Tech’s Governor’s School For Business Wraps

Tennessee Tech’s Governor’s School wrapping up a month of unique opportunities for junior and senior high school students to begin the college transition.

The Governor’s School for Technological Innovation and Business Leadership (GSTIBL) is a four-week program in June, during which a group of thirty students lives on campus, takes classes, and participates in various business-related activities. Director Susan Wells said students in the program report learning many different things that they are not learning in their regular classrooms.

“They get to experience a lot of leadership roles, they get to, to learn what it’s like to live on a college campus, do your own laundry, you know, keep up with your own room key, that kind of thing, and then they also have a, you know, a group work experience,” Wells said.

Wells said students work in groups to develop a technology-based product and create a business plan and commercial in order compete with one another. She said the program culminates in a Shark Tank-style competition where the groups must give a thirty-minute presentation to a panel of three judges.

“The judges score them based on the originality of their idea and the feasibility of their business and their confidence in the management team and their presentation,” Wells said.

Wells said there is an event halfway through the program where the students’ parents and other judges are given pretend money that they can invest into the products of the different groups.

“The students use that as part of their starting capital,” Wells said. “That happens about two weeks in.”

Wells said students are chosen for the program through an application process with a myriad of different requirements, such as meeting certain academic standards.

“They have to have two recommendations from teachers, one recommendation from a counselor, they have to have an interest in business and in technology, and they do two videos and write an essay,” Wells said. “And the videos are: what role do you see yourself playing in your company other than CEO and what are you passionate about, what problem are you passionate about solving?”

Wells said they search for students with a clear interest in business and technology, as well as students that will be able to handle themselves in a proper university setting.

“Have they taken business and technology classes? Are they involved in DECA or FBLA?” Wells said. “And then finally we look for those students who are not your average teenager. We want the mature students who are going to be okay, you know, living away from home for four weeks.”

Wells said the students receive three hours of college credit at the end of the program, so it serves as a recruitment tool for the university and also allows them to give back to the students who are involved.

Wells said they will start taking applications for next year’s program on November 1. She has been involved in the GSTBIL since Tech started the program 24 years ago.