Havre and Simms students participate in learning exchange

Students from Sun River Valley High School in Simms and from Havre High School will be participating in a learning exchange where each group will visit the other’s area entrepreneurs to learn how to create opportunities in their communities as part of a larger goal of bridging the rural-urban divide.

For the 12 Sun River students, the experience will begin today. They are scheduled to meet with representatives of businesses and organizations, including Bear Paw Development Corp., Scharfe, Kato & Company, Merry Character Photography, ENELL Inc., Henny Penny’s and TownHouse Inn of Havre,and to shadow students at Havre High School Thursday.

The point of the visits, the press release says, is for the students to experience and learn about the challenges and success stories of local businesses. It is to build an understanding and support network with the goal of supporting student-driven business attempts.

After the visit, students will create a professional presentation which will include an overview of their “take home” message and a general business plan that they will implement.

Thirteen Havre students will visit Simms area entrepreneurs and school at a later date, the press release says.

The exchange is sponsored by the Bozeman-based non nonprofit One Montana, a collection of Montanans whose purpose is to take on multiple projects and issues to help bring rural and urban interests together.

“We embrace collaboration as the most promising way, perhaps the only way, to address the difficult issues of our time. Our goal is to change the way we think and act about rural and urban communities from divide to connect,” a statement from the group’s website, onemontana.org, says.