By Kathleen Berger, Executive Producer for Science and Technology

Saint Louis University’s School of Professional Studies is offering a one-year Cannabis Science and Operations Certificate Program online. Jeff Rowse is among the program’s first students to receive a certificate.  

“The cannabis science and operations program at SLU changed my life. I can say that in all honesty, the CSO program changed my life,” said Rowse. 

Rowse explained that he was laid off from work when the pandemic started. That’s when he saw a news article about SLU’s cannabis science and operations undergraduate certificate.  

“I even took out a student loan, got a student loan for the first time in 20 years,” he said. ”I latched onto it and I put everything that I had into it. I had eight hours a day plus to put into schoolwork. I treated it like a full-time job. That’s how much effort that I put into it. And because of that I got hired by one of my teachers.”

Rowse is now thriving in the industry, building a name for himself at Feel State cannabis dispensary in Florissant. And Rowse is growing an online audience, building industry connections through his show, “The Feels”. 

“I get the opportunity to talk to luminaries in the cannabis industry,” he explained. “It’s because of the program. It opened doors for me I never would have been able to open for myself.”

“It was five classes. Each class was eight weeks long and then there was a capstone class that certainly helped me organize my decades of self-education into something that I can now proudly hang, framed on my wall. A certificate.”