SCENE THE
Sept. 21, 2018
Fall Issue 1
www.thescenefp.com
St. Louis Community College at Forest Park
Health care fields hot, report says
By Joshua Phelps The Scene staff St. Louis Community College’s heavy focus on health-care training seems to fall right in line with its 10th annual St. Louis Workforce Report, which was released in August. Results showed that the metro area needs more skilled workers in health care, information technology and finance. “There’s more jobs open than people looking for work,” said Nelson Hart, associate vice chancellor for STLCC Workforce Solutions. “This is the first time that this has happened (since the college started compiling the reports).” The college partnered with the Missouri Department of Economic DevelHubble opment to look at job postings, demographics and other factors. It surveyed 1,250 companies in health, information technology and finance. “(We asked them), ‘Are people qualified? Are they Hart prepared? And if they’re not, where are the gaps in the skills?’” Hart said. Shortcomings of job applicants included poor work habits, lack of critical thinking and problem solving, lack of teamwork or collaboration skills and lack of communication and interpersonal skills. “They’re looking for people with soft skills,” said Bill Hubble, district division dean of academic affairs for health sciences. “(That means) the ability to show up for work on time, to be dedicated, to be compassionate, to be able to communicate, work as a team, to collaborate, to be able to troubleshoot problems and issues, to be able to do critical thinking.” STLCC has compiled workforce reports every year since 2008. Each has covered different fields. The college is taking a major step toward training more employees for health-care careers by building a new
See Health care page 7
Worst job See page 3
day in the life See page 4-5
OK, Google ... See page 7
Omaha street named for professor
Rodney Wead was a civil rights leader and black pioneer By Jason Ethridge The Scene staff
A one-block section of a street in Omaha, Nebraska, has been named for an adjunct sociology professor at Forest Park. The city took the action Sept. 14 to honor Rodney Wead for his efforts to help his hometown, particularly its black community, during the civil rights era. “He was at the forefront, just a terrific man,” said Mike Boyle, former Omaha mayor, who proposed the idea of renaming the street. “Always gregarious, alWead ways positive. He motivated people.” The section of 52nd Street between Ames and Fowler avenues now bears the name “Rodney S. Wead Street.” This is where he founded Community Bank of Nebraska, the first black-owned bank in the state, in 1973. Four years earlier, Wead had opened Franklin Community Credit Union, the first credit union in Nebraska to serve low-income residents. He also was the first black man to own a radio station, KMOH, in Omaha. Wead, now 83, was “moved beyond words” when he heard about plans to re-
Photo by Timothy Bold
Forest Park sociology professor Rodney Wead, 83, talks with with human services major Angela Coleman, 53, outside his office. name the street for him. “I have received many awards in my lifetime, but I never dreamed I would get anything like this,” he said. Wead joined the Forest Park faculty in 2001. Today, he teaches one night class, Introduction to Sociology. Sociology professor Andrea Nichols has worked with Wead since 2004. She’s been particularly impressed by his kindness and
his record of civil rights activism. “In the field of sociology, we pay attention to various forms of inequality,” she said. “Just to be able to meet someone who was a part of that movement in that time period is striking.” Omaha City Council President Ben Gray arranged for the street to be renamed, at
See Wead page 6
Campus exhibit honors labor leaders By Christopher Brooks The Scene staff Many people take workers’ rights for granted, not realizing that activists in the 19th and 20th centuries risked their lives to make things better for future generations. Phi Theta Kappa members at Forest Park discovered this while preparing an exhibit on labor leaders that will be displayed in the library this semester. “This experience for our students is essential,” said Tamela Turner, co-adviser to Xi Epsilon, the Forest Park chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. “They learned so much.” Phi Theta Kappa chapters are required to develop Honors in Action research projects each year. Xi Epsilon met this requirement by creating the exhibit, which consists of student essays and about 40 posters. The exhibit is called “Workers’ Rights are Human Rights: Labor Union Leaders, Past and Present.” After an opening reception on Sept. 27, the exhibit will run from Sept. 28 through Oct. 4 with Vice President
See Labor page 2
Photo by Daniel Shular
Tamela Turner poses next to a poster of Lucy Parsons, a labor organizer, radical socialist and anarchist communist.
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of Leadership Noreen Dela Pena, an Early workers Association, which later became the Learning Academy student, studied Larry United Farm Workers, with Cesar Chavez. Itliong, who fought for the rights of farm Turner’s enthusiasm for the topic of labor laborers and helped organize an important leaders rubbed off on Xi Epsilon officers. strike against California grape growers in “There are no civil rights, women’s rights, the 1960s. educational rights or health-care rights with“He was a Filipino like I am, and I felt bad out workers’ rights,” Turner said. “All these about the way they mistreated him,” Pena rights are inextricably linked.” said. “He was fighting for equal wages, and Turner started creating posters of the lahe would eventually became the founder of bor leaders, but she wasn’t sure what to do the U.H.F. (United Farm Workers).” with them until she went to another exhibit, Itliong struck “Working in AmerPena as strong, cou“There are no civil rights, ica,” at the main rageous and smart. branch of St. Louis She noted that he had women’s rights, educational Public Library. only seven fingers. That exhibit comHe lost the other rights or health-care rights memorates the Studs three in an accident Terkel book “Workat an Alaska cannery ing: People Talk without workers’ rights.” where he worked. about What They Do In early March, Xi — Xi Epsilon adviser Tamela Turner and How They Feel Epsilon hosted a union about What They summit on campus that included speeches, in- Do.” It consists of 24 photographs and esformation tables, petitions and other activism. says about working people. Members were so inspired, co-adviser Sandra Turner figured Xi Epsilon could host a Knight suggested that they study labor leaders similar exhibit at Forest Park, teaching sofor their Honors in Action project. cial justice through art. Each member was One of the union leaders at the summit required to study a labor leader and write a was Keith Robinson, president of the St. one-page essay, including his or her strateLouis Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph gies for promoting union membership and Institute, an organization for African Amer- fighting for workers’ rights. ican trade unionists. The “Workers’ Rights are Human Rights” Turner had heard of Randolph, but she exhibit will be displayed on the lower level didn’t know much about his life. She went to of the Forest Park library building. Hours are the library, checked out a book and learned 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursthat he organized the Brotherhood of Sleep- days, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Fridays and 8 ing Car Porters, the first black union. a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Admission is free. Turner later viewed a documentary about An opening reception will be held from Dolores Huerta, a labor leader and civil rights 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 27. For more information, activist, who founded the National Farm- contact Turner at tcturner@stlcc.edu.
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Sept. 21, 2018
Campus chatter Missy Kendle, 27, dental hygiene “On my birthday, I had to clean each resident’s (crappy) bathroom for this nursing home.”
Amanda Stahl, 18, visual arts “Goodwill. I worked as a team member in the store, doing everything. I disliked cleaning the bathrooms, customer service, coworkers and picking up items off the floor.”
Angela Harris, 34, nursing “Home health care, driving all the time and dealing with mean older clients.”
Taylor Merritt, 24, biology “Dick’s Sporting Goods. They treated employees terrible. They only worried about making money rather than paying (commissions).”
What was your worst job? By Timothy Bold
Bruce Munson, assistant psychology professor “I spent one summer working at a steel plant. It was dangerous. I almost killed a co-worker operating a crane lift, and my last day, I tore my Achilles heel.”
Mike Baig, 26, dental hygiene “Being a grill cook at the Golden Corral, getting very hot working over the broiler.”
Amos Green, 21, computer science “Being an election board supervisor on Election Day, working from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. It was a hectic day, dealing with volunteers and registered voters.”
Jermaine Dixon, 19, general transfer “I was a host at Chili’s, greeting and seating customers and mindlessly standing in front of the restaurant. When servers were in a bad mood, they would hate me for putting people in their sections.”
Jenny Morales, 20, human resources “Chuck-A-Burger, working in the kitchen making $9 an hour while the servers made a lot more getting tips from customers.”
Zuo Yingxue, art professor “Hard labor in a factory in China, manufacturing drills and repairing machines. We alternated shifts instead of working the same schedule every week.”
Lance Coleman, 19, general transfer “I’ve never had a job before. I don’t need to work. My family is financially sound.”
Layout by Jayy Dixon
Sept. 21, 2018
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Photo by Daniel Sh
A DAY THE LI OF FORES PARK
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Top left, dental hygiene major Bri Witwer, 22, cleans a patient’s teeth in the Dental Hygiene Clinic while instructor Mendy Beckman observes. Above, Specialist Vinh Tran, left, a former Forest Park student, talks about U.S. Army service with human services major Mike Massay, 24, in the Student Center. Right, continuing education student Tom Longmire, 55, practices for his Piano I class in the theater building.
Photo by Timoth
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Sept. 21, 2018
IN IFE
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aniel Shular
Photo by Daniel
Shular
Top right, Tarlton Corp. site superintendent Patrick Murphy, right, and Acme Erectors superintendent Darren Campbell, center, measure the distance between two beams on the third floor of the new Center for Nursing and Health Sciences building. Above, instructor Stacey Boedeker, center, leads a surgical technician class with, from left, students Sarah Labruyere, 27, Katie Pallantino, 33, Martha Fortunato, 56, and Michelle Schnaltz, 38. Right, baking and pastry arts students Katelyn Gawedzinski, left, and Barbara Ward check the oven in the Forest Park bake shop, across from a table full of breads that are cooling. Photo
Sept. 21, 2018
by Jay
y Dixon
The Scene www.thescenefp.com
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News
Provided
Rodney Wead, left, joined white activists in the Young Democrats of Nebraska.
Provided
Rodney Wead, center, served on the board of the first black-owned bank in Omaha, Nebraska.
Wead
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Boyle’s urging. “I wish I had thought of it,” he said with a laugh. “… The work that Rodney did while he was here in terms of addressing the needs of people in a poorer community were outstanding and, in some cases, unbelievable.” Wead attended the street-naming ceremony with his wife of 26 years, Vanessa; his five grown children and grandchildren.
“My family is more excited than I am,” he joked. Wead’s fight for equality extended beyond Omaha. He was involved with the Catholic Social Action Office from 1963-1968, working with civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rev. James Groppi in the struggle for voting rights, housing rights and desegregation in cities across the country.
Wead’s drive to help others eventually brought him to St. Louis. In 1997, he became president of Grace Hill Settlement House, a group dedicated to assisting low-income families and communities. Wead retired from that job in 2001. Six months later, he began working part time at Forest Park. “I only wanted to do it for one year, but 17 years later, I’m still here,” he said.
Provided
As a young man, Rodney Wead owned a black radio station.
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Sept. 21, 2018
Chaos and Contradiction
Opinion By Arrak Hutcherson
Health care Center for Nursing and Health Sciences on the Forest Park campus. It’s expected to be completed next spring. “(The idea) is to offer a state-of-the-art building to attract more people to come into the community college, to get their training and their education so that they can help fill some of these much-needed vacancies,” Hubble said. Students who will take classes in the new building include Martha Fortunato, 56, who’s majoring in surgical technology. “I worked in health-care information management before, so I was familiar with a lot of health-related things,” she said. “I guess I had a high interest in surgery and thought it would be interesting.” The shortage of skilled workers is nothing new. It’s been listed as a problem in STLCC workforce reports for the past four years. “When this report started, and the college first started producing this, it was the exact opposite,” Hart said. “Unemployment was very high, and there were six applicants at that time for every job that was open.” That situation has changed in fields such as nursing, which has a nearly 20 percent vacancy in the St. Louis area. “You have a lot of people who have been in the nursing field for a while who are retiring,” Hart said. “And they’re just deciding they don’t want to be in nursing anymore, and they’re moving on.” CNN Money published an article May 8 saying the U.S. will need to hire as many as 2.3 million health-care workers by 2025 to offset an aging workforce. As many as 400,000 new nursing assistant positions and nearly 51,500 new nurse
Sept. 21, 2018
from page 1
Shortcomings of job applicants
Photo by Joshua Phelps
Martha Fortunato, 56, is majoring in surgical technology at Forest Park. practitioner jobs will open due to retirements, according to global health-care staffing consultancy Mercer. Hubble has gathered data from the Missouri Hospital Association and found that 38 hospitals in the St. Louis area were facing applicant shortages in nursing. “There are currently, as of this report, 3,421 openings for nurses, which would be an 18 percent vacancy, so there are thousands of jobs in nursing,” he said. The new Center for Nursing and Health Sciences will house clinical laboratory technology, dental assistance and hygiene, diagnostic medical stenography, respiratory care, surgical technology and other health-related programs. “Our enrollments have been stable,”
Source: St.Louis Workforce Report
Hubble said. “We have not seen a drop in enrollments in most of the health-science programs.” But that isn’t stopping STLCC from actively recruiting more students in healthcare fields and trying to get them into programs faster. “That’s something that the college has been working on, and it has a plan in place to increase the number of nursing students, almost by 50 percent,” Hart said. “There is a demand, a strong need for this kind of graduate.”
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Beyond classes, the college is helping students get internships and practicums, which are limited forms of internships. “The demand for health professionals is extraordinarily good right now,” Hubble said. “I would suggest that the shortage that we’re seeing now will probably be here for quite some time, and for students looking for opportunities in the health professions, I would encourage them to look at all of the health-care professions.”covered different fields.
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