Students at Harris-Stowe State University will have access to state-of-the-art facilities when construction is completed on a $62 million STEM center.
The new hub for science, technology, engineering and mathematics study and research will stand on the university’s campus at the corner of Compton and Laclede avenues.
University officials said the center will be a key asset to attract new students and better prepare them to break into STEM fields after graduation.
“The need for STEM talent has never been greater. STEM careers are among the fastest growing and highest paying in the nation,” Harris-Stowe State University President LaTonia Collins Smith said at a groundbreaking ceremony. “Students from underrepresented communities remain significantly underrepresented in these fields. However, Harris-Stowe is changing that reality.”
Collins Smith cited beefing up STEM studies and attracting more STEM-focused students as a priority when she took the top job at the historically Black university in 2022.
White employees are historically overrepresented in professional STEM fields. A 2022 study found that Black employees account for just 7.6% of the region’s 86,000 tech workers. The study also found that 67% of people in the region’s tech workforce are men. Among Harris-Stowe’s STEM graduates, 81% are women, according to the school.
“Our students will continue to graduate career-ready, prepared to compete, contribute and thrive in high-demand industries,” Collins Smith said.
Even with expanded STEM offerings at Harris-Stowe in recent years, the new building should be a big upgrade over current facilities.
“We’re currently operating out of a building that’s over a hundred years old. This new building is going to give our students the opportunity to work in brand-new labs, using brand-new equipment that’s being used in the industry today,” said Freddie Wills, the university’s vice president for STEM initiatives and research partnerships.
Planners coordinated with industry leaders to ensure the STEM center will make students more familiar with what they’ll encounter in a professional setting, Wills added.
“One of the most important things is that we've worked with industry and the STEM workforce to make sure that this building is going to be equipped with the equipment that’s being used in the workforce today,” he said. “So once our students leave here, they're not foreign to what they're going to see once they get into the workforce.”
The building may also draw STEM-interested folks from outside the academic and business worlds.
“It'll also be a strong gathering place for people from the community who want to either be exposed to or to explore STEM opportunities,” said Harvey Fields, the founding dean of Harris-Stowe’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
St. Louis–based ICS Construction Services will build the STEM center. Construction is due to be completed by the end of the year.
