This year’s Monroe County startUP class is getting an early jump on its group project, with a golf tournament set to take place in just a week.

The startUP program sees a collection of local students come together to build their entrepreneurial experience, working on a large group project to begin with and later breaking off to develop their own individual businesses.

This year, students have spent the first few weeks of school organizing a tournament at Acorns Golf Links near Wartburg, set to take place next Sunday, Oct. 15.

Caleb Seboldt, a senior at Valmeyer High School and one of this year’s startUP students, spoke about the school year so far and how the golf tourney has come together.

Seboldt noted his personal interest in the class started as he previously ran a small popcorn farm for several years. That entrepreneurial background seemed to be a good foundation to pursue further business education.

With nearly two months of the class having passed, Seboldt noted how different startUP is from a typical classroom experience, particularly as it’s primarily student-driven.

“I think we learn a lot of independence skills, some leadership skills,” Seboldt said. “You can’t rely on someone else to always help you and have all the answers, and sometimes you’ve just gotta rely on yourself.”

He explained that the class started discussing ideas for its group project during the second week of school. A number of ideas were thrown out, though the class ultimately agreed to the golf tourney idea from Jacob Hall.

Hall is a state-qualifying golfer at Columbia High School.

The coming event is planned to feature 36 teams playing through an 18-hole course, with monetary awards based on performance among the A, B and C flights.

Gathering participants for the event has been the group’s big focus over the last few weeks, Seboldt said, with the class’ initial goal being to gather sponsors.

The event features three sponsorship tiers, though the gold tier has been sold out and the top platinum tier has been claimed by Obernagel Farms. 

Silver tier sponsorships for a medium sign at one of the 18 holes are still available.

Seboldt said organizing for this event has gone smoothly enough, with every student playing their part.

“It’s been really good,” Seboldt said. “It’s a learning experience for everyone, and there’s 22 people in our class. It’s a lot of people that work together, and it can sometimes be a challenge, but overall, I think that having that many people working on this is an asset because it allows so much stuff to get done at the same time.”

Turnout for the event would appear promising, with 20 teams currently signed up to participate as well as plenty of gold and silver sponsorships.

While Seboldt didn’t get into the financial hopes for the event, he did express hopes for its success among participants.

“We hope that the tournament will be full and that all of the golfers that are in our tournament will have an excellent experience, will talk about to their families and friends how great the Monroe County startUP class of 2023-24 golf tournament was,” Seboldt said. “That’s really our biggest goal.”

Seboldt also acknowledged the group project of last year’s startUP class, which encountered delays as original plans for a concert in Valmeyer’s Rock City development caves were rejected by the village. The class ultimately landed on a basketball tournament in early March.

He said that, given how many students are in the class, they wanted to pursue as large of a project as possible in order to get a decent amount of funds for everyone to put together their individual businesses.

“With our class being considerably larger than last year’s, we felt that we would need to go bigger this year,” Seboldt said. “We did think a little bit out of order, I guess, but it’s working very well. We did struggle a little bit with just doing something that had never been done before. People were like ‘Are you sure this will work?’ and we persevered, we all were confident that it would. And now that we’re really seeing it come together, I think that the people that kinda doubted our ability to do it are starting to believe.”

Monroe County startUP Program Facilitator Leslee Martin offered high praise for her students, noting how exciting the class has been so far and how substantial an undertaking the golf tournament idea is.

Martin acknowledged the students have encountered obstacles in the organizing, though she added they have been overcoming them very well and she is excited to see how the class progresses.

“Usually in the program they have more opportunities to have speakers and tours and have a greater foundation of knowledge before stepping into that business endeavor as complex as what they’re doing now,” Martin said. “But we’re learning on our feet, and it’s very fast paced, and we’ve had to adapt quickly. I think they’re taking huge strides, and big things are happening. And it’s the kids that are making the things happen.”

Monroe County startUP Board of Directors Chair George Obernagel, who also owns the golf tourney’s platinum sponsorship, similarly praised the students for the work they’ve done so far this year.

Obernagel commended the class for its excellent teamwork – also noting Martin’s performance in her first year as facilitator – as well as the speed with which they’ve managed to put the fundraising event together.

“It’s a big project, and they’ve only been in school for six, seven weeks now,” Obernagel said. “They’re getting this all rolling. I think it’s a great commitment by these startUP students to do this project this quick. They might have another large one in January.”

Registration for the event is available with individual registration at $100 and four-person team registration of $400.

For businesses, silver tier sponsorships are available at $200.

For more information or to register, visit monroecountystartu1.wixsite.com or check out the Monroe County startUP Facebook page.