State Tech program brings St. Louis students to Mid-Mo

A different world

Little Moses, 17, takes pictures on his iPad of the paintings inside the Capitol on Tuesday. Moses is part of a program where students from St. Louis attend State Tech during the summer.
Little Moses, 17, takes pictures on his iPad of the paintings inside the Capitol on Tuesday. Moses is part of a program where students from St. Louis attend State Tech during the summer.

A dozen St. Louis inner city high school seniors will head home Thursday after spending three weeks in a "different" world.

The St. Louis Public School students have been living in the dorms and learning in the classrooms of Linn-based State Technical College of Missouri.

"When you signed up for this, you agreed to step out of the zone that you're used to," Se`an Whiteside said. "And you should always branch out from whatever you're doing - within reason, of course."

He called State Tech's "Technology Scholars Academy," a partnership with the St. Louis Public Schools, a wonderful program.

Robert Landers, a teacher at the city's Carnahan High School of the Future, said the St. Louis school district has two goals: "One is to expose children to a different demographic, a different lifestyle in Central Missouri from what they're accustomed to in St. Louis neighborhoods.

"The second is to expose them to career types that maybe they never thought of in the trades."

While teachers push college, he noted, "every kid doesn't want to go to college, but they want to be successful."

Rick Mihalevich, State Tech's dean of Institutional Research and Planning, heads the summer program now in its fourth year.

"It is an experience that expands a student's understanding of technical education," he said. "Through a three-week intensive training and exposure, and cultural and other fun stuff, we hope to expose them in many ways to what we're all about here in Central Missouri."

That includes both at the college and in non-classroom events.

The students visited the Capitol on Tuesday evening - including climbing to the top of the Dome - followed by a tour of the Missouri State Penitentiary.

"Giving them a tour of the technology program gives them the idea of other occupations that they could pursue," Landers said. "I think by them getting exposure in a rural environment can change their perspective about even where they live in the city.

"A lot of these kids have no opportunity to get outside of their neighborhoods and actually see something different, to feel something different."

Landers said three students want to stay the rest of the summer. "That's unusual, (but) they feel comfortable enough," he said. "We have a couple who are actually going to apply to come to school here."

Mihalevich said recruitment isn't a program goal but is a nice benefit.

"I think we learn a lot from these students actually," he said. "They come from a different background. They experience things differently.

"It gives us a chance to work with students that we would not normally interact with."

Some of the social events expose the city students to life events far different from home.

"For example," Mihalevich said, "we went to a dairy farm and they couldn't even get out of the bus for the smell.

"And then, 15 minutes later, they're all milking cows."

Caroline Quaye, who lives in East St. Louis, Illinois, but attends school in Missouri, has experienced a far bigger "culture" shock than comparing urban living with a more rural experience.

Born in West Africa, she became a refugee from the Liberian civil war and was 12 when her family moved to the United States four years ago.

"I decided to be a part of this program, first of all, for the learning and stuff," she explained.

"And second of all for me to meet new people and experience different stuff and develop my skills and learn other skills."

Little Moses didn't start out expecting to be a part of the State Tech Technology Scholars Academy.

"But because I love engineering," he said, "I wanted to experience more and do more."

His biggest surprises, he said, have been "the different people I've met, the different tools I can use and the different trades I could go into."

Whiteside said his biggest surprises were the activities. "They give you things that you wouldn't do on a daily basis - like rock climbing and archery - things you wouldn't do in your regular life because you wouldn't think about doing that," he said.

"And it's all team-building."