Dr. Samantha March, founding associate partner of early learning with Opportunity Trust, is on a “bring-back” mission. She grew up in North St. Louis but attended schools in the posh Clayton School District through the desegregation program.
March, who still lives in North St. Louis, wants children in disadvantaged communities to have the educational opportunities she encountered in Clayton.
She will be recognized as an Excellence in Education honoree during the St. Louis American Foundation’s 39th annual Salute to Excellence in Education Scholarship & Awards Gala on Oct. 17 at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel.
Julius B. Anthony, president and CEO of the Believe Projects, has known March for more than 10 years, dating to her days as a classroom teacher.
“After being in her classroom for five minutes, I knew exactly what kind of teacher Samantha was,” Anthony said. “She was very creative and very attentive to her children.”
March’s path to that classroom was shaped by her family and the experience of growing up in two different worlds.
She and her three siblings spent weekdays with their father and weekends with their mother. Her father encouraged her to push past her doubts and fears. Her mother kept her involved in church, while an aunt and uncle worked as educational administrators for St. Louis Public Schools.
“The combination of them all kind of drove me into the world of early childhood education.”
In her doctoral thesis, March described living in the city while attending school in Clayton as existing in “two different galaxies.”
“It was a totally different atmosphere going from my neighborhood to a predominantly white institution in the county. So, I just navigated through learning how to be myself while adapting to a new culture and standard of living.”
She “navigated” elementary and high school, then accepted a full-ride scholarship to Dillard University, a historically Black university in New Orleans. Pregnancy interrupted her studies, and she returned home to have her son.
Her father, as was his habit, pushed her to get on with life.
“Dad said, ‘Well, you gotta work and you want your son around you,’” March recalled. “‘So, why not get a job in childcare?’”
March found a job at the University of Missouri-St. Louis that allowed her to bring her son to work while pursuing a degree in education.
“I went to work from 9-to-5 Monday through Thursday, then I went to school from 5:30-to-8:30 and I had my little baby with me.”
She has never forgotten the comfort of knowing her son was safe nearby.
“Everything was unknown and uncertain when I came back (home), but the one thing that was always stable for me was childcare,” March recalled. “It was a place where I could take my child, and every day he felt safe and I did, too.”
March graduated cum laude from UMSL with a bachelor’s degree and certification in early childhood education. She later earned a master’s degree and doctorate in educational leadership from Maryville University.
She worked her way from teacher’s assistant to director of early childhood education for St. Louis Public Schools, overseeing the state’s largest public prekindergarten program.
Those years helped shape her belief in learning through play and making sure children feel welcome, supported and loved.
One of March’s mentors, Sheila Smith-Anderson, described her as an “innovative, exquisite educator who has her finger on the pulse of early childhood education and has been a champion of early education for so many years.”
In 2023, March left the district to join Opportunity Trust, a St. Louis-based education nonprofit, and lead its St. Louis Pre-K Cooperative. The network connects childcare providers and schools to expand educational opportunities for children ages 3 to 5 across the region.
“I left my good job with SLPS as the director of the largest preschool program in the state of Missouri for my great job now with Opportunity Trust,” March said. “Now I can impact students all over the region. I work with home daycares, child development centers, public charter schools … I’m able to impact thousands of children.”
Cortagia Collins, owner of Good Shepherd Early Learning Center, said March’s current role has broadened her reach.
“Oh, my goodness! Dr. March is the most amazing advocate for early childhood providers,” Collins said. “She is such an asset to the industry, the community and the whole ecosystem of childhood education.”
March said the Excellence in Education award is a milestone, not a stopping point. She remains committed to bringing the advantages she saw in Clayton back to neighborhoods like her own.
“Everything I do is about making sure our kids get the best of what we normally see in affluent areas. I’m able to bring that to our disadvantaged areas.
“This award says to me, ‘keep going.’”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.