CEO Field Trip Part 1 of 2:

A Full Circle Kind of Day

Last Monday, April 27, we had our final site visit of the year—and I really wanted it to be something special.

Enter Becky Bertram, one of our Silver Creek Area CEO mentors for the Class of 2026. Back in February, Becky (founder of Savvy Technical Solutions) casually mentioned that she shares office space at Spark Coworking, located in Ballpark Village in St. Louis. And just like that… the wheels started turning.

What if this became our end-of-year field trip?

From there, the planning began. Coordinating four schools is no small task—calendars were pulled, testing dates checked, sports schedules reviewed, and transportation figured out. Meanwhile, Becky worked to secure space for us at the building. It truly took a team effort to bring it all together.

And it did.

The plan: a morning site visit at Becky’s office, followed by an afternoon at the St. Louis Zoo. Honestly, it felt like a full circle moment. For many of these soon-to-be graduates, some of their very first field trips may have been to the zoo. And here they were, wrapping up their senior year… heading back together one more time.

The excitement was real as we loaded the bus provided by Mascoutah High School and headed to St. Louis.

What the students didn’t know was that Becky and I had a little surprise waiting for them.

She had reserved the top floor meeting space.

When the elevator doors opened, she told the students to turn the corner and just keep walking. And then it happened… the ooohs, the ahhhs, the gasps.

Floor-to-ceiling windows. Wide open space. Busch Stadium in one direction, the Arch in the other. Big, comfy couches. A shuffleboard table. A balcony they could walk out onto overlooking the ballpark. A huge breakfast area with quartz countertops, a full kitchen, a fancy espresso machine, and even cold brew coffee on tap.

They couldn’t believe it.

I started setting out bagels, fruit, and juice—but the students? They kept drifting back to the windows, stepping out onto the balcony, taking it all in. I heard someone say, “I can’t believe this is an office building where people actually work!”

Not a bad way to spend a Monday morning. Their smiles said it all!

And as it turns out… we ended up spending more time there than we planned.

The students were so locked in during Becky’s presentation that our schedule started to shift—in the best way. At the same time, severe weather was rolling in, and plans for the zoo quickly changed. So we stayed at Ballpark Village, grabbed lunch, and kept a close eye on the radar.

When the storm sirens went off, we gathered everything up and made our way back to the bus for an earlier-than-expected trip home.

Not the ending we had planned—but in business we adapt. It was a perfect final site visit of the year! And to all those who had a hand in making this happen for our students, thank you!

More to come in Part 2…