St. Stephen's Community House has been a Columbus presence for nearly a century. And since the mid-'60s, when it moved to its present location at 1500 E. 17th Ave., it has woven itself into the fabric of the Linden neighborhood, offering a wide variety of services to the community's residents.
St. Stephen's thread of service runs through generations as great grandparents of children in the after-school program recall their own connections with the agency. The center also offers a summer program, developmental groups and a tutoring program.
It's not surprising that, over the years, St. Stephen's has built a strong relationship with the schools, including
Linden-McKinley STEM Academy.
For the last three summers St. Stephen's has hosted the SEEK Camp, a National Society of Black Engineers-sponsored event that gives students going into 6th, 7th and 8th grades a three-week experience working with engineering students. The program not only is designed to get students interested in engineering, but in STEM -- preparing them for the kinds of learning they will experience at Linden-McKinley.
One of the other ways St. Stephen's partners with the community -- and Linden-McKinley in particular -- is through its long-standing commitment to help find summer jobs and internships for hundreds of high school age students. In fact, over the past two years a STEM offshoot, called STEM LA (Linden Area) has been developed for 75 Linden-McKinley high schoolers who are interested in and capable of a STEM career path.
The community center organizes the program, identifies potential employers, enlists and trains its mentors and hosts a capstone project that wraps up the experience, says St. Stephen's CEO and President Michelle Mills.
Among the businesses and organizations St. Stephen's has linked with students are local restaurants, the local license branch, Ohio State University's College of Engineering, local childcare centers, the Greater Linden Development Corporation, and the local paper.
In each case their work is tied to some facet of STEM, whether that's understanding and explaining computer systems, building robotics or understanding food science.
Each week, students meet with mentors -- primarily professionals volunteering their time from Battelle -- who guide them through their workweek. At the end of last summer's program students presented their work experience and what they learned in a story board format that included an updated resume. They answered questions about their work from parents and community members.
"Based on the community conversations we've had, one of the things parents in the district have said is that it's important to provide summer jobs and internships for the future," Mills says.
Source: St. Stephen's CEO and President Michelle Mills
Writer: Feoshia Henderson