Vincenty Lucas Jackson

STEAMbassadors in the Classroom

As a part of the STEAMbassadors program, future early childhood education teacher spent the summer learning – then teaching – digital animation.

“For the first month of the summer, we were learning our materials, understanding our audience, and getting to know our equipment. Then, we got campers and started to teach them to draw, trace over images, make their own characters, and work as a team,” he said.

The work-based learning opportunity pays college students to teach free STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) classes to young learners across the city – especially those who might not get the chance to these kinds of projects otherwise.

A Future in Progress

Vincenty, who graduated from Bogan High School in the spring, starts classes at Truman College this fall. As a Star Scholar and a S.E.E.D Scholar, his tuition, books, and other expenses are covered.

He’s known that teaching is his path – he’s been the official family babysitter for years, and in 8th grade had the opportunity to be a teacher’s assistant in a kindergarten classroom. But this summer was, in his words, “eye opening.”

“It was so much more advanced than anything I had done before – I was in charge of my own classroom. I was creating a lesson plan, making sure students were staying engaged, and working with a team of other STEAMbassadors,” he explained.

An added bonus was that he was able to get acclimated to the Truman College campus and meet other incoming freshman he’d be seeing in fall classes.

“It was a really enjoyable way to spend the summer – I would definitely do it again!” he said.