach entrepreneurship and build entrepreneurship education ecosystems. Finally, they were able to attend a sessions in an Expo track, where they could practice the networking skills and conference etiquette they learned about with our staff.

If you are interested in having BB2C staff work with your students through customized professional development workshops, contact Hunter Warsinsky, Placement Coordinator, at hwarsinsky@bb2careers.org.