A new program kicking off this fall will offer free classes for Miami Gardens residents that wanna pursue a degree or certification, making higher education and higher paying jobs more accessible to the community.

Here with me now to share more is Miami Garden City.

Councilman Robert Stevens the third.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you for being here.

Likewise, thank you for having me.

You know, something I wanna know is, you know what motivated this wonderful initiative?

I think it's so special.

Absolutely, thank you.

As a higher education professional myself, I understood the importance of bringing education to the community.

When you talk about a thriving community, a lasting community, I believe wholeheartedly that education must be at the forefront of that conversation.

And when I was campaigning and I would meet with residents on a weekly or monthly basis, one of the biggest things that I kept hearing is, I want to go back to school.

I want to be able to attend school to advance in my profession, to advance in post-secondary education.

But there's so many things that's happening that stop me from doing.

So I came up with the concept of saying, well, what if I bring the college classes, vocational programs to you at your back door by being able to offer these classes out of our community centers, how would that be of assistance?

And the response from my constituents was, yes.

And from that moment forward, we worked to build it out and create a partnership.

What were you hearing from the community that they were their biggest hurdles as you were mentioning, this was something they kept saying over and over to you.

Yeah traditionally and historically, Miami Gardens community has always been a working class community.

Our median income is roughly about $50,000 to $55,000 a year for the average household.

With that being said, a lot of the households are single families.

So when you have children that you have to take to an afterschool extra curriculum, football, cheerleading, , karate, it becomes challenging.

To get your young person to that extra curriculum and investing into your young, our young people as well as trying to pursue, your goals, what you would like to accomplish.

So one of the hurdles is I wanna go to school, but I can't because I have to tend to my child.

So the idea of creating the concept of you can take college classes out of your community center, which was the biggest focus because I can be, I can drop my kid off to the football field where they would go to football practice cheerleading, and then go into that same center and take college classes at the same time was the motivation.

Wow, that sounds so helpful to parents especially- Absolutely.

Single parents too, of course.

Talk us through the, it's called the Higher Education Initiative.

Yes, so the Miami Garden City University Partnership High, our higher ed initiative includes currently three institutions, Miami Dade College, Florida Memorial University, and St. Thomas University.

Both Florida Memorial University and St. Thomas is institutions that's located in the city limits of Miami Gardens.

And Miami Dade College North Campus is roughly about 10 minutes south of us.

So they're all very close to the constituents already.

This program starts at the level, there's two pathways.

You can come in as a continuing student.

I started college classes, but for whatever reason I wasn't able to complete them.

And then you can come in as a first time in college student and take the pathway of saying, I want to start my degree.

Take the path of, currently we're offering a business administration, a education, or a health sciences pathway.

So I want to, as a first time in college students study business.

What we're working, or what we've worked to create is a pathway.

You start and you get your first 60 credits.

Because no matter what institution you go to, your 60 credits is the same.

That's your associates and arts degree.

I start by taking my 60 credits at Miami Dade College, and then I would matriculate to either a master's program at Florida Memorial or St. Thomas's to advance my degree.

At a accelerated speed.

So you can essentially get your master's degree in three, six years while creating an AA degree, a bachelor's degree in your master's degree.

Wow could someone come in with a bachelor's degree and get a master's?

They can.

So they would take on the, if you have a undergraduate degree already, you would take the continuing education pathway of I have degrees, but now I would like to continue my degree seeking.

We built in the last dollar scholarship for this particular program.

So students are, residents are strongly encouraged to apply for financial aid and whatever financial aid doesn't cover the institute, the city would take up the slack and if you're not eligible for financial aid, the city was still take it.

And then there's the last dollar scholarship that we've been able to award to, Miami Gardens residents first time in college students.

This past graduating season, we awarded over $50,000 scholarships.

And that's with our partnership with Formula One racing and the Miami Dolphins.

Oh, right.

'Cause they all play and- That's right.

And have their track there, so giving back.

Everything is in Miami Garden.

You're right.

You have your, what we like to call the entertainment hub for South Florida.

And how are students eligible for these great scholarships.

Being a resident of Miami Gardens, being a resident of Miami Gardens opened up you to all of the resources and benefits that this city university has to offer.

We have someone on staff full time that will walk you through the entire process.

And then each institution has give, they gave us an employee from the institution that would be stationed at our community center.

So you don't have to go to the college campus to register for classes, register for financial aid, meet with an advisor.

We essentially created a one stop shop in the city of Miami Gardens out of our Betty T. Ferguson Community Center.

That's wonderful.

Physical location could be a hurdle.

[Robert] Absolutely.

So talk to us a little bit more about that.

Especially, first generation may even have that lack of motivation.

They don't really know what to do or how to start.

Yeah that's the accessibility piece that we talk about when we build out this program.

There was two modules that I wanted to focus on when I brought the idea to my colleagues on the city council.

And when I began to work with staff to execute.

And that was the accessibility piece.

That's where we provide the scholarships and then the accessibility is being able to say, I don't have to get in my car, drive to a college campus look for parking.

I can literally just put on some shoes and walk to the community center and take my college classes.

The way this program is designed, if you are a first time in college student, you can take all 60 credits out of the community center.

Oh, wow.

That's incredible.

So, and it helps big time because a lot of times the lack of motivation, having to put your foot forward and move to go to a college campus, look for parking, run to one of the buildings when your class can be on the other side and parking can be on the other.

You're like, I don't wanna do it.

No more excuses.

No more, there's no more excuses it's in your backyard.

And we look to, we're running it out of one of our community centers now.

Miami Gardens is a fairly large city.

We are about 24 square miles.

And we're looking to take this program and run it out of multiple community centers.

We have over seven new renovated community centers online that is conducive to run these programs out of.

The colleges that are involved in the program.

What did they tell you and what encourages them to participate?

Yeah the issue of the lack of motivation for first time in college students, for the accessibility portion for private institutions like St. Thomas and Florida Memorial the cost, so when I presented the ideas to each of the institution presidents, they were sold because these were challenges that they were having as it relates to recruiting.

And with Miami Gardens being your third largest municipality in Miami Dade County, being able to get a government at this magnitude involved to creating this opportunity was something that they were sold on.

Because I believe wholeheartedly, if we start this at the Miami, it's the City of Miami Gardens other, it becomes a model to other municipalities.

And now we're creating accessible and affordable education for all.

So I'm, yeah.

It's a win-win, right?

It's a win-win.

Absolutely.

You can't go wrong, there's no excuses.

You're now able to take these classes, at a reduced to low no cost, and it's in your backyard.

And not only do this program offer degree seeking classes, but those who would like to take the vocational route, college is really not for everyone.

And we've identified and understand that.

There are things that we say there are jobs that Florida needs right now.

The top three that we've identified is first responders, AllyHealth we need more nurses, we need more doctors.

And then if we can get educators, we need more teachers in our school systems.

These programs, Miami Dade College currently have an agreement with Miami Dade County Public School that once you complete 60 credits, you can go into the classroom and start teaching while working to complete your bachelor's degree.

That's expressed to you the need of teachers in our school system.

The health sciences we need more nurses, we need more nurse practitioners.

And Miami Dade College, along with St. Thomas is looking to add more to the rotation to get more students out there in the workforce.

Well, you are certainly opening a lot of doors.

Councilman, thank you so much for being here today.

My pleasure thank you.