2023 Men of the Year: Hunter Bartelt

Hunter Bartelt has an unconventional resume.

He entered college at age 15 and not long after began volunteering at the Discovery Center of Springfield Inc. In 2018, on his 18th birthday, he applied for – and got – a job.

Bartelt was deep into his role as an educator when, in his final semester as an undergraduate student at Missouri State University, COVID-19 hit, and the Discovery Center opened as an emergency child care facility.

Bartelt recalls how he and his team converted the center’s exhibit galleries to classroom spaces in the span of five days.

The center provided over 250,000 hours of free child care and served over 14,000 free meals to students during COVID care, he says.

In March 2020, Bartelt moved into a management position, overseeing a 25-member team implementing sanitation and sterilization.

“As we moved out of the pandemic, I did a combination of teaching and leading,” he says. “This allowed me to show more kids than ever that they can be more.”

Helping children understand their potential is a goal that resonates for Bartelt. He earned a bachelor’s degree in plant science in 2021 and is now both a graduate student at University of the People and director of operations at the Discovery Center.

Bartelt was born to a teen mom who dropped out of high school. As a child, he says, he saw his house become a dangerous place, and he looked for a path out.

He took the ACT at age 12 and was offered a scholarship to a summer academic program.

“My quality of life changed very dramatically and erased any remaining doubt in my mind that education was the path out of abuse and poverty,” he says.

He was accepted into an early entry program college for gifted students. After a tragedy – the drowning death of his roommate and a trauma response that caused his grades to plummet – he moved to Springfield and MSU, where he took up to 28 hours per semester to move from academic probation to the dean’s list.

Tyler Moles, vice president of operations at the Discovery Center, noticed.

“Part of what is so amazing about Hunter is that he has worked his way from being a homeless youth to being a graduate student and on to becoming a successful and influential adult leader in our community,” says Moles. “He has been an inspiration to under-resourced kids throughout the Ozarks.”

This summer, Bartelt earned the title of director of operations.

Bartelt recalls in 2018, the Discovery Center had less than two years of operating capital.

“We were not looking at how to serve our community the best; we were looking at if we could continue serving them at all,” he says.

COVID was a setback, but Bartelt says Executive Director Rob Blevins challenged him to grow programs by 10% as compared to before the pandemic. Bartelt says this fiscal year is already posting 65% growth over that time.

“This remarkable growth in revenue is tied to a growth in capacity, growth in ability to provide for our community and growth in our responsiveness to the needs of the community,” he says.