She left cold calls behind. Sales quotas, too, were now in the past. As Debra Stidham began her first day as a teacher, she felt ready to face a new challenge: a room full of third-graders. “It was a little scary that first day, but you find your voice very quickly,” she said. Over two years, Stidham had transitioned from

Donna Mueller knows college isn’t the best option for every high school graduate. But as a school counselor, it’s often difficult to show students it’s possible to have a good career without a four-year degree. This year, Mueller was one of 275 school counselors statewide who spent a day touring local manufacturing plants to see how factory jobs can be

High school seniors are often stereotyped as lacking motivation, having a tendency to “lose” their homework and stacking their semesters with easy classes. But Luke Walker had no time for any of that during his senior year. He was too busy studying College Algebra and AP European History. “I wanted to go to college, so I challenged myself academically,” said

From an early age, Roxie Rikard knew she wanted to be a nurse, but she never quite found the time to pursue her nursing degree until she began working at BJC HealthCare. “I always knew I wanted to be a nurse and checked into nursing when I was 18, but I was busy being a mom and then became a

Jordan Hill didn’t know what the GO CAPS program was until his grandmother sent him an article she found. But then he knew right away that he wanted to be a part of the Springfield-region program when it started. “I went to my counselors, and they didn’t know much about the program yet but promised me I’d be first on

Twenty-six-year-old Jordan Graves dreams of someday owning his own mechanics shop in Ferguson, his hometown. He wants to follow in the footsteps of his father, who owned a mechanics shop in St. Louis until he died in 2005 when Jordan was 15. “I want to pick up where he left off. I guess you could say working with my hands