Businesswoman and mom-of-three Zekita Armstrong Asuquo brings a fierce determination to any project to which she sets her mind. A St. Louis native and Vashon High School graduate who has held a variety of roles in consulting, publishing, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), she always knew that she wanted to start her own workforce development agency in her hometown. Asuquo has navigated her own education and career largely on her own, lacking the support of pipeline programs or formal mentorship until joining the Regional Business Council’s Executive Leadership Program, which pairs RBC members with CEOs of Black and brown-owned businesses who provide coaching and support.
While watching the news one night in 2016, Asuquo heard the announcement that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) had declared St. Louis as the location of its new NGA West Campus. She knew then that her nonprofit would focus on the geospatial sciences.
Fast-forward to 2023: Gateway Global American Youth and Business Alliance Academies Inc. has trained 126 students since its founding in 2018, representing the only organization in the country to gain high-school level accreditation from the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF). It joins Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri as one of only three USGIF-accredited institutions in Missouri.
By focusing on recent high school graduates, Asuquo seeks to fill the rising regional demand for such jobs as geospatial technician or data analyst — which require only a semester or two of training, pay reasonably well, and present opportunities for career advancement down the line.
“I’m a big believer in cultivating talent,” Asuquo says. The organization’s flagship program is a tuition-free, eight- to 12-week semester course in geospatial intelligence. Students earn a weekly stipend as they complete the training. They leave with the skills to collect, organize, and curate data needed to produce maps, a competency in high demand across a range of industries, including construction, engineering, and defense. Students also receive more holistic support from corporate and community partners.
Having partnered with the NGA to recruit students from across the region, Asuquo takes pride in the socioeconomic diversity of the program’s participants. She estimates that roughly 85 percent come from economically under-resourced communities. The other 15 percent, she says, come from affluent environments, drawn to the program by their interest in geospatial science. This exposure to socioeconomic differences is a great enhancement to the basic science that students learn at Gateway Global, in Asuquo’s view. She was a participant in the city’s desegregation busing program during the late 1980s and early 1990s, attending schools in the Mehlville and Parkway districts, and credits that experience with shaping her ability to effectively negotiate cultural differences. In her current leadership role, she is eager to transfer these skills to Gateway Global trainees.
“We’re very intentional about our cohorts reflecting the full range of socioeconomic diversity in America,” she says. “We’re happy to give young people the opportunity to interact with folks who are not like them.”
Recently, Asuquo and her staff have added a set of stackable credentials, covering topics such as human geography and data analytics. And they have plans to offer courses in robotics and advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and network security.
Asuquo’s vision has also led to a big investment in St. Louis: Gateway Global celebrated the opening of the Geospatial & IT Workforce & Apprenticeship Center, an impressive campus in the Hyde Park neighborhood, in August 2024.
The campus is headquartered in the former Most Holy Trinity Catholic School, which was lovingly renovated for the center. Building one houses a 28,000-square-foot training center, replete with state-of-the-art classrooms and computers. Building two is home to an apprenticeship workspace. And an additional half-acre of land in the Old North neighborhood has potential to offer other amenities, such as a simulation theater.
“We will use the St. Louis headquarters as a kind of launchpad,” Asuquo says. “Right here in St. Louis, we will have the geospatial hub of the world.”
For now, Asuquo and her team can take pride in the local, human impact of their efforts. “When you watch a young person transform in such a short period, it has to be exciting,” she says. “We watch them come into the organization not knowing anything about the geospatial space, and then at the end, they’re excited, optimistic, possessing skills and credentials that they can take out into the world.”
For Asuquo, the work of Gateway Global always comes back to compassion and care for the city and region—and for the next generation. “The world is changing very fast,” she says. “The types of skills that will be needed and the approach to providing those skills will always change. And we want to make sure we’re ahead of the game—not for scalability’s sake, but for the sake of the young people we serve.”
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