{"id":140547,"date":"2021-02-24T08:23:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T13:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=140547"},"modified":"2021-02-25T00:57:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T05:57:07","slug":"ceo-students-receive-hidden-spaces-downtown-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/02\/24\/ceo-students-receive-hidden-spaces-downtown-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO students tour  downtown buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students in the Career Education Opportunity (CEO) program participated in their own private \u201chidden spaces\u201d event on Tuesday as Van Wert County Foundation (VWCF) Executive Secretary Seth Baker and his staff provided tours of buildings purchased as part of the Van Wert Forward downtown development project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/CEO-building-tour-2-23-2021.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-140548\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/CEO-building-tour-2-23-2021.jpg 560w, https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/CEO-building-tour-2-23-2021-550x369.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><figcaption>Van Wert County Foundation Executive Secretary Seth Baker (right) talks to CEO students about future plans to turn an area above the Rhoades Insurance business into a loft apartment during a tour held Tuesday. <em>Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The spaces toured included the upper stories of the Rhoades Insurance building on the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets, the upper stories of the building housing attorney Dillon Staas\u2019 law practice on the northeast corner of Washington and Main, and the former CJ\u2019s Side Pockets in the 100 block of North Washington Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tours gave the CEO students a \u201cbefore\u201d look at the historic downtown buildings prior to the start of renovation of the structures as part of the Van Wert Forward development project. That\u2019s important, said CEO Program Director Kerry Koontz, adding that, hopefully, students will get the chance to see the buildings in 5 or 10 years and understand what developers started with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to better educate the students as to the downtown development process of what our businesses are provided and make that connection,\u201d Koontz noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group of 46 students was split into three groups for the tours of the buildings, all part of Van Wert Forward\u2019s Phase 1 development project, with VWCF tour guides providing information on what was planned for the building spaces &#8212; primarily retail business, food service, or residential uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Koontz also talked about the CEO program, which now serves all three county school districts, noting that, while the program has faced some COVID-19-related challenges, it continues to provide high school seniors with internships with area businesses that give them the opportunity to learn whether they want to pursue a particular career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey are getting some great exposure and making some good connections and learning about professions, which is the whole goal,\u201d he said, adding that he is now seeing former CEO students working at businesses in the community where he shops. \u201cThey\u2019ve been hired; that\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Students in the Career Education Opportunity (CEO) program participated in their own private \u201chidden spaces\u201d event on Tuesday as Van Wert County Foundation (VWCF) Executive Secretary Seth Baker and his staff provided tours of buildings purchased as part of the Van Wert Forward downtown development project. The spaces toured included the upper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 04:35:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}