By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
Karina Hernandez would love to work in a garden, with her hands digging through the soil.
She already holds a degree in biology, but recently decided to return to school and take horticulture classes at St. Louis Community College, Meramec. This is the largest horticulture programme in the state.
She was shocked to find that lists included courses on cannabis and hemp cultivation.
She and her classmates discussed why they chose to take this course on the first day.
Hernandez: “It is a growing business, so being at the forefront of it is cool.” “As long I’m sitting at a computer–and it feels like a lot of other people are doing that here,” Hernandez said.
Her classmates all agreed that the cannabis market could be their ticket into a career in plant science.
The rapid expansion of cannabis certificate programs in Missouri is probably due to student interest. The majority of these programs are online, but others–including Meramec’s–provide hands-on training using hemp plants.
Truman State University, Kirksville, is offering Missouri students a Bachelor’s Degree in Cannabis and Natural Medicinals for the first semester.
Tim Walston, Truman University’s dean for science and math, said that everyone who he spoke to in the industry was excited by the prospect of students graduating with an undergraduate degree, which they would be able to use immediately.
Marijuana Sales in Missouri are averaging $120 million per month. The Missouri marijuana industry is expected to easily exceed $1 billion during its first year.
More jobs are created by a booming industry.
According to the August state report, since November, when Missourians passed a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana the licensed marijuana employee number has increased nearly 8,000, bringing the total to 17,615 workers statewide.
Stacy Godlewski is the manager of St. Louis University’s online certificate program. I am constantly sharing job openings with my students. Many of them are getting hired in the cannabis industry even before they graduate.
Preparing students for ‘green jobs’
St. Louis University, along with Northwest Missouri State University, was one of the first two Missouri colleges to launch online cannabis certificates programs in 2020. Godlewski stated that Mitch Myers, who is the CEO of BeLeaf Medical in St. Louis and the first medical marijuana business to start operations in Missouri, pushed SLU to launch the online cannabis certificate program.
Mitch Myers, of BeLeaf, came to St. Louis University to tell them that we were about to become medically legal. We must educate employees in the industry. Godlewski replied: “And, you know, SLU?
It’s the most popular program in professional studies at SLU.
Godlewski says that the uniqueness of their program is the fact that they have experts from the field teaching the courses, including Kayla Brown, the director of compliance, human resources and legal at Vibe Cannabis, St. Louis.
The majority of questions I am asked are: ‘How did your get into this industry? Brown asked, “How should I go about it?” The program is great at giving the students a wide range of options.
Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, launched a new online program in partnership with California’s Green Flower. Students can earn three certificates, including cannabis cultivation specialist and cannabis retail specialist.
Truman Community College and St. Louis Community College both say that their programs are unique because students can directly work with hemp plants. The institutions cannot use marijuana plants for instruction because they receive federal funding. The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from the federal list of controlled substances, making hemp plants an excellent substitute.
Patrick Vogan is an assistant professor in horticulture. He said, “We work with live plants, which is a unique experience.” “We think it will really help prepare students.”
The college offered its first introduction to cannabis in 2021. Last spring, the college added a class on cannabis and hemp production. Vogan taught the course in conjunction with the manager at a cultivation facility. They will do it again this year. This fall, the college will be adding an extractions course.
Vogan, a spokesperson for St. Louis Community College, said that the college hopes to receive approval of their program soon from the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.
The department has so far approved two cannabis program in the state, one at Truman’s University and another at Southeast Missouri State University’s Cape Girardeau campus.
Southwest’s agribusiness bachelor degree program now includes horticulture, cannabis, which was added to the curriculum in June 2022. A department spokesperson said that it’s not as comprehensive as Truman’s program.
Southwest’s program is geared towards preparing students to “green jobs, which include sustainable food horticulture and greenhouse management.”
Truman also aims to differentiate itself through its focus on holistic healing and natural medicine.
Walston stated that “we do want to concentrate on cannabis, but there is also a growing market of other natural medicines–things such as essential oils and plant-based medicine.”
He said that the degree program would give students a solid foundation to explore the legal, cultural, and scientific backgrounds of natural medicine.
He said that “a lot of this stuff has been around for centuries, or even millennia,” but people are only now beginning to return to it.
This article was originally published in the Missouri Independent.
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The first time Marijuana Moment published the post Missouri Colleges are Adding Cannabis Classes To Prepare Students for Careers in Legal Marijuana.
