Our partners at the Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council share the latest on a brand new talent pipeline builder in the area. Learn more about how partners throughout the KC region are collaborating on the Summit Technology Academy.
Summit Technology Academy in Lee’s Summit has quietly been building the region’s premier career focused academy. Located in the newly completed Missouri Innovation Campus (MIC) building, STA looks and feels like today’s top collaborative workplaces and offers high school students from 17 regional school districts a fast track into their futures.
STA shares its facility with the University of Central Missouri-Lee’s Summit and provides progressive college and career preparation that give students a competitive edge in engineering, health science, computer science, human services/finance, and arts/communication. STA’s programs have received numerous awards, been recognized regionally and nationally by many organizations, businesses, legislators, and even a U.S. President.
Former student Quinn Cosgrove landed an internship with DST Systems while still in high school. Teachers at STA assisted him in obtaining coveted industry security certifications. The result? DST offered Cosgrove full-time employment as a DST Systems engineer upon graduation.
“Having both internship and classroom experience was extremely beneficial. The foundational knowledge of IT networking, computer hardware and operating systems helped give me a good foundation and made me a valuable asset walking into a Fortune 500 company as a high school student,” Cosgrove said.
STA programs follow a national curriculum model used in industry, such as the Cisco Networking Academy. Carolina Terrazas, Cisco cybersecurity specialist, calls STA a hidden gem. In 2017, STA’s Network Engineering programming was named the top network engineering program in the country by Advance CTE.
“What (Lee’s Summit) has built there is not the norm,” Terrazas said. “Cybersecurity is a complex problem and the only way to combat is with shoring up the workforce, and you have to reach kids at the junior high or high school level, so I think it is momentous what is going on there.”
To learn more about the Summit Technology Campus contact Jessica Hamilton, Director of Community and Investor Relations for the Lee’s Summit EDC. For more information about TeamKC: Life+Talent, contact Jessica Palm.