April 11, 2008

Entrepreneurship center honored for CampCEO

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale's CampCEO is always a favorite with teenage entrepreneurs. Now, the Southern Illinois Entrepreneurship Center at SIUC has garnered national recognition from the Small Business Institute for its program.

The program was noted "for the development of a best practice in student experiential learning" during the Small Business Institute's annual conference in February in San Diego. During the conference, Emily Carter, director of entrepreneurship and business development at SIUC, presented "Youth Engagement to Enhance an Entrepreneurial Culture" to an enthusiastic audience. Those in attendance responded to the presentation with questions to Carter about how to launch and nurture a successful program like CampCEO.

CampCEO is a six-day residential camp that each summer draws prospective young entrepreneurs entering grades nine-12 to Carbondale. Campers participate in a variety of interactive training and business development projects through the course of the week as they develop, build and market their very own business plans and models.

This year's camp, the fifth annual event, is set for July 13-18 at SIUC. The camp is also expanding this year as SIUC partners with Millikin University to bring CampCEO to the Decatur campus July 20-25. For more information about CampCEO, contact the Southern Illinois Entrepreneurship Center at 618/453-3805 or look online at www.campceo.biz.

The Small Business Institute is a national organization utilizing teaching, consulting, training and field research to strengthen the small business and entrepreneurship sector. Each year the institute showcases best practice models at their annual conference. Carter and Kim Sanders, director of the University Entrepreneurship Center in Centralia, submitted the CampCEO abstract resulting in the program's recognition.