Four Highlands Students Accepted into Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs

The Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs (GSE), within the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, announced Friday that seventy-two high school students have been selected to participate in the 2019 GSE program at Northern Kentucky University from June 23 – July 13.
Twelve of the students are from Northern Kentucky.

HHS juniors accepted into the Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs (GSE) are:

Molly Bucher
Megan Farney
David Herfel
Elizabeth Roeding

GSE brings together high school students from across Kentucky, immersing them in a creative space during a three-week residential program and arming them with the educational tools needed to unleash entrepreneurial spirits.

More than 300 high school students applied to participate in the program and the field was whittled down through a competitive application process to receive full tuition scholarships, marking the highest enrollment number for the program.

Through GSE, students learn firsthand about the opportunities, benefits and pitfalls of beginning a business.  Teams of high school students develop business models, design prototypes, and pitch startup ideas to a large audience and panel of judges.

“Congratulations to the high school students who have been selected for this year’s Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs program,” said Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Secretary Derrick K. Ramsey. “This is a tremendous opportunity for our students to be immersed in a creative, real-world experience where they can develop the skills needed to develop and launch their own business. It is also a great place to learn from each other and their teachers and experience a college campus.”

Student participation in this annual entrepreneurial program has inspired more than eight new businesses throughout the Commonwealth, and actively engaged hundreds of GSE alumni in Kentucky's entrepreneurial ecosystem, a news release said.

“The Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs is a great source of inspiration, knowledge and real-world experience for Kentucky’s next generation of innovators,” said Brian Mefford, Executive Director of KY Innovation. “The students selected for this year’s program should be proud and excited about the opportunity ahead of them. Their time at NKU will allow them to not only hone their entrepreneurial skills, but also be practitioners who actually launch businesses. KY Innovation is committed to supporting GSE’s mission and we look forward to even more growth in the future.”


Through partnerships with collegiate partners, GSE provides more than $2.7 million in scholarship funding opportunities to Kentucky high school students each year. Since 2013, more than 350 student entrepreneurs have received scholarship funding through the program.