Warren County Public School Spark Summit ignighting innovation with students

Carlyle Coppins,

WARREN COUNTY, KY.- The Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce and Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus are coming together, to give Warren County Public School students the chance to share their innovative ideas with local business owners.

The CEO of the Innovation Campus, Buddy Steen tells us about the Spark Summit and how it affects future entrepreneurs. He says, “It’s a highly inclusive and collaborative environment, so those that are young and maybe aren’t as connected are sitting just across the room from folks that are maybe very, very well connected.”

All year long, students from Warren Central High School, South Warren High School, and Greenwood High School have been preparing their business pitches.

Amy Buss, the director of technology for Warren County Public Schools shares a part of the journey. Amy says, “It is an opportunity for our students who have been studying the concepts of entrepreneurship and business to pitch their ideas and get feedback from local industry professionals who have walked down the same path. ”

With help from the whole community, Warren County Public Schools is giving the next generation of entrepreneurs their own opportunity to pitch and create their business models.

We also spoke with two seniors from South Warren High School, that participated in the pitch competition.

Austin Smith a senior at South Warren, “Well, it was really, like, hard to think of something at first because there’s, like, so many different products already out there, but then we were just looking around in the school and thinking what problems are there? And like, if you go in the bathrooms in any school, it’s just a bunch of people vaping. So we’re like, maybe we can think of a product to help.”

Buddy also says, “The first two that I heard, I was just taken back. I couldn’t believe the quality. This group of high school students will start companies and they’ll do it right here.”

The students that came up with the innovative ideas saw an issue and their ideas became the solution.

“You try to find a problem in the world or something that you want to solve, and then you try to find a solution. In the end, it was very fun. It was all worth it.” says Loti Gishe a senior at South Warren High School.

This opportunity to invent gave students the chance to gain knowledge that many high schoolers don’t get.

The Winners:

For more photos visit https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=841271991372043&set=pcb.841272284705347

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