Something changed in Isaac Cherry when he walked into the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed.
“Just being as young as I am – though I had read civil rights history – I felt out of touch,” Cherry said.
He knew his 50 fellow students at St. Louis Community College, who had made the trip with him, felt the same way.
Cherry, 28, is part of the college’s African-American Male Initiative program, started this spring to keep young black males interested in their college education and provide guidance to ensure they graduate.
The Memphis trip was a way to inspire and create a support network between the men. Cherry considers himself “artsy” and open-minded. But even then, there are some separations within black student population that make it difficult to create supportive colleagues – as much as Cherry has wanted to.
“We have our own prejudices of our own race,” he said. “As I was on the bus, I realized that these are all guys striving to do something with their lives.”
St. Louis Community College has made strong efforts to reach out to the black community through the AAMI program and other minority initiatives.
In fall 2010, the college will open the Harrison Education Center to serve the North St. Louis community.
The college partners with the Better Family Life, Inc. to train entry-level workers for local biotech and bio-pharma manufacturing companies with the Life Sciences Career Pathways program.
Over the past six years, the Life Sciences Career Pathways program has had more than 160 graduates – 150 (or 93 percent) of those are African-American.
For these efforts, coupled with the system’s success in keeping ethnic diversity among staff and administrators, St. Louis Community College was chosen for the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2009 Corporate Diversity Award.
Chancellor Zelema Harris and her team will receive the award on Tuesday, November 10 at the Salute to Excellence in Business Awards & Networking Luncheon, to be hosted at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton by the St. Louis American Foundation, the RCGA and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
Minority employees make up 27 percent of SLCC staff, which perfectly mirrors the 27 percent African-American student population. Even in administration, minority staff who report directly to Chancellor Harris
make up 25 percent of her team.
“Our approach is to hire the best – the best is those who bring diverse perspective, diverse culture,” Harris said. “You have more tools to be innovative and to be entrepreneurial.”
Addressing the dropout crisis
In the fall of 2008, St. Louis Community College received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to start the AAMI program.
Harris said that low college enrollment and high dropout rates of African-American males is becoming a major national crisis in higher education, particularly at the community college level.
When he walks down the halls, Cherry recognizeds that there aren’t many young black males around him. Last spring, he was handed a flyer about the AAMI program, and he decided to check it out.
“What attracted me was the staff,” he said. “The fact that they won’t be preachy and making me feel like there’s something wrong with me. They are welcoming.”
In one session, the criminal justice department discussed what rights the men have and how to get bad marks off their records.
“Some of the guys are still carrying around these bricks – years after they commited the crimes,” he said.
The meetings, along with the student-to-student mentoring program and the early alert for failing grades, help to keep these young men in school.
The college system also wants to encourage the community to further their education at any level.
In fall of 2010, St. Louis Community College will open the new William J. Harrison Education Center in the Jeff VanderLou neighborhood in the city of St. Louis. The center will serve the population of North St. Louis City and part of North St. Louis County.
The community will be able to take credit and non-credit courses in environmental sciences, allied health, computers/technology and workforce training and development.
Aside from that, the 31,000-square-foot facility will be the first “green” higher education facility of its kind in St. Louis city.
“We’re interested in what the building alone can open their eyes to,” Harris said.
STLCC also supports efforts to reach out to students who are not able to attend a four-year program but want to pursue a career. STLCC partnered with Better Family Life in 2003 to offer career options in the biotechnology field.
The students engage in hands-on lab exercises at the Florissant Valley campus, and other technical classes are taught at the Metropolitan Education and Training (MET) Center.
“We work with St. Louis Community College because we want people to have access to short-term and long-term education,” said Carolyn Steward, chief operating officer for Better Family Life.
St. Louis has become a “bio-belt,” Harris said, with opportunities for more bio-tech jobs. Harris wants for African Americans “to not only have opportunities but also get the support they need to get jobs out there.”
Communities colleges, since their inception, have been attractive options for minorities, veterans and people who didn’t have access to higher education, Harris said.
“We were started as an equal opportunity college,” she said. “We can’t be satisfied with providing access to great programs. Access without support is not opportunity.”
The AAMI program and Career Pathways are just two examples of ways the university tries to make sure the students can’t fail, she said.
St. Louis Community College is the largest community college system in Missouri, with four campuses at Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec and Wildwood. The college system also has three education centers in St. Louis County, North St. Louis City and Downtown St. Louis.
The 10th annual Salute to Excellence in Business Awards & Networking Luncheon will get started with a networking reception at 11 a.m. Tuesday, November 10 at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton, hosted by the St. Louis American Foundation, the RCGA and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. Tickets are $75 each for general seating, with table of 10 available for $750; or $100 for Preferred/VIP seating, with a table of 10 for $1,000. For tickets, call 314-533-8000 ext. 305, visit stlamerican.com or email Rbritt@stlamerican.com.
