St. Charles County Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) program is a real-world, business immersion program for high school juniors and seniors within the five St. Charles County school districts. It provides students invaluable experience and insights to guide their future studies and careers.

Junior Ally Linck is one of the three Liberty students to make it into CAPS this year. Linck applied for the program at the end of her sophomore year. She submitted her business plan and received an acceptance letter from the CAPS superintendent.

CAPS is everyday from 12-2:30 p.m. and she leaves school at 11:00 a.m. after her 5th hour English class. She changes into business professional clothes before heading off to CAPS. Every day in CAPS is different. They meet at Stauder Technologies in St. Charles almost everyday and use their conference room as a classroom. Some days they have guest speakers, go on site visits, or have work days. There is also professional development events on weekends.

“The overall goal of CAPS is to gain basic business skills while working on a ‘passion project’ which could be our own business, nonprofit, or campaign, and to complete an unpaid internship during second semester,” Linck said.

CAPS is not just an in-school activity. Preparing to start your own business is a 24/7 task.

“I’m always working on my business, in and outside of CAPS. Networking is a big part of my life now. Playing with different makeup brands and researching new formulas is also a huge part of my business,” Linck said.

Linck makes sure to take business cards of everyone that will help benefit her on her journey to starting a business.

CAPS provides unique opportunities and insights to the life of starting a business.

“My favorite CAPS memory would definitely be hearing from Zach Hesterberg, a young social media marker based in St. Louis. He gave us so much useful information that I am already applying to my company,” Linck said.

She plans to start an affordable makeup brand called KIND that caters to all skin tones, genders, ages and incomes,  she hopes KIND will grow into a multi-million dollar company sold worldwide.