CAPS Student Summit Hosted in St. Louis

On October 19, 2018 the St. Louis regional CAPS programs came together for their first CAPS Student Summit. The summit theme was entrepreneurship and students were joined by Pulitzer Prize nominated author, entrepreneur, and CAPS Network ambassador Clifton Taulbert. Clifton delivered a message that called CAPS students to accelerate their imagination and embrace the power of now. The summit also welcomed Blue Valley CAPS Executive Director Corey Mohn and CAPS Network Coordinator Gregg Brown.

The CAPS Student Summit was made possible by a collective partnership between St. Louis CAPS and Lindenwood University that funded bringing Clifton Taulbert to the St. Louis area. During initial partnership conversations, the leader of St. Louis CAPS (Dr. Travis Bracht, Superintendent of the Affton School District) and Craig Felzein (Director of the Duree Center for Entrepreneurship at Lindenwood University) learned that both programs used Clifton’s book Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur as a key resource in their entrepreneurship programs. This serendipitous collision led to the idea of bringing Clifton to St. Louis as a way to connect CAPS student associates, higher education, and business partners around the theme of entrepreneurship.

St. Louis CAPS organized the student summit and extended an invitation to the CAPS programs in the region. Participants included St. Louis CAPS, St. Charles CAPS, Washington CAPS, and Parkway Spark with students representing a variety of courses such as global business and entrepreneurship, engineering, technology solutions, and teacher education. The student summit was hosted at the Parkway Spark incubator inside Chesterfield Center and the US Navy provided coffee and breakfast prior to the official kickoff.