With the goal of providing students with a greater insight and understanding of the world of business and smart career choices, Cornerstone Leadership & Business High School will continue its CEO Speakers’ Program for the upcoming school year.
According to Mona Kidder, Cornerstone Leadership & Business High School’s internship coordinator, the school’s speakers’ program help students to learn the fundamentals of business, viable career pathways and various roles of great leadership from some of the region’s top professionals.
“Students discover and learn about each executive’s journey to success through personal stories and wisdom shared,” Kidder said. “Each session this year will feature one guest speaker with an allotted time of one hour. There is a short time reserved for questions from students and for students to interact with the speaker at the end of each session.”
The monthly CEO Speakers’ Program sessions take place each Thursday evening from 5 to 6 p.m. at Cornerstone’s Nevada Campus, located at 6861 E. Nevada on the city’s east side. The sessions for the 2015-16 school year will be October 15, November 12, January 14, February 18 and April 14.
Since the inception of the program, the speakers have included William Cesarek, CFO, The Magni Group; Dr. Antoine Garibaldi, CEO, University of Detroit Mercy; Mark Murray, president, Meijer, Inc.; and D. Scott DeRue, associate dean of Executive Education, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, among others.
While the sessions have been helpful for the students, Kidder would like to see more diversity in the program’s pool of participants.
“We are looking for people that have stories of success that are inspiring,” said Kidder. “We would love to have more women speakers, and since our student base is primarily African American, we would love to have more African Americans executives take part. Actually, we just want a good mix of people that have interesting and good cultural backgrounds.”
Under the auspices of Cornerstone Schools Association, Cornerstone represents a group of privately funded schools that offers a progressive education to students (Pre K-12) in an urban setting, based on a Data Driven Decision Model. At the core of this model, measurable progress determines the effectiveness of student achievement and teacher performance in the grand scheme of education.
In August 2011, Cornerstone Leadership & Business High School celebrated its grand opening. Students can take advantage of a dual degree program with Northwood University by taking such classes as micro and macroeconomics. Additionally, they can take classes for college credit at University of Detroit Mercy.
Cornerstone graduated its first class of seniors in June 2015. Collectively, the graduating class accumulated more than $2.1 million in college scholarships.
Kidder summed up the CEO Speakers’ Program as being one more outstanding element of Cornerstone’s curriculum.
“It’s a great program and an enhancement to our high school,” she said. “The program helps to keep students grounded and on the right track to career goals. In addition to the students learning about the journey of success in the business and professional world, they also learn about the importance of developing skills in their personal lives.”
For more information about Cornerstone Leadership & Business High School’s CEO Speakers’ Program, volunteering as a speaker or enrollment at the high school, which begins Monday, August 31, log on to www.cornerstoneschools.org or call 313.892.1860.