With a practiced concentration, 13-year-old Pillar Coates executes her movements on stage with professional deliberation and uninhibited joy. The SIUE East St. Louis Center for Performing Arts dance student excels at and enjoys a passion handed down by her mother, Chanae Childress, herself a student in the program from 1974-1992.  

“I like music, and I like moving to it,” said Coates, who started with the Performing Arts program when she was in the third grade. “I like hip-hop, modern, rhythm and blues, and reggae.”  

Her breadth of music styles, she admits, comes from her years of exposure to dance. Her favorite dance styles?  

“Katherine Dunham technique, hip-hop, African dance,” lists Coates. “There are others, and we are constantly doing different things. That’s what I like about the program.”  

When Coates started dance, she was a beginner and worked herself up from average. Now she rates herself as an “A” student. 

“I have improved a lot over the years,” she concluded.   

On occasion, Coates leads some of the dance classes. “Pillar has good leadership qualities,” praises Jack Williams Performing Arts coordinator. “She’s dependable, conscientious and hard working. She’s also done some choreography.”  

However, Coates doesn’t have any plans on making dance her profession.  

“I want to be a neurosurgeon or a forensic scientist,” offered Coates. “I’m an introvert, and dance has helped me express myself on stage. It has helped me with my posture, my concentration and my discipline.” 

SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start staff member Terri Svehla knows that Head Start changes lives, because it changed hers.  

“Head Start helped to educate and shape my children when they were in their early formative years, and it started me on a career with the program that has lasted more than 20 years and counting!” said Svehla, compliance specialist for SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start (HS/EHS), member of the SIUE Alumni Board of Directors. Svehla received a master’s in curriculum and instruction of early childhood education/special education endorsement from SIUE in 2013.  

Svehla recalls the road that eventually led her to Head Start – and it was extremely challenging.   

“I was facing homelessness, was unemployed and was expecting a new baby when we were abandoned by my sons’ father. My life was totally changed,” said Svehla. “With a lot of hard work, determination and the Head Start Program, I achieved my goals, and my dreams came true.”  

Svehla was living in subsidized housing in Flint, Michigan, when she enrolled her three-year-old son, David, in Head Start. Immediately, she started volunteering as a monitor in his classroom and as a parent volunteer. When Svehla’s second son, Daniel, turned three, she also attended his Head Start program.  

Along the way, Svehla earned two additional associate degrees – an associate of arts with honors and an associate of general studies with honors. Her first is an associate of applied sciences and educational technology with a concentration in early childhood education.  

After earning her third associate’s, Head Start in Flint encouraged her to become a teacher assistant. When Svehla earned her bachelor’s in community development and public administration, she became a lead teacher.   

Later, she started working at Riverbend Head Start and Family Services as a case manager. In February 2016, Svehla began working at SIUE HS/EHS.  

“While I have worked my professional career in Head Start, I feel SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start is especially wonderful,” said Svehla. “Carolyn Jason, Lisa Tate and the staff are great to work with, and of course, I love supporting the children and families.”  

“Head Start parents are their child’s first teacher,” continued Svehla. “I also encourage them not to give up, because they can do anything.”   

Her job responsibilities include supporting the Office of Head Start program’s standards for eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment and attendance mandates, and reviewing Child Plus database and center file enrollment documentation.  

“My job is unique and interesting every day,” added Svehla. “It is an honor to review each individual file that tells the family story, journey and dynamics. I am truly honored to uphold the program’s objectives, policies and procedures.”  

The following ESLC program activities scheduled over the next several weeks:

SIUE East St. Louis Learning Resource Center (LRC): 

• Thursday, Dec. 15, 1-2 p.m. -Let’s Create! This is a new programming series where participants will create something to take with them. In December, we are making coasters from ceramic tiles.  On January 26, we’ll make 2023 Vision Boards. Let’s Create is an in-person event only.

• Friday, Dec. 16, 12:30-1:30 p.m. - LRC Book Club. The December book club book is "The Wish" by Nicholas Sparks.  Participants are able to join via Zoom or in person. 

• Wednesday, Jan. 11, 12-1 p.m. - The LRC is hosting its next “Lunch and Learn” with Carrollton Bank.  Carrollton Bank shares information on different aspects of financial literacy.  Participants are able to join via Zoom or in person.  Advanced registration is needed for in-person because lunch is provided.

• Wednesday, Jan. 18, 12-1 p.m. - A hypertension program presented by SIHF Healthcare. They will discuss what happens when hypertension is not treated, how to reduce your blood pressure, what foods to increase and which to avoid, and more.  Participants will be able to join via Zoom or in person.

 SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start (HS/EHS):

• The program is planning part two of "Journey to Wellness" a retreat for Head Start/Early Start staff on Wednesday, January 18 in Building D on the Wyvetter H. Younge Higher Education Campus. Part two will focuson active living and positive thinking. 
  

East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts (ESLPA): 

• Thursday, Dec. 15, 6 p.m. - Annual Holiday Dance and Music Recital in the Multipurpose Room of Building D 

• Wednesday, Jan. 18, 11 a.m. - Performing Arts students perform at SIUE's 2023 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and luncheon on the Edwardsville campus. The theme is Making a Greater Nation.

Throughout various classrooms, SIUE East St Louis Charter High (CHS) students had their minds engaged in how to code candy canes and make fake snow, had their fingers shaping slime, and their hands molding bath bombs. These were some of the activities in which scholars took part during the school’s fourth annual STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) Day on Friday, Dec. 2. 

It’s the holiday season, and the SIUE East St. Louis Learning Resource Center (LRC) would like to give away, to perhaps one of the most precious groups in the community, what they need the most: diapers. 

SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School Gathers for Thanksgiving Meal  
Life, family and SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School (CHS) – these were some of the things that made the gratitude list of CHS students during the school’s annual Thanksgiving Day luncheon with all the trimmings on Friday, Nov. 18 at the Wyvetter H. Younge Higher Education Campus (WHYHEC) in East St. Louis.