Business student Derek Collins wears a suit every day to Harris-Stowe State University because, as he says, “I kind of shot myself in the foot. Now I have a reputation to uphold.”
Once he changed his academic career around and started making the grades, Collins said he became more involved in the university – such as becoming the governor-appointed student representative to the university’s Board of Regents.
Now his days wearing street clothes to school are numbered.
At a Sept. 18 press conference, he performed one of his duties with little information or time to prepare. He represented the student body’s voice when Anheuser-Busch Foundation announced its surprise $1 million donation to the Busch School of Business for more than 100 scholarships over the next five years.
Collins said he had been asked to perform a speech a couple days before, but didn’t know about the $1 million grant until university President Henry Givens Jr. announced it on stage.
His response was on point: “In difficult economic times, investment in student education is a direct investment in our community,” Collins said in his speech.
Collins was actually born and raised right where the university’s William L. Clay Sr. Early Childhood Development and Parenting Education Center now stands, off Compton Avenue. His elementary school was across the street, so he’s seen the community transformed over the years.
“I know a lot of students are capable of succeeding in the business world and capable of achieving the grades,” he said, “but they don’t have the financial assistance to continue on with education.”
Collins actually walks around with a cast on his right foot, but it’s not from shooting himself. He tore some tendons working at a nonprofit event, he said, which is actually telling of how he ended up at Harris-Stowe. While obtaining his associate degree at St. Louis Community College–Forest Park, he was too busy in student leadership to properly apply for financial aid to other, maybe distant, schools.
Collins said the university actually has a lot of students who don’t fit the standard, and that’s why these scholarships are so important.
“With this being an open-enrollment college, a lot of times you jump the gun or you have family issues or you have to catch up on some things,” he said. “There’s so many ways financial aid is kept from you based on earlier mistakes.”
But if students knew that there would be money waiting for them when they achieved the grades, they would continue their education, he said.
In spring 2010, the business-field scholarships will be available for junior or senior full-time students with a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher and who demonstrate a need for financial assistance.
‘Our relationship has strengthened’
The Busch School of Business received its name in 2005 and has long received support from Anheuser-Busch. With the change in ownership of the brewery to InBev, some questioned whether that support would continue.
“The only thing that has changed is that our relationship has strengthened,” said Johnny Furr Jr., vice president of Community Affairs at Anheuser-Busch, Inc., “We know that by investing in them now, they’ll reinvest in our community as college graduates.”
At the business school, 90 percent of the students are from the St. Louis region.
State Representative Tishaura O. Jones said that as long as Furr is at the table, “I have no doubt the company will continue to support Harris-Stowe.”
This year, the business school established a center of entrepreneurship and small business development, which will be named after Dr. Robert “Bob” Virgil. The center provides counseling services to new or veteran entrepreneurs, establishes accounting and licensing procedures, offers small business workshops and serves as a learning laboratory for business students.
Within the business school, students also try to create resources for each other.
“We’re here to produce a product, which we consider ourselves the product,” said Stevie Kelly, a business student and president of the university’s American Marketing Association. “When students go out into the job market, they have to present themselves as a brand.”
The marketing association tries to offer students the tools to do this. They have also set up a scholarship fund.
Kelly’s efforts mirror a nationwide movement to help African-American students keep on track in their college careers and learn professional skills.
In 2007, Philander Smith College in Arkansas launched a campus-wide program to reduce dropout rates because just 11 percent of their black male students were graduating in six years. For relatively little money, Philander Smith provided mentoring, lectures, and special events for black men. The college even held a “Swagger Like Us” fashion contest, and a session on how to tie a tie for those students who may not have learned to do so growing up.
In just two years, the six-year graduation rate for black males reported by the college has more than doubled to 24 percent.
Last year, St. Louis Community College received a U.S. Department of Education grant to start up a similar initiative called the African American Male Initiative. The two-year program not only helps black males through the college process, but also works to create understanding among the faculty about challenges black males face when they enter college.
As a Historically Black University, Harris Stowe is focused on keeping resources and opportunities available to students. Historically Black Colleges and Universities have educated some of the country’s leaders, including Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, to name a few.
David L. Steward, founder and chairman of World Wide Technology, reminded the students and their supporters in the crowd on Sept. 18 that everyone receives a little help to get where they are.
“No one does anything alone. World Wide Technology has not always been the number one African-American company,” Steward said. “It started with a scholarship from someone who cared.”
