Most schools already have a powerful economic development partner sitting in their backyard—they just haven’t activated the relationship yet. Local chambers of commerce represent a largely untapped resource for connecting students with real-world opportunities, mentorship networks, and pathways to economic mobility that traditional classroom instruction simply cannot provide.

As Tasha Marsaglia, Executive Director of the Plainfield Shorewood Area (Illinois) Chamber of Commerce, puts it: “Connecting the students with the community is extremely important. So many students don’t realize what’s outside their back door. The opportunities that open up are huge — jobs, internships, connections, and ventures that wouldn’t happen otherwise.”

Lessons from Arizona: A Systems-Level Approach

Before diving into specific school examples, it’s worth examining how chambers can create systemic change at scale. Jennifer Mellor, Chief Innovation Officer at the Phoenix Chamber Foundation, and Mike Huckins, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at the Greater Phoenix Chamber, have pioneered an approach that operates simultaneously at three levels: grassroots support within schools, district-level systems change, and state policy advocacy.

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Their ElevateEdAZ initiative works with 20 high schools across five school districts and a charter network. But what makes it effective isn’t just the number of schools—it’s the college and career coaches embedded on each campus, working directly with teachers, students, and families to increase participation in high-wage, high-demand career pathways.

The chamber identified a critical challenge: Arizona leads the nation in manufacturing job growth, particularly in semiconductors, yet only one manufacturing program serving 24 students exists across their partner high schools. Meanwhile, the semiconductor industry alone projects over 60,000 jobs. This massive gap between opportunity and access drove their focus on advanced manufacturing as a strategic priority.

The chamber’s workforce collaboratives bring competing employers together to solve talent challenges collectively. Beyond manufacturing, this collaborative approach led to tangible wins: working with hospital partners, they identified the need for specialty nurses, partnered with community colleges to create two new specialty nursing programs, and secured state appropriations for simulation labs and infrastructure.

On the policy side, Huckins notes their biggest obstacle was demonstrating real workforce outcomes to legislators skeptical of education funding. By tying dual enrollment funding directly to workforce needs and showing concrete career pathways, they secured appropriations that have driven a 40% increase in dual enrollment registration, with an additional 6% increase after expanded funding.

Their approach includes means-testing to ensure underserved communities have access, removing registration barriers that make enrollment difficult for students and families, and creating social media campaigns featuring student voices to shift perceptions about who belongs in college.

Perhaps most importantly, they’re addressing a perception problem. As Mellor discovered through student focus groups: “We have a lot of students that aren’t opting into dual enrollment because they don’t see themselves as going to college.” One young woman shared that she skipped dual enrollment her freshman and sophomore years because she didn’t see college in her future, only to regret it junior year when her perspective changed. Using student voices like hers to reach peers has become central to their strategy.

Exposure in Rural and Growing Communities

The challenge is particularly acute in communities experiencing rapid change or geographic isolation. Students in these areas don’t have a skills gap or an ability gap, but simply limited exposure to the business ecosystem developing around them. 

Fredericksburg High School

Fredericksburg High School in Texas has transformed from a quiet community into a tourism and entrepreneurship hub, attracting business leaders from Austin and San Antonio alongside small-business owners and hospitality entrepreneurs. Yet many students remained disconnected from this economic growth happening in their own hometown.

When teacher Jason Roemer launched INCubatoredu this year, he immediately activated the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Council, and local businesses. The result? A chamber ribbon-cutting drew nearly 100 attendees, signaling strong community support. More importantly, weekly mentor sessions quickly became core to the program, with a community champion from the private equity and startup world now mentoring students regularly.

The impact goes beyond business skills. “We’re giving some students connections they wouldn’t access on their own—not because of ability, but because of exposure,” Jason explains. The program’s sixteen teams blend students from various backgrounds, with mentors actively coaching outreach, securing interviews, and making direct introductions to local entrepreneurs. Students are building confidence, communication skills, and a clearer understanding of the opportunities in their changing hometown—growth that directly closes economic mobility gaps.

GO CAPS: Springfield, Missouri

Similarly, in Springfield, Missouri, GO CAPS, the CAPS program is driven by the local Chamber, connecting students with opportunities in a variety of pathways and locations across the community:

• Business and Entrepreneurship: Students cover innovation and entrepreneurship, finance, leadership and teamwork, market analysis, communication and technology, project and time management, while housed in the business incubator space at the eFactory.
• Engineering and Manufacturing: With OTC’s Plaster Center for Advanced Manufacturing as the setting, students will explore the increasingly high-tech manufacturing and engineering industry. Students will tour numerous manufacturing facilities and engineering firms to see firsthand what is being designed and built in the Springfield region.  Guest speakers will offer unique industry insights and business partners will provide real-world projects for students to tackle.  Job shadowing and GO CAPS internship opportunities provide students with valuable experiences that allow them to test future careers.
• Medicine and Healthcare: At the classrooms located in area hospitals, students will observe medical procedures and develop skills essential for the health care field. They will gain exposure to various career paths from health care professionals at partner organizations CoxHealth, Mercy Springfield Communities, Jordan Valley Community Health Center, and many others.

From Connections to Real Opportunity

The benefits extend beyond exposure and networking. When schools partner strategically with chambers of commerce, students gain access to actual business opportunities, client relationships, and professional mentorship that accelerates their ventures.

What often goes unnamed in school–chamber partnerships is the role of social capital, the relationships, trust, and informal knowledge that quietly shape who gets access to opportunity in the first place. For many students, especially those without family ties to business, entrepreneurship, or professional networks, the biggest barrier isn’t talent or motivation; it’s proximity. Chambers of commerce function as dense hubs of social capital, where introductions carry weight, reputations travel, and doors open faster when someone vouches for you. When schools intentionally plug students into these ecosystems, they aren’t just expanding awareness of careers; they’re redistributing access to networks that have historically been inherited, not earned. Over time, repeated exposure to these relationships builds confidence, fluency, and a sense of belonging in professional spaces. Students stop seeing opportunity as something abstract or reserved for others and begin to understand how networks work and how to navigate them, long before graduation.

At Emerson High School in Frisco, the student-run business Simply Gifted partnered with the Frisco Chamber of Commerce to help launch a new Student Chamber Program connecting young entrepreneurs with established business leaders. The results speak for themselves: partnerships with companies including Jovie, The Game Show Experience, PopStroke, FC Dallas, and the Frisco Economic Development Corporation. The team has collaborated with local influencers, participated in pop-up booths at the Frisco Rotary Market, and is currently in talks with FC Dallas about World Cup-related collaborations.

These aren’t simulations or classroom projects—they’re real business relationships that provide genuine value to both students and community partners. The chamber serves as the connector, the credibility builder, and often the door-opener that makes these partnerships possible.

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A Student-Led Model: The Shawnee Mission Student Chamber of Commerce

Student-run enterprises often generate impressive ideas, products, and revenue, yet they rarely have access to the support systems adults take for granted such as business development networks, marketing channels, mentorship pipelines and policy advocacy. To change this, Shawnee Mission School District has launched the Shawnee Mission Student Chamber of Commerce—a first-of-its-kind effort to give student-run businesses the same visibility, advocacy, and support that traditional chambers extend to local entrepreneurs. The idea is simple but transformative: If young people are expected to operate real businesses, they deserve real infrastructure.

The Student Chamber connects learners directly with local business leaders, economic partners and city stakeholders who can help them grow their ventures beyond school walls. Students participate in networking events, pitch sessions, community showcases, ribbon-cuttings, and roundtables alongside established entrepreneurs. They are not a “cute side project,” they are positioned as full economic contributors in their community.

Most importantly, the Shawnee Mission model reframes students not as future contributors, but current contributors. By offering them the same platform, credibility, and community-level support afforded to adult-run businesses, the Student Chamber sends a powerful message: Young people are not preparing to participate in the economy; they are already participating. This mindset shift is exactly what chambers nationwide need if they want to build relevant, future-ready talent pipelines. Schools don’t need to wait for students to “grow up” to treat them like entrepreneurs. The Shawnee Mission Student Chamber proves they simply need to give them a seat at the table, and sometimes, let them build a new table altogether.

What Schools Can Do Now

The chamber of commerce isn’t just a networking organization—it’s a living map of your local economy. Schools that activate this partnership give students something no textbook can provide: direct access to the people, businesses, and opportunities shaping their community’s future. Schools looking to leverage their local chamber should:

• Start with a conversation. Reach out to your chamber’s executive director and share your vision for connecting students with the local business community. Most chambers are eager to engage but may not know how to connect with schools effectively.
• Create structured touchpoints. Whether it’s weekly mentor sessions, quarterly networking events, or project-based partnerships, establish regular opportunities for students to interact with chamber members.
• Make it reciprocal. Chambers aren’t just doing schools a favor—student entrepreneurs can provide value to local businesses through fresh perspectives, digital skills, and enthusiasm. Frame partnerships as mutually beneficial.
• Showcase the work publicly. Ribbon-cuttings, student showcases, and community celebrations signal to both students and businesses that these partnerships matter. Public recognition often leads to expanded support.
• Focus on access, not just achievement. The goal isn’t to create a handful of star entrepreneurs—it’s to ensure all students, especially those with limited existing networks, gain exposure to the opportunities available in their community.

At its core, school-chamber partnerships address a fundamental challenge in education: the gap between what students learn and where opportunity actually exists. Traditional career counseling focuses on distant college pathways or broad occupational categories. Chamber partnerships ground students in the economic reality of their actual community—the businesses hiring, the sectors growing, the entrepreneurs succeeding right where they live.

For rural communities and rapidly changing towns, this connection is particularly critical. As economies shift and new opportunities emerge, students need real-time access to the networks and knowledge that can help them participate in that growth.

The question isn’t whether your local chamber wants to support student success—it’s whether your school is ready to open the door.