We're enrolling now for our term starting on May 26th. Learn more by contacting us today!

Stevens – the Institute of Business & Arts is proud to count itself among schools in the U.S. designated as Military Friendly®. We honor our veterans and active duty service members with specific benefits intended to show appreciation for their service and empower them to finish their degrees. 

Our student veterans have told us that Siba’s close-knit, supportive campus culture and small class sizes (8-9 students on average) are determining factors in their decision to choose our school. The one-on-one attention all students receive means that no one is ever lost in the crowd. Far from it, our instructors and Department Heads know all of their students by their first names—usually within the first week of classes—and mentorships develop organically among faculty and students almost immediately.

Additionally, Siba waives all fees for veterans and service members including our application fee and our textbook rental/resource fee. We extend this benefit to military spouses and dependents, too, and we appreciate that these efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by Military Friendly® Schools.

The Military Friendly® Schools list sets the standard for higher education institutions to provide the best opportunities for veterans and their spouses. This prestigious list provides a comprehensive guide for veterans and their families using data sources from federal agencies and proprietary survey information from participating organizations. Institutions earning the Military Friendly® School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey completed by the school.

More than 1,000 schools participated in the 2020-2021 survey, with 625 schools earning the designation from every state in the country. Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey scores with the assessment of the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for student retention, graduation, job placement, loan repayment, persistence (degree advancement or transfer) and loan default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.You can learn more about the benefits Siba offers to our military service members as well as first responders and their families by visiting our website.

“This is the best job I’ve ever had,” reflects Interior Design Department Head, Judy Plattner. Plattner, or “Miss Judy” as she’s known to her students, is celebrating her 20^th year of teaching at Stevens – the Institute of Business & Arts, and will be retiring from her position as department head in March. Plattner began her career at Siba as an adjunct faculty member in 1999, and accepted the role of department head a few years later. Under her leadership, Siba’s interior design program and her students have benefitted greatly from her design expertise, her contacts in the interior design community, and her mentorship.

In 2008, Plattner played a major role in the development of a Bachelor of Arts program at the college, which was designed to meet industry standards for interior design professionals. The curriculum continues to evolve, most often in the technical realm of software such as CAD, Revit, and SketchUp. Plattner’s ever-present involvement in the St. Louis regional design community has served as a valuable pipeline of information about what employers’ needs are so that class content can be updated and modified accordingly.

As she looks back at her career and the accomplishments of her alumni, how does Miss Judy measure her success? “Watching former students excel and get to the tops of their fields. We have graduates running programs at some of the largest interior design, architectural design, and engineering firms in the region.”

Plattner isn’t saying a final farewell, though! She’ll continue teaching classes part-time, as her retirement schedule allows. Leadership of the program will fall into familiar hands – veteran faculty member, Janelle Schrumpf, will take over the Department Head duties upon Plattner’s retirement in March 2020.

What grain of wisdom would Plattner impart to existing and future designers? “Constant networking and studying. It shouldn’t start or stop when you graduate. Start networking as a new student and don’t ever stop studying or learning.”

This senior-level Siba student is already putting her education to use—she’s been busy growing her business locally and is now establishing her brand internationally, too. When Kamyia Smith isn’t studying or in class finishing up her Retail Management/Fashion Merchandising Bachelor’s degree, she’s working to increase her brand’s reach—all the way to Paris (yes, the one in France)!
 

Like many successful enterprises, Smith’s business has its foundation in something unique that she’s very good at and loves doing. Smith’s specialty is faux dreadlocks that she is able to put in very quickly—in fact, she prides herself on delivering a style for her clients in half the time it takes many other stylists.     

Inspired by her Siba classes and never one to stop brainstorming opportunities, Smith decided it was time to grow her already-successful local business, Kimmy’co. During the research process, she evaluated the other kinds of beauty services that would interest her clients, and decided to add lash extensions and brown micoblading as a “beauty bar” range of services. 

Smith credits her business instructors with teaching her how to stay competitive in her field, and that running a successful business requires staying abreast of what the market demands. She’s also learned how to tailor her marketing strategy so that it suits her very specific business and her target clientele. Smith has learned how to maximize her marketing budget by promoting herself on social media and leveraging the positive feedback of her clients.  

Her efforts are getting noticed! Siba adjunct faculty member and owner of CEOMom, Devon Moody-Graham, invited Smith to join her and other business owners on a trip to Paris, France, last year. The group explored entrepreneurship opportunities in the “City of Light” and participated in a number of speaking events where they shared strategies and business models.

Smith attributes her success to hard work and to her education, because of the edge it gives her, “My education has inspired me to be a better business woman. My classes have exposed me to new ideas about ways to make myself and my business more significant to the consumer.”

It makes perfect sense that Smith’s latest venture is a natural hair-care line built to address concerns she’s heard from clients. As her client base and offerings of both products and services continue to grow, we at Siba have no doubt that the sky is the limit for this blooming entrepreneur, and we can’t wait to see what comes next!   
 

For more information about her business and/or educational journey, you can contact Kamyia Smith through her Facebook page or on Instagram at @iamkimmyco.

Ready to take that first step towards a brighter future? We're enrolling now for our Spring II term. Contact an Admissions Rep today!