A life-changing travel program for St. Louis area youth

Sometimes, all it takes to change someone’s life is to show them what’s possible. The Show Me The World Project is doing just that by providing youth from under-resourced communities with multicultural experiences abroad and entrepreneurship workshops.

“Our program is structured with a robust curriculum that ranges in a variety of topics designed to develop holistic students,” says Samantha Lurie Carroll, Show Me The World Project cofounder and executive director. “We like to say that we’re developing global travelers and leaders with a strong foundation in entrepreneurship and STEM.”

Show Me The World Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2012 after a group of Vashon High School students participated in a school swap with one of the most affluent high schools in the area. At the time of writing, minority enrollment at Vashon is 100 percent, and 99 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, according to U.S. News and World Report. During the school swap, Vashon students witnessed how different schools were for kids only a couple ZIP codes away, including their classrooms, available courses and science supplies.

“A lot of educational funding is based on the cost of the houses in the area and the taxes people are paying, so students just aren’t exposed to as many learning opportunities in schools that don’t have [comparable] resources and funding,” Carroll says. “These inequities were illuminated during this school swap experience, and it really turned their advocacy on fire.”

One element of the educational experience that stood out was access to international learning opportunities. The Vashon students fundraised for a trip to Costa Rica, where they learned about science, culture and more. Since then, Show Me The World students have taken nine trips to Central and South America, including Nicaragua, Panama and Ecuador (their June 2024 excursion).

But there’s more to it than simply traveling – students attend weekly workshops on STEM subjects and pick up entrepreneurship and leadership skills that are applied to Show Me The World’s specialty coffee shop, which doubles as one of the organization’s key fundraising activities. (The shop also accepts donations). Participants learn how to roast beans, import and export coffee, sell at farmers markets and more.

“We use coffee as a tool to increase educational outcomes,” Show Me The World cofounder and managing director Sylvester Chisom says. “It’s incredible how it’s worked out.”

Show Me The World’s results have been remarkable – participating Vashon High students from the first two years of the program increased their GPAs by 50 percent, and 90 percent scored at the proficient or advanced levels on the biology state exam compared to the 7 percent of the total school population that scored proficient.

Of the participating students, Chisom says: “They just exude confidence. Their presence, their poise – they’re raising their hands for leadership opportunities like class president and other experiences. They decide to own their own businesses. This is a framework they’ve learned: to set an audacious goal and find success in that. It does something for them.”

Show Me The World Project, showmetheworldproject.org