The University of Missouri St. Louis has many joint degree completion programs with several community colleges in the St. Louis area. UMSL first partnered with St. Charles Community College in 1995. Since that time, we have added 4 more sites. The latest joint effort has UMSL partnering with St. Louis Community College in Wildwood. A new 2+2 degree completion program in Elementary Education was launched in 2008.   We will have our first graduating class in May 2010 with additional classes graduating each spring semester going forward. In addition to the BS in Elementary Education, we also offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and courses in Psychology, Criminology and Criminal Justice and English.

Lauren Merriman is an UMSL student that is taking advantage of the 2+2 degree completion program in Elementary Education at the Wildwood campus.  Lauren is a 2007 graduate of Pacific High School and completed her Associate of Arts degree in Teaching from STLCC in Wildwood.   She credits her father for her work ethic and his influence has helped her achieve academic excellence throughout her high school and college career.

Lauren’s decision to major in Elementary Education came from her job as a pre-school teacher, where she realized how much she enjoyed watching the children learn new things.  The insightfulness of the Pre-school director has also had an impact on Lauren’s desire to teach.  Lauren also feels that her creativity and ability to motivate students, along with her love of reading will help her to excel in the teaching field.

The biggest factor that drove Lauren to enroll at UMSL was location.  Her desire to stay close to home led her to our program in Wildwood.  She loves the money she saves by having a shorter commute and really enjoys the smaller class sizes that allow her to receive more personal attention from the UMSL instructors.  Those things, combined with the transfer scholarship that Lauren received, made the opportunity “too good to pass up”.  

Overall Lauren “really likes” UMSL at Wildwood and would recommend the program to others that are looking into an Elementary Education degree and live in West County.  Her desire to learn and succeed  have really paid off and she looks forward to graduating with her BS in 2011.

If you want to find out more about the programs we offer at our Off-Campus Site in Wildwood, please call Teri Furlow, Senior Academic Advisor at 636-422-2007 or Brenda Cabrera, Site Coordinator at 636-422-2006.