“Good morning!” calls a cheery teenager from a stand at the Tower Grove Farmers Market.
William Snow, a rising junior at Soldan High School, is working the booth for the Show Me the World program, eagerly asking passersby if they would like to learn more.
“I’m not a very social person. But I guess this is helping me come out of my shell,” said Snow.
Show Me the World is a registered nonprofit with travel to five countries. It's sent more than 150 students abroad in the past 10 years. With expansion to other public high schools in St. Louis and University City this year, it’s raising money to support more than 100 students. Much of that money comes from selling bags of coffee beans, including at the market.
“We like to say that it's a teaching tool first, and it's a funding tool,” said Samantha Lurie Carroll, the executive director. “Because after this program is over, we want them to have the confidence and the skills to be able to go and chase the dreams and the goals that they have for themselves.”
The program’s first iteration, Show Me Costa Rica, launched in 2012, after a group of leadership students at St. Louis' Vashon High School visited Clayton High School for a day for an exchange program — and found a world of difference in opportunities for students at the schools that are about 10 miles apart. Lurie Carroll was then a Vashon biology teacher who worked with students in the leadership program.
“They saw an advertisement for international travel experience offered to the students, and their minds were blown,” she said. “They were like, ‘Miss Lurie, I cannot believe that this is an opportunity for them. This is like a dream. You know, nobody in my family has ever been able to travel internationally. How do these high school students get this type of opportunity?’”
Lurie Carroll and a group of 10 persistent students decided to make an opportunity of their own. They set their sights on Costa Rica, a country known for its vibrant life forms and research opportunities.
“So really taking a look at the need for specific educational opportunities for our students in alignment with the curriculum, and being able to influence other people as to why this was important, and aligning it with our science curriculum, we thought that we could see the biggest impact in that way,” said Lurie Carroll.
Students and families started on conventional fundraiser routes, including hosting restaurant give-back nights, candy sales and car washes. It worked, and the trips continued for several years. But by 2016, the students were looking for business opportunities to help fund the travel – which costs about $3,000 per student. A routine visit to the Costa Rican market for bags of local coffee as thank-you gifts for supporters got the kids thinking.
“They were like, ‘well, Miss Lurie, if so many people love this coffee, and we're doing all these different fundraisers, why don't we find a way to sell the Costa Rican coffee back in St. Louis?’” said Lurie Carroll. “And we've already learned that tourism is one of the most important components in Costa Rica. So we'll be selling the coffee, and we'll be taking the proceeds and putting it back into the country through tourism anyway. So why don't we start a coffee business?”
In the lead-up to the trip, students learn about inventory and e-commerce, but the program is still rooted in a STEM focus. They conduct science experiments and research about the life forms they’ll see when they get to their destination. A field trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens helps them better appreciate the plants they’ll soon find in nature.
It’s also a chance for many students, like rising Soldan junior Angel Bonds, to see a culture outside their own.
“It was my first time ever traveling. Actually, I was the first in my family to ever travel to Ecuador, or I believe get my passport,” said Bonds, who was part of the group to visit Ecuador in June. “I believe that it's a great experience for someone to have, you get to go out and experience things in the world that you haven't seen before and experience different cultures and how different people's communities are from yours. And I think there's something that everyone should see.”
“Not everyone sees the importance in it, and to be honest, I didn’t at first either,” she adds. “But I do now, and I’m definitely going to travel in the future.”
Sep’Tisha Riley was on the leadership trip to Clayton High School in 2012 and on that first trip to Costa Rica. She’s now a teacher herself and a program leader for Show Me the World.
“It just helped me see like, how big the world actually is,” she said. Riley went on to be the first in her family to attend college, where she also studied abroad. She says becoming involved on the other side of Show Me the World since returning to St. Louis has reignited her passion for education.
“It’s important, because when you expand your mind at such a young age, you feel like you're limitless. So when I came back from that trip, I felt like I could do anything, and I want other people to feel like that.” Wiping away tears, Riley says she gets emotional thinking of the ways in which the program has evolved. “The growth that you see on the trip within yourself is very real. But then when you get to, like seeing other people, like, it just makes you feel like the program is around for a reason.”
Lurie Carroll says she sees students expanding the horizons of entire communities.
“It’s really a goal of ours to help with the upward mobility of students,” she said. “So they can continue to have these experiences, they can continue to make an impact.”
At the farmers market, the message is resonating with shoppers.
“Show Me the World sounds like an amazing opportunity,” said Eilleen Carrion. The former teacher lives in Manchester and purchased a bag of ground coffee after stopping to hear more — and reminiscing on her own travel experiences as a teenager. “It just really shaped how I see my future and how I want other people to experience the whole world really, and this is an amazing opportunity.”
Melvin Latham, a St. Louis resident, had heard of the project after a recent grant and made a special trip to the market to support the students.
“It warms my heart because this is a program that wasn't even close to a reality when I was in high school. But I know the power, the transformational power of just traveling, you know, getting outside of your neighborhood, your city to see something new, experience different cultures,” he said.
Not everyone stops to hear his message or buy a bag of coffee, but Snow says that’s OK.
“We all don't want coffee all the time,” he said. But with each group passing by, he tries again — working to expand his own horizons, one bag of coffee at a time.
“Of course this is going to be worth it — going to Belize is going to be worth it, my first time going on a plane,” he said. “This is going to be an achievement I can brag on my whole life.”
