From Pitch to Possibility: Two Educator Ideas Creating Real-World Opportunities for Students

From Pitch to Possibility: Two Educator Ideas Creating Real-World Opportunities for Students

Sometimes the best ideas for career-connected learning begin with a simple question: What could students do if they had the right tools, the right partners, and an opportunity to put their learning into action?

Two southeast Minnesota educators are getting the chance to answer that question through projects selected during the 2026 FutureForward Pitch Competition.

The competition brought educators together to share innovative ideas designed to connect students with careers, workplace skills, industry partners, and real-world learning. Finalists presented their ideas live during the STEM Educator Forum, where attendees helped select the projects that would move forward with funding.

This year’s winning projects from Wabasha-Kellogg and Byron show just how different career-connected learning can look, while sharing a common goal: giving students meaningful experiences that reach well beyond the classroom.

Building a Business at Wabasha-Kellogg

At Wabasha-Kellogg, educator Tyler Heimermann is developing a School Based Enterprise program designed to immerse students in the process of building and operating a real business.

The concept combines entrepreneurship, business planning, technical skills, customer service, and connections with local industry and the community. Students will help develop a business plan and then put that plan into action, using professional equipment and software to create products and services.

The project is intended to give students experience with the same kinds of tools, expectations, decisions, and challenges they may encounter in the workplace.

For Heimermann, that means more than simply teaching students how a piece of equipment works. The broader goal is to give students the opportunity to develop career-ready skills while learning firsthand how a business grows, serves customers, builds community relationships, and sustains itself.

The initial equipment priority is a laser engraver that would allow students to expand the products and services they can offer. Heimermann also sees the enterprise itself as part of the program’s long-term sustainability. Revenue generated through student projects could be reinvested in new resources and experiences.

Community connections are already beginning to develop. Heimermann reported conversations with the local Chamber of Commerce and plans to expand outreach to area businesses and industry partners.

B-Town Meats Gives Byron Students a Taste of the Real World

At Byron High School, Isaac Jestus has already taken the school-based business model in a very different direction.

B-Town Meats operates as a state-licensed butcher shop from the school’s FACS kitchen, giving students direct experience in meat processing while helping introduce them to a career field Jestus believes needs a new generation of workers.

During the 2025–26 school year, students helped process 23 deer, three elk, one antelope, and one black bear. The program is now looking to expand its capacity with additional equipment, including smokers, a grinder, and a stuffer.

For students, the result is much more than observing how an industry works. They are helping operate an actual business.

The experience exposes them to production, food preparation, customer needs, business operations, and the expectations that come with providing a real product or service. It also creates a natural connection between classroom learning and potential employment.

B-Town Meats has already developed relationships with Fareway, Bear Country Meats, and Wildwood Sports Bar and Grill. Jestus specifically identified the partnership with Bear Country Meats as an opportunity to make the transition from classroom experience to the workforce easier for interested students.

Jestus said the partnership with Bear Country Meats is continuing to grow, with plans for students to visit the facility and compare its venison-processing methods with their own. “Jon, the owner, is excited to get involved in education and knows his profession is in need,” Jestus said. He also said the new equipment is expected to help B-Town Meats expand capacity after a busy 2025–26 season in which students processed 23 deer, three elk, one antelope, and one bear. “We were swamped and had to turn away a ton of business in town,” he said. The goal is to better serve students bringing in their own deer while also providing more service to community members. Students have not yet begun using the new equipment, since the next quarter begins in the first week of November.

Ideas That Can Grow

Although the two winning projects look very different, both demonstrate one of the strengths of career-connected learning: it does not have to follow a single model.

One program may introduce students to entrepreneurship, design, technology, and customer relationships. Another may place students inside a functioning meat-processing business. In both cases, students are learning by doing and interacting with the same kinds of equipment, partners, expectations, and decisions they may encounter after graduation.

That is also what the FutureForward Pitch Competition is designed to encourage: innovative, student-centered ideas that strengthen career pathways, build technical and workplace skills, and create stronger connections among classrooms, employers, and communities.

For Wabasha-Kellogg and Byron, winning the pitch was an important moment.

Could Your Idea Be Next?

The FutureForward Pitch Competition gives educators an opportunity to turn promising ideas for career-connected learning into reality. Participants bring forward concepts that can strengthen student experiences, build connections with employers and community partners, and create new ways for students to explore careers and develop real-world skills.

Educators do not need to have every detail finalized before considering an idea. The competition provides a pathway for strong concepts to develop through partnerships, planning, and funding.

Whether your idea involves a new program, equipment, an industry partnership, work-based learning, or another creative way to connect students with their futures, the Pitch Competition provides a place to share that vision.

The momentum continues in February when the STEM Forward Educator Forum returns on February 24, 2027. The FutureForward Pitch Competition will once again give educators the chance to bring forward bold ideas that can create new career-connected learning opportunities for students. Can you see yourself pitching an idea worth up to $10,000? Start thinking now about the program, partnership, or experience you would build if you had the resources to make it happen. Watch for 2027 Pitch Competition updates, application information, and deadlines at ssc.coop/ccls/pitch.