Truman State University has taken on its eighth cohort of Samoan American employees to live on campus while they work at the Kirksville Kraft Heinz plant. Employees stay in Centennial Hall for four months while they acclimate to the new culture and environment. As a part of their stay, employees take a two-month course titled Strategies for Success. A few lessons taught in this course include learning how to buy a car, the rental process, financial literacy and the U-Curve of Adjustment.
University President Sue Thomas is a co-instructor of the course and explained the logistics of the class. Students meet to have informal lectures once a week in Centennial Hall, unless meeting times change due to conflict in the work schedules of the students.
“The biggest challenge is finding a time for the class to meet because they work different shifts,” Thomas said. “We have some students who will work a 12-hour shift and get back to campus at 6:30 in the morning. So then the question is, do you teach class after that — after they’ve worked 12 hours — or do you teach it before they go off to a 12-hour shift?”
Thomas describes the class as very collaborative in its teaching and has adapted since its first cohort. Lessons have been added or rearranged in an attempt to make them more beneficial to the students.
Vice President of Student Engagement, Enrollment and Marketing Tyana Lange is the other co-instructor of the course. She acts as the liaison with Residence Life for on-campus experience to ensure students are prepared when they come to Truman.
“Kraft Heinz employees meet with the Res Life team and the Res Life office to go through all paperwork that they need to do for living on campus,” Lange said. “We typically have the admissions folks give them a tour of campus so that they can get familiar with where everything is.”
Lange also discussed how the students have curated their own Samoan subculture on campus. Lange has noticed very positive feedback coming from newfound relationships around campus .
“It’s what we do and want as a university,” Lange said. “Our goal is to appreciate people’s differences and you do that through understanding that everybody has their own lived experiences and their own backgrounds.”
Both Thomas and Lange emphasized how rewarding the partnership between Kraft Heinz and Truman has been. Thomas spoke about the importance of enhancing connections to Kirksville. Kraft Heinz is a large business for Kirksville and the health of Truman as an organization depends on Kirksville’s economic health.
Thomas and Lange also discussed how valuable their relationships with each cohort has been. They both said teaching and getting to know the students has been very inspiring and motivated them to stay as the instructors of the course.
“They want to come here and they want to settle and be part of the Kirksville community and bring their families here,” Thomas said. “And so, you know, when I think about the power of education and the power of taking control of your life to achieve what you want to achieve, they’re kind of the embodiment of it.”
The partnership between Kraft-Heinz appears to be very successful and has brought a unique cultural exchange to the campus community.