Alumni reflect on successes and obstacles.
By: Clinton Borror
-Staff Writer-
Kerry Myers owned his own construction business before beginning his current career as an architectural designer. He attended STLCC-Meramec in order to make the career transition.
“I grew up in construction. I worked at it during summers in high school,” said Myers.
After 10 years of working with architect clients as a construction worker, Myers decided to become an architectural designer. To increase his knowledge of the industry and learn how to work more effectively with architects, Myers enrolled in degree programs at Meramec and Longview College.
“College helped me in dealing with architect clients. It gave me knowledge to put together designs to propose to potential clients,” said Myers.
Completing the degree requirements for an associate degree from Meramec helped Myers build on his foundation of experience and reach new heights in his career.
For some students, Meramec plays a small but essential supporting role in their education. Timothy Nowak graduated from Benedictine College with a bachelor’s in Business Administration and a minor in Spanish. On his way to this achievement, Nowak completed a biology and Spanish course at the Meramec campus. As a student with a learning disability, Nowak found the assistance he needed to succeed at Meramec.
“I overcame this [disability] by working with my professors and the student tutors to get extra [support and tools] needed to maximize my testing performance,” said Nowak.
The challenge of overcoming a disability did not slow Nowak down; he graduated from Benedictine College in three years. Nowak was able to accelerate his graduation because he took advantage of the summertime to earn college credit by taking classes at Meramec.
“I feel the key to academic success is hard work and perseverance,” said Nowak.
He is scheduled to receive a Master’s in International Business after the summer 2010.
Many students benefit from the opportunity to complete a degree program at Meramec that will fulfill all prerequisites in the degree program at their chosen transfer school. Leah Miklovic was one of those students. An environmental science and chemistry major, Miklovic earned an Associate in Arts degree from Meramec in spring 2009.
“Since I received my associate degree, I have attended two universities, and both universities accepted all my courses from the community college,” said Miklovic.
Miklovic was impressed with the low cost of taking courses at St. Louis Community College.
“I am very happy with the decision I made to take my general education courses at St. Louis Community College because I saved myself a lot of money,” said Miklovic.
A full-time student at Southeast Missouri State University, Miklovic intends to graduate May 2011.
