The History of Washington Business Week

For 35 years, Washington Business Week has prepared high school students to successfully enter the workforce by giving them the skills, confidence and values to succeed in life. In the early 1970’s the president of Central Washington University, Jim Brooks, began facilitating meetings that brought together the state’s business and education leaders. Even back then everyone agreed that students were graduating from high school without the critical skills that employers were looking for in employees. After many meetings, a solution was born: Central Washington University would host Business Week in the summer of 1976.

From that single summer session and 225 kids, Washington Business Week has grown to serve more than 3,000 teens throughout Washington State through summer camps and in-school community programs each year. Every year dozens of businesses and hundreds of working professionals participate in providing teens a real world experience in a variety of careers. Building on our highly popular business program, Washington Business Week has expanded to include career pathways in healthcare, construction, manufactuting and an advanced business week program for teen alumni who want an even more rigorous experience.

Washington Business Week and the Pathways are programs of the Foundation for Private Enterprise Education, a tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization.