Christopher Brooks completed a practicum at UMSL Radio last semester while completing work on his bachelor’s degree in communication. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

One could have imagined Christopher Brooks being the happiest man in the building during a day of commencement ceremonies on Dec. 14 in the Mark Twain Athletic Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

His graduation at the end of the fall semester with a bachelor’s in communication and a certificate from the Pierre Laclede Honors College marked a major milestone, coming roughly six years after he first launched his pursuit of a college degree. That was already two decades later than when many people following the traditional path reach the end of their undergraduate studies.

Other 48-year-olds might have been overcome with emotion as they walked into the ceremony or been beaming with their hands up in celebration as they made their way across the stage.

Not Brooks. He wasn’t actually in attendance during the afternoon ceremony for graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences. While the one-time high school dropout appreciates the significance of earning his degree and fulfilling a long-ago promise he made to his late parents – not to mention himself – he’s more focused on other goals he wants to accomplish, beginning with graduate school.

“There’s still unfulfilled mountains to climb, things to do,” Brooks said. “It’s an achievement. I know that even when I received my associate, yes, it was achievement. But maybe I have no time to waste, you know what I mean? There’s a time and a place for everything, but commencement, it’s not too celebratory right now.”

Brooks was already looking ahead to the spring semester, when he’ll begin working toward a master’s degree in communication.

Ultimately, he said he’d like to start a program for inner city youth – connecting to his personal passion for the sport of hockey – and help provide them some focus and direction as they grow into adulthood.

‘This free-spirited-type kid’

Focus and direction weren’t things Brooks had a lot of when he was younger.

He grew up in St. Louis as the youngest of five, with four older sisters. His father had been in the Navy during the Vietnam War, and his mother cleaned houses for a living.

“I think she had a fifth-grade education, but the irony was, she was the one who actually taught me how to read,” he said.

He remembers his childhood at home fondly, but he didn’t always conform to his parents’ wishes.

“I always was this free-spirited-type kid,” he said. “I was going to do what I was going to do. I liked danger, and I liked getting dirty and exploring life.”

Brooks said he dropped out of high school when he was 14. Not long after, he boarded a Greyhound bus with $80 in his pocket and moved to New York.

He had a lot of life experiences as a self-described street kid who spent most of the next two decades living in America’s cultural and financial capital. He would share some of those stories during discussions with his younger classmates during his time at UMSL.

“New York City taught me a lot,” Brooks said. “I was a hustler. One thing you don’t want to do is be homeless in New York, right? So, you have to keep a roof over your head. It’s about mere survival.”

He worked a series of jobs to make ends meet during his time in the big city: waiter, model, busboy, painter, laborer, construction worker, landscaper, bouncer, tattoo artist and untrained psychologist.

“I had my SAG card for a while, all type of things,” Brooks said. “I’ve lived the life, man.”

After 20 years on the East Coast, Brooks had had enough and decided to return to his roots, moving back to St. Louis a little more calloused than when he went away.

He continued to work a series of different jobs and lacked much purpose over the next decade before ultimately deciding he needed to resume his formal education.

Back to school

Brooks had been thinking about going back to school for a while, but as he mourned the death of his mother in 2018, he found the final push he needed to dive back into education.

“It was just the unfulfilled situation,” Brooks said. “I’ve always been in the work force, labor. I figured I’d use my brain for once and try to change my way of thinking. It’s still a process now, but at the collegiate level, I’ve learned a lot, definitely.”

He started out by preparing for and passing the HiSET high school equivalency exam. Then he enrolled at St. Louis Community College–Forest Park and earned his associate degree.

Brooks transferred to UMSL in the fall of 2021 and has been working toward his bachelor’s degree since. Associate Teaching Professor Leighanne Heisel had him as a student in her organizational communication class, taught online, during his first semester, and he left a strong impression on her as he worked to adapt to the new technology.

“Despite the challenges, Christopher went well above and beyond what I expected from students more familiar with the technologies,” Heisel said. “The effort he put in was extraordinary. His work reflected a much deeper application that included personal growth that, frankly, rivaled the quality of many graduate students’ efforts.”

That’s not to say it was easy. Brooks admits to being keenly aware of how much older he was than most of his fellow students, and that only strengthened his instinct – often counterproductive – to go it alone.

“There are different aspects that go along with just earning a degree,” he said. “You have to form relationships. It’s a process building those relationships, and that’s what I’m learning how to do instead of thinking, ‘I have to do it by myself.’ That’s a hard thing to learn, that you do have people out here that want you to succeed.”

‘A supportive institution’

Brooks credits people such as Heisel and Honors College Academic Advisor Audri Adams for helping him adjust his thinking.

“This is a supportive institution,” Brooks said. “It’s challenging, but it has a good support system, and good alumni.”

“It is advisees like Christopher that make advising such a special profession and one of the reasons why I feel so lucky to be an advisor at UMSL and the Honors College,” Adams said. “Christopher is kind-hearted, respectful, hard-working and dedicated to his studies and future. No matter what challenges were thrown his way, Christopher met them with grace and perseverance and always had a smile on his face. It has been a pleasure working with him throughout his journey, and I look forward to seeing what he achieves next.”

Brooks also received financial support in the form of several scholarships – the TRIO Scholarship, Phi Theta Kappa Scholarship, Gateway Transfer Scholarship, Associate Degree Completion Scholarship, Triton Summer Scholarship and Mark McDonough Memorial Scholarship.

Though hesitant to participate in extracurricular activities, Brooks has been a student worker at the Triton Pantry and the Recreation and Wellness Center. This fall, he completed his communication practicum at UMSL Radio, serving as the program manager and hosting a Friday show called “The Gray Area.”

The practicum was the final requirement to earn his bachelor’s degree.

“UMSL’s taught me that I can do it, put in the work,” Brooks said. “I’m going to graduate. I’m going to get my master’s degree. That part of my mindset has changed since being enrolled here. I gained the confidence once I found out I can do the work. I’m not going to be deterred from reaching my goal.”