Carter Stigers, a ninth grader at Soldan International Studies High School, doesn’t yet know what he wants to do after graduation. But he already has something many young people in St. Louis don’t. Through the St. Louis Junior Bonds program, he has an early investment in his future — and a circle of adults committed to helping him learn how to use it.
His mother, Tameka Stigers, learned about the St. Louis Junior Bonds program through a text message. A friend encouraged her to apply. She clicked the link, read through the details and saw an opportunity to ease a concern familiar to many working parents.
“College is expensive,” Stigers said.
She and her husband both work, but covering the cost without help would be difficult. An investment that could grow during Carter’s high school years offered their family a starting point.
“It was a no brainer.”
The Stigers family joined other participants and their loved ones Sunday, Oct. 11, for a Junior Bonds open house at UMSL’s Millennium Student Center. Organized by Ricky Hughes, the program’s project manager with the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, the event brought families together with the financial and educational partners who will guide students through high school.
Lunch and miniature golf gave the gathering a celebratory feel. Conversations during the event focused on what comes next. Topics included college, a first home, a business or savings for the future.
Established with a $1.5 million investment from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, Junior Bonds pairs an initial investment of about $5,000 per student with financial education. Edward Jones professionally manages the fund, which is intended to grow over time. Participants can eventually use their shares for higher education, buying a first home, starting a business or contributing to retirement savings. Junior Bonds also reflects a broader push in St. Louis to expand economic mobility for families who often don’t have access to early investments or generational wealth.
For Tameka Stigers, learning about those choices opened a conversation with Carter about the difference between spending money now and using it to create opportunities later.
Carter asked what the funds could cover. Tameka encouraged him to think about how each option might help him build his future. She also welcomed the flexibility of a program that recognizes students may take different paths after graduation.
“I know college isn’t for everybody,” she said.
Carter is still figuring out which path might fit him.
“I don’t have a concrete vision for the future,” he said.
Junior Bonds gives students time and support to develop that vision. Hughes described a program serving nearly 300 ninth grade students, with families included in workshops and events throughout their high school years.
Parents and guardians helped get the students enrolled. They will also help them get to activities, ask questions and weigh decisions at home.
“These guardians, these loved ones know their families more than anyone,” Hughes said.
Sunday’s open house expanded that circle of support.
Edward Jones brings investment expertise. The Small Business Empowerment Center helps students explore entrepreneurship. St. Louis Community Credit Union provides homeownership education, while the Scholarship Foundation offers guidance on higher education.
“The money is great, but the connections, relationships are worth more than gold,” Hughes said.
Those connections can make unfamiliar possibilities feel within reach.
Imani Fluellen of the Small Business Empowerment Center wants students to recognize that their interests can lead to business ownership. A young person interested in sports might think about owning a team. Someone drawn to law might eventually want a firm of their own.
The center helps students connect those ambitions to the work required to pursue them.
“When you’re young, you have all these possibilities going on in your head, but you don’t know how to put that on paper,” Fluellen said.
Jonathan Feller, a program manager at FORWARD, described another part of that preparation: helping students become comfortable with financial tools before adulthood. His organization supports the program’s online learning platform and the portal where participants can track their investment’s growth. “The primary focus of the program is to support the financial literacy of the student, but the parents and guardians are along for the journey as well,” Feller said. “There’s no reason that somebody shouldn’t have access to financial institutions,” he said.
The goal is to give students access to knowledge about money that they may otherwise encounter much later, when decisions about education, housing and saving are already pressing.
For Waymon Williams of Carrollton Bank, early exposure creates an opportunity to build good habits before mistakes become expensive.
“It’s important to expose them young before they develop bad habits,” Williams said.
Hughes hopes the program will encourage other organizations to invest in young people through funding, expertise and relationships. He sees the students as evidence of what becomes possible when adults provide resources alongside encouragement.
For Carter, the future remains open. College and a first home are possibilities, even if he has not decided where he wants to go.
“Not everybody has the financial stability to go to college,” he said.
Now he has a place to start — and his family has more people to help him take the next step.