CGES Spotlight: Rochelle Bea and Beginning Futures

Students at St. Louis’s Beginning Futures Learning Center are getting a strong foundation in STEAM learning, thanks to Central alumna Rochelle Bea, ‘14.

Central Has Strong Role In Beginning Futures

By EMILY KESEL

The story of Beginning Futures “North of Delmar has been left for shreds; children in her part of town. Learning Center starts with two it’s horrible,” said Bea, explaining the photos. When she began looking into opening simple satellite photos. Director “Imagine trash, overgrown vegetation, broken a facility of her own, she realized an early Rochelle Bea, ’14, keeps them handy on her doors, everything.” childhood center could be the answer and phone for interviews about her center to She says that 70 percent of each block in started the process of applying for grants. Her illustrate just how important the community is derelict. It proposal was eventually approved for a grant it is. is an impoverished area, and from the Missouri Department of Education,

The first of the two while both neighborhoods but there was a stipulation attached. Bea overhead shots of St. Louis have schools, children who needed a certified early childhood education neighborhoods is the grow up north of Delmar teacher. She had a degree at the time, but it community south of Delmar have historically had to was in psychology and not sufficient to fulfill Boulevard. It’s a typical play catch-up with their the grant requirements. She knew she had to screenshot of a satellite education upon entering go back to school. map, showing the tops of elementary school. That’s when she found CMU. Through the buildings amidst streets and But Bea – along with her College of Graduate and Extended Studies trees. At the top of the photo sister, Shirla Lomax, and the (CGES), Bea was able to accelerate the process is a larger group of buildings teachers at Beginning Futures of obtaining a bachelor’s degree in child making up a school. The – is trying to change that. development. second photo, of an area And it might not have been “That was a process that really saved our north of Delmar, is similar, possible without Central grant funding, because it was an expedited also showing a smattering Director Rochelle Bea, ’14 Methodist University. process. [Central] had a very good team that of buildings laid out within the grid of streets Bea first recognized the need for an early sat down and worked with me to knock out as and a school among them. childhood education center when her own much as I could,” she said. “CMU did whatever

But there is one very noticeable difference child was having trouble retaining what she was needed to get me in the necessary classes between these two photos – in the second, was learning in first grade. She went “on a so that we could secure the funding.” north of Delmar, more than half the buildings journey” to learn how to help educate her Bea took classes through CGES at St. Louis have been traced with pink lines on the map, child better and in doing so “fell in love with Community College and CMU’s Florissant indicating that they have been condemned by education.” She noticed that her child wasn’t campus, earned her new degree, and opened the city. In the first photo, there are no pink alone in her struggles and that there were Beginning Futures, providing a strong early lines at all. no quality educational programs for young childhood program to her neighborhood

for the first time. And for several years, it has worked just as she hoped. The learning center provides a strong foundation for lifelong learning to the children of a community in need.

But over the years Bea has continued to expand the learning center, and with each expansion, more requirements are put in place by the state and the grant programs. And each time one of her employees has required a specific certification, Central has been “the school of choice, ”not only for the “economical” eightweek courses but also because of the personal experience provided by staff like Regional Coordinator Natalie Morris.

“Without us having officially enrolled in the program, she took four teachers’ transcripts, evaluated them, and gave us the best course to accomplish what we needed to accomplish,” Bea said of Morris’s efforts. “She held our hands as it related to how we would go about taking the state board tests and everything.”

Through the years, five of the staff members at Beginning Futures have earned degrees or certifications from Central, including Bea and Lomax, but the director says she knows of about 20 individuals in the early childhood education business that have similar experience with CMU.

The personal touch Bea finds unique to Central has played a role over the past year as well, as the director had been hard at work securing funding for the next academic year. Despite many other institutions being closed or otherwise unresponsive due to the pandemic, Bea says CMU staff never even gave her delayed responses when she had questions.

Because of Central’s economical programs and personal experience, Beginning Futures has been able to provide a strong foundation in STEAM learning (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) to a community that needed it, especially during the pandemic. Though the center’s enrollment fell during the past year, Bea hopes that she can get back to her original numbers soon and continue to help more children enter school “on a level playing field.”

And with CMU’s ongoing support, the learning center will continue to do just that.

“We secured the grant for the 2020 academic year, we’ve thrived, we’ve shined,” Bea said proudly. “And we have already locked into our 2021-2022 funding to support our community with free educational services during the core curriculum hours for children from the age of three to five years old.”

Ways to support Beginning Futures can be found on their website: https://www. beginningfutures.org/support-us