Dakota Warren is a recent graduate from the Jennings School District, where she was heavily involved in multiple academic clubs.
The first club she joined was BETA Club, which is a national service organization that competes with other schools and raises money. When asked why she later joined her other clubs, Warren said, “It all began with BETA Club. It was like a tiny family where we spent a lot of time together. We really enjoy the time we spent together and the things we did for our community.”
Warren added that she enjoyed seeing the impact they had on their community. After BETA Club she became more open to meeting new people and trying new things. She later became the president of the club.
Warren traveled to Guatemala for a service-learning project with some of her peers to build a school and a playground. She also interned at UMSL as a paid researcher and at Washington University as a DNA and Forensic Science Researcher. She is a NAF Academy Health Science Scholar, and her appreciation for STEM has carried over into more extracurricular activities. In 2019, Warren attended the ABRCMS Conference in Anaheim, California, which is centered around STEM and the potential influence it has on the younger generation.
In her long list of extracurriculars, Warren is an advocate for the community too and has even met with Mayor Lyda Krewson to urge for more job opportunities in the St. Louis community.
Warren did share that when her school attends competitions for some of her clubs, she encounters bias because her school is located in a “bad neighborhood.”
She stated, “Our school is predominately Black. When we go to competitions, we’re amongst the only all-Black competing teams so sometimes when we go, we get a little side eye or small comment.” Warren also added that when their students encounter these issues, their teachers tell them to ignore it and to not comment because that will only make them feel more satisfied.
Warren’s desire for academic excellence was still present even during the pandemic. Initially, she struggled with staying at home and conducting all her meetings online. Though Warren was disappointed by the end of her senior year, she said, “I felt like it was more of accepting certain things and trying to work out different ways to have the same things we originally planned to do.”
The Jennings School District maintained a network for students to correspond with teachers and peers. Having their own email accounts prior to the pandemic was also helpful. The school also sent out Chromebooks so students could complete all their work.
During quarantine, Warren taught herself how to play the guitar and started drawing and reading more.
Despite Warren’s flexibility in quarantine, she stated that she was frustrated she could not go to work.
“The pandemic, depending on where you work, could benefit or hurt you,” she said. “Some people had jobs that payed them a certain amount of money, which is what mine did, but others didn’t get anything at all, which puts them in a tough spot when it came time to pay certain bills.”
Warren had previously worked at Goodwill which reopened on May 18 but only accepted 50% of their staff back. Warren was not one of the staff members to return so she got a job at Schnucks. She added, “I do it to fill in that little gap for certain bills that I have to help pay.”
When fall approaches, Warren will be attending the University of Missouri St. Louis with a major in psychology and plans to become a psychiatrist. She stated that “I always found it fascinating what people were thinking or why they did things a certain way.” Originally, she wanted to be a criminal profiler but later wanted to focus more on the psychiatry aspect.
Warren added that she’s grateful she was a student at Jennings because the school offered her many opportunities and connections to teachers who she hopes to maintain connect with in the future. She also concluded with advice she would give to younger students, saying, ”Do not take those four years for granted, and even though you’re ready to leave, you start to realize that all those years, you had some great times you can lean back on and that you’re going to miss when you’re gone.”
