Kansas City Kansas Community College

Ask just about any college student if they’d like to continue their education in Florida and they’d probably jump at the chance – unless it’s Keenan Simmons.

A Florida native who graduated in May from Kansas City Kansas Community College, Simmons could easily have returned to the warm climes of his home state. Instead, he’ll continue his education at UMKC.

“I chose not to because I feel I have a job to do,” says Simmons, 23. “I’ve learned to grow in Kansas. Coming from Florida which is a very crowded place, I feel Kansas is a place where you can live, a place where you can settle down. Unlike Florida which is a very busy every day, in Kansas it is slower pace and you have time on your hands.”

A track athlete who has earned a full athletic scholarship at UMKC, the job Simmons has to do is actually two-fold. He wants to earn a BS in elementary education and a Masters in counseling. “I want to be a counselor. I want to reach out to kids, to show them that they are not alone. Too many kids are afraid to come out because of being afraid of being judged. I think with my experience and knowledge, I can reach out to them.”

And boy does he have experience – test scores that were not good enough to fulfill his goal of competing at an NCAA Division institution; the lost of four siblings in a devastating fire; and just months ago having his apartment destroyed by fire.

It all started while he was still in high school in Florida City, Fla., in 2004. “I was confronted with a big surprise, I found out my father had other children other than myself,” says Simmons. Turns out, neither did his mother know about the siblings.

“My mom worked at Payless and apparently my sister’s aunt wanted to introduce my mom to my sister but instead of my mother, a co-worker called me in and said, ‘Do you know who this girl is?’ I told her no and she said ‘This is your baby sister.’ I saw some of the same features I had and gave her a hug. It was a sign of relief, something I didn’t think I had I did and it made me begin to feel whole.”

As he would quickly find out, there were four siblings – two boys and two girls. “It was great, I felt like I had known them all my life,” he says.

Until Sept. 27, 2004. “It was about a year later I got a call from my mom one morning and she came over and picked me up,” he vividly remembers. “She was just silent, an ominous atmosphere. I asked her what was wrong and she burst into tears and told me all four of my brothers and sisters had died in a fire while their mother was in the hospital. Smoke inhalation. It was very tough. From that moment on, I realized you could be here one second and gone the next.”

A member of a state championship 4x400 relay team and a fifth place finisher in the 400-meter dash in arguably the most competitive state competition in the U.S., Simmons already was depressed when he wasn’t offered a scholarship at a Division I university. “I had a 2.5 grade point average but my ACT and SAT scores were not high enough so I was very depressed. I didn’t understand you can build your way by starting at a community college and then transferring.”

That opportunity came the following spring immediately after Simmons had competed in the 400 against international standouts from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Virgin Islands in the Greater Miami Northwestern Track Classic. “One of the track officials asked me, ‘Keenan, are you going to college’ and I said no. He asked if I knew Crystal Troutman, who I knew from another high school and who was going to KCKCC. He gave me the name of (KCKCC track coach) Al Hobson and I called him up and he offered me a scholarship.”

That proved to be the easy part. Getting to KCKCC was another matter. “I took a Greyhound bus, something I would never do again – 47 hours. The only thing I liked was the sight seeing. I would doze off and wake up and felt like I was in the same spot. But when I stepped off the bus, it was very strange. The atmosphere of seeing all the people, I could tell I was not in Florida.”

Until his KCK arrival, Simmons had never seen snow. “I felt like I was six years old,” he says. “One thing I quickly found out was the unpredictability of the weather here in the Midwest. One day, it rained, it snowed and we had sunshine. Another time, there was an ice storm and I had to walk to the college and I had my first experience with black ice. But I’ve got a big fur coat now so I’m prepared for the cold.”

Redshirted his first year, Simmons was a member of the runnerup 4x400 relay team in the 2007 NCJAA national outdoor meet but did not qualify for the national this year, partly because of the horrible spring weather which all but eliminated outside practices; and from leg injuries sustained in jumping from the balcony of a burning apartment building.

“It was Feb. 7 about 9:30 p.m. and I was talking on the phone with my girl friend and playing a video game when I heard people in my apartment complex screaming but I didn’t think anything about it. Then I saw flames flickering off a car window and looked out the window and saw flames out of the corner of my eye. I opened my bedroom door and I could see flames shooting through the crack at the top of the door and all at once they rushed through the front half of the front room.

“I told my girl friend my apartment was on fire and at first she thought I was kidding until I told her I had jumped off the second floor balcony and my knees were hurting. The fire was in the hallway and spread to everyone’s front room and everyone had to jump off the balcony. It was scary, especially after what had happened to my brothers and sisters. I had no second thoughts, I just jumped. The Fire Department thought it was a hate crime by someone who had been evicted. Had I not looked out the window, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”

Academically, Simmons owns a 2.8 grade point average and earned an A plus working in the College’s Media Services Department the last year and a half. “He’s an inspiring young man a long way from home who has set goals and never lost focus on what he’s here for and that’s to be commended,” says Director of Media Services Michael Kimbrough, who knew he had a winner the day Simmons applied for the position. “There was never a doubt. You could tell by his sense of politeness that he would do a good job and he’s one the best we’ve ever had. His sky’s the limit.”

The respect goes two ways. “The first person I met was Miss (Helene) Moore (Media Services secretary), one of the nicest women I’ve ever met,” says Simmons. “She has been just like a mother to me; I can tell her anything. Then I met Mr. Kimbrough and for some reason he was impressed by the way I approached him and hired me. I was amazed. I just spoke with respect and dignity the way I was raised.

“I just feel very blessed to be here. The staff, the faculty, everyone cares. It feels so great to walk down a hall and have someone speak to you. People ask my I’m always smiling and I tell them because I’m happy. I feel a part of something, something great.”