A rural electric cooperative serving 11 Hill Country counties is using student entrepreneurship as a tool for local economic development, according to a recent episode of The Building Texas Show. Host Justin McKenzie sat down in Fredericksburg with Tachi Hinojosa, CEO of Central Texas Electric Cooperative (CTEC), to discuss why the co-op sponsors Hill Country Venture Fest and the Incubator EDU program, where high school students build real businesses and pitch them to community members.
The stakes are higher than a classroom exercise. Hinojosa said many students sign up to sharpen their public speaking skills and prepare as if a venture capitalist were ready to write a check. Sometimes the money is real. “The first place team last year in Fredericksburg won $12,000,” Hinojosa told McKenzie. At a Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce banquet, another team “raised over $100,000 because people were so impressed with their presentation.”
The co-op’s involvement extends beyond the pitch stage. CTEC has opened its summer internship program to high school and college students, growing from one student in its first year to six this past year. The co-op also invites high schools to tour its facilities so students can see careers beyond the line crews they recognize, including member services, engineering, human resources, accounting and IT. Hinojosa pointed to Brodie Smith, who toured CTEC at 16, shadowed the operations department, worked a summer internship, was hired full time as a groundman and, at about 19, is now an Apprentice Lineman I. Hinojosa said Smith illustrates that not every career path requires a college degree.
The implications matter for rural Texas, where McKenzie noted a familiar challenge: talented graduates leave for college or careers and rarely return. Hinojosa sees Hill Country Venture Fest and Incubator EDU as part of the answer, because they give students who want to stay the tools to build a business in the Hill Country and contribute to the local economy. “When you call Central Texas Electric Co-op, you’re calling the Hill Country,” he said, adding that being local is the advantage of the cooperative business model.
Hinojosa, a Texas A&M business graduate who began in the co-op world through a 2003 marketing internship and moved to the Hill Country in 2022, said community service is built into the cooperative model through the principle of concern for community. CTEC employees serve on volunteer fire departments and coach youth sports, and after the co-op challenged staff to log their volunteer time, they reached 1,000 hours last year. Line crews and technicians have also helped local nonprofits set up and tear down tables and chairs for fundraisers.
The full conversation is available in the episode Inside VentureFest: How CTEC Powers Hill Country Student Pitches, and more information about the program is available at https://www.buildingtexasshow.com.
