60 Years of Stories! Kimberly Hallemann
“When I was younger, I really thought I deserved the opportunity to go away to school to experience college life. But my parents were so practical and frugal. They told us, ‘Look, we can give you the gift of a college degree with no loans to repay if you start at STLCC.’ Thankfully, my siblings and I were smart and all agreed. Now we are so grateful and understand what a gift it was to not be burdened with student loans, especially as we are now the ones putting our children through college!”
~ Kimberly Hallemann, manager, academic success and tutoring, STLCC-Forest Park, STLCC alum
Sometimes parents know best. This is certainly true for Kimberly Hallemann, manager of academic success and tutoring at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. “It probably took me 20+ years to really learn the value of my parents’ guidance to send me to St. Louis Community College at Meramec,” she said. “I graduated from high school at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, and it seemed that all of my friends were going ‘back to the States’ to live in the dorms at state universities and private colleges. I was advised to move in with my grandparents in St. Louis and commute to STLCC-Meramec.”
Her parents were such strong proponents, they had a VHS tape of an STLCC recruitment video shipped to them in Germany to help make their case. It was an effective tactic, because all three Hallemann children attended STLCC-Meramec.
In her role to help students find success, as well as being an adjunct professor, now Hallemann is the one making the case for STLCC. “As a student, I thought, ‘Oh, I kind of have to take this affordable route’. It wasn't necessarily my wise choice; it was my parents' wise choice. Now I am the biggest proponent of the community college route. Each semester, I display the credit hour fees of STLCC on the board and compare them to different universities. I say to my students, ‘Do you realize the value that you're getting?’ I want to make sure they take full advantage of it.” STLCC provides great opportunities for students to earn credits that transfer to all public Missouri colleges and universities as part of the state’s Core 42 transfer agreement.
At one-third the cost of other area colleges and universities, STLCC provides exceptional value to students. For Hallemann, value also means high quality. “After STLCC-Meramec, I went on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Master of Arts in teaching from Webster University. The best teachers I had in my six years of higher education were at STLCC-Meramec.”
It’s Hallemann’s turn to provide an excellent education to the next generation of STLCC students. “I don't teach grammar, I teach people,” she said. “I'm far more interested in the interaction and the outcome than the content of the course. A major focus is providing college guidance and tips to first-generation college students who may not have access otherwise.”
