When you build something from the ground up, you never forget the people who opened the door and said, “Come on in.”

Before I ever came on board with Silver Creek Area CEO, a group of area business leaders and school representatives from Freeburg, Lebanon, Mascoutah and O’Fallon Township High Schools came together to see if CEO could become a reality in our community.

At that point, many people in the area had never heard of CEO or the Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship in Effingham. The steering committee was introducing a completely different kind of learning experience and working to build the partnerships and support needed to bring it here.

Nathan Stooke, CEO & Founder of Wisper Internet, already knew about Midland and CEO. He had been involved with CEO programs across the state for several years and understood the impact this kind of experiential learning could have on students.

When that vision became a reality and Silver Creek Area CEO was ready to launch, Nathan opened the doors of Wisper Internet and welcomed us in.

When I came on board as the facilitator, it didn’t take long for me to realize that Wisper wasn’t simply providing us with a place to meet. They were also a financial investor in our program, and became part of the experience.

But what I really want to talk about today is the people.

Carrie Haas, Experiential Marketing Manager, is our person.

She literally helps us with EVERYTHING.

She coordinates our spaces, schedules rooms around whatever we have going on that day, helps with events, answers my texts and somehow always seems to figure things out.

Her office is just a couple of doors down from our meeting room, and so many mornings when we pull into the parking lot around 6:30, I see her car already there.

Yesterday was a perfect example.

I decided this was going to be an up coming post and randomly texted Carrie to see if there was any chance we could get a picture of Nathan with our class sometime soon. I was thinking maybe within the next week or so.

A few minutes later, I got this:

“Nathan can do tomorrow at 8am if that works?
(this never happens. Lol)
LUCK.”

I laughed.

And sure enough, Nathan was there with our students this morning.

That little exchange really says a lot about the Wisper team.

Austin Newton, Executive Assistant, is often helping make things happen behind the scenes. Nathan and Austin are often out of the office when we are there, because Wisper is so much bigger than just our little corner of the state. But when they are, they make time for our students.

And Kevin Pencinger, Facilities & Fleet Coordinator, is constantly taking care of the things most people never think about. He makes our badges to enter the buidling, sets up and cleans our room, gets the podium when we need it and takes care of whatever else needs to happen.

And let’s be honest…

We are a lot.

CEO is not a quiet classroom.

We are taking pictures and filming videos. We are doing team-building activities. We are bringing guest speakers into the building. We are hosting large networking events in Wisper’s Community Room. We have monthly one-on-one mentor meetings. We move things around. We change things up. We are constantly doing something.

And through all of it, these people welcome us with a smile.

They never make us feel like we are in the way.

They always make us feel like we are at home.

And I think that is one of the most important things they give our students.

CEO is experiential learning. We want our students out of a traditional classroom and into the real world, learning through experiences, relationships, conversations and doing.

Nathan, Austin, Carrie, Kevin and the entire Wisper team, thank you.

Thank you for believing in this program when it was still just an idea.

Thank you for opening your doors.

Thank you for investing in our students.

Thank you for putting up with all of our activity.

And thank you for making us feel like we belong.

We are so incredibly grateful for you.

Silver Creek Area CEO wouldn’t be the same without Wisper Internet.