Featured Donor 
In 2001, Susan Kinder retired as President of American Express Travelers’ Check Group in New York and resumed full-time residency in Minneapolis with her husband David Vealitzek and their two sons.  Wanting to reconnect with her community, Susan began looking for opportunities to engage with area non-profit organizations.  At the same time, Youth Trust merged with the Minneapolis Public Schools Foundation to form a new non-profit, Achieve!Minneapolis, with the goal of supporting Minneapolis Public School students.   A great believer in public education, Susan and David sent both their sons to Minneapolis Public Schools, first to Barton Open School and then to Southwest High School.  “They were and are great schools,” Susan says of her family’s experience. “My sons had great friends, great teachers, and many wonderful opportunities.”  But she quickly found that not everyone shared her opinion of the district.  “It always made me sad when I heard people talking about moving to the suburbs for the schools.  And I still hear those conversations.  I felt like I needed to get involved and stay involved until I don’t anymore.”  For Susan, getting involved meant joining the Board of Directors for the brand-new organization, Achieve!Minneapolis.

Five years later, Susan has proven to be a consistent and invaluable supporter of the organization, both in terms of financial investment and leadership.  Elected in July of 2004 to be Chair of the Board, Susan has helped guide the organization through a particularly tumultuous period in the history of Minneapolis Public Schools.  “I like that our focus is on being a partner with and working alongside the public school system, not a total outsider simply throwing stones,” says Susan, explaining her longstanding support of this organization.  Lately there have been a lot of stones thrown at the public schools by many different stakeholders, but not by Achieve!Minneapolis.  “We stay firm, steadfast, there,” according to Susan, “and we work for change and reform inside the district.”  Susan is optimistic about continuing those efforts with the support of the now permanent Superintendent Bill Green, stating “I think he will be an excellent superintendent and I feel that Achieve!Minneapolis does, can and will have a productive, effective and positive working relationship with him and the district he leads.”

Join Us - Support Student Success

Achieve!Minneapolis accepts and manages contributions for a variety of appeals and initiatives. Your investment in our work provides valuable experiences for our most precious resource, our children.  Go to our website at www.achieveminneapolis.org or contact Chandra Bloodgood Kavati, Director of Advancement, at (612) 455-1553 or ckavati@achieveminneapolis.org for more information. 

STEP-UP Summer Jobs Program 

The STEP-UP team at Achieve!Minneapolis celebrated several successes this fall.  The first was announced at the 2006 PR News Nonprofit PR Awards in December.  Presented by leading industry publication PR News, the awards recognize organizations for their outstanding campaigns that resonate with national and local communities.  With the pro bono help of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, STEP-UP created a media campaign worthy of honorable mention in the “PR on a Shoestring” category. 

More good news came on January 12th, the application deadline for admission into the 2007 STEP-UP Summer Jobs Program.  Last year, 966 youth aged 16-21 were accepted into the program and just over 500 continued to summer employment.  This year’s goal was to get 1,200 applications and ultimately employ 600 youth.   To meet that goal, staff members spent the fall plastering area schools and organizations with STEP-UP materials and making over 250 classroom presentations.  The team also introduced innovative recruitment tools, like a youth recruitment video and brochure – both available for review on the Achieve!Minneapolis website – and a Student Ambassador Group, in which  several students from each high school made recruitment presentations to clubs and organizations not readily available to staff members.  Finally, the Achieve!Minneapolis Career and College Centers partnered with STEP-UP to offer application help sessions and collect completed applications.  Recruitment efforts proved successful as 1661 applications made their way to Achieve!Minneapolis offices on January 12th, not only exceeding this year’s goal but setting an all-time record for the four year old program.  About 1,300 youth have been accepted into STEP-UP 2007, and will begin work-readiness training in March.  

You’re invited to the 2007 STEP-UP Kick-Off taking place on Tuesday, March 13th from 8 – 9 a.m. at the Rotunda in Minneapolis City Hall.  Join the host Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, along with STEP-UP Co-Chairs Richard Davis and Ben Taylor to officially launch the 2007 STEP-UP Summer Jobs Campaign.  Please RSVP to Joel Lampe, jlampe@achieveminneapolis.org, (612) 455-1536. 

If you’re unable to make it but would like to pledge a summer job, contact David Brant at (612) 455-1558 or dbrant@achieveminneapolis.org. 

Achieve! Career & College Initiative

Achieve!Minneapolis’ Achieve! Career and College Initiative builds on existing school, community, and government programs to create a more comprehensive system that ensures all students have a plan, knowledge and skills for moving from high school to further education or training and work.  Since the start of school this year:

• Students have connected with the Career and College Centers over 38,000 times!  (These are duplicated counts, as some students participate in more than one event connected with the Career and College Center every month.)
• Parents have connected with the Career and College Centers over 400 times, getting information on helping their children plan for college and work. 
• Business and community members have connected with the Career and College Centers over 600 times, providing information on careers, colleges, work readiness, and how to apply for college and work.

The numbers are impressive, but the stories from the Career and College Center Coordinators tell of the impact on the students:

I have been helping a new Wellstone student with his ACT application.  He visits the Career and College Center every day, and tells me it is to “greet me each morning so I have a good day.”  This morning I was helping him study for the ACT, and he told me “you are helping my future”. 

I first met “Mary” in the hallway when she was preparing to beat up another student for disrespecting her friend. School security had not yet arrived, and I had to get involved to prevent someone getting hurt. I calmed her down and explained the consequences of her actions. She showed up at the Career and College Center the next day and just said ‘hi.’ I knew that because she doesn’t talk much that it was her way of saying thanks. A week later she asked to be a student aid. She’s been working in the Center since then, doing a great job and staying out of trouble. She smiles more and she told me that working in the Center is the best part of her day. Recently, one of the security people came by and told me they have noticed a huge change in “Mary” and they attribute it to the time she spends in the Career and College Center.

The November PTA meeting was the most attended PTA meeting in a long time.   Though I was scheduled to speak for only 10 minutes, we ended up taking a trip to the Achieve! Career and College Center for a briefing on My Life Plan.  Then parents wanted to meet individually with me about helping their children.   

To date, Achieve!Minneapolis has:

• Put a Career and College Center in each of the 7 Minneapolis Public Schools high schools as well as the Lehmann Center that hosts three alternative schools.  Each center is equipped with computers and has print resources as well.  It’s a place where students can research career and college opportunities, and meet with college representatives as well as people from a variety of community organizations such as Admission Possible, Project Success TRIO Educational Talent Search, TRIO Upward Bound, and Wallin Scholars.
• Hired 9 Career and College Center Coordinators -- one in each of those centers as well as the Metropolitan Federation of Alternative Schools. These coordinators work as part of a team with school counselors and community organization staff to help students plan for their futures. 
• Hired a Work-Based Learning Coordinator at North High School to pilot a program to provide job shadows and other work experiences for 9th and 10th graders. 
• Supported Dr. Verna Cornelia Price in establishing Girls in Action in three high schools to motivate, coach and engage 360 young women in preparing for their futures.
• Worked closely with Minneapolis Public Schools staff to integrate My Life Plan with the work in the Achieve! Career and College Centers.  This year, every 9th grader will begin work on a life plan by thinking about their interests, reflecting on who they are, and planning coursework that ensures they keep options open for whatever they do after high school.

None of this would have been possible without the generous support of the community.  To date, $2,725,375 has been pledged to support the initiative.  For a full list of donors please visit www.achieveminneapolis.org. 

If you are interested in contributing to the Initiative in other ways, Achieve!Minneapolis is currently seeking volunteers to help pilot the new Volunteer Program supporting the Career and College Centers.  Volunteers are sought to help with brainstorming recruitment ideas as well as piloting volunteer management mechanisms (i.e. training, orientation, placement and supervision of positions in the areas of program planning, coaching of students working through the process of career exploration and college selection, etc.) for a three-month period between March 15 and June 15, 2007.  Volunteers will also be asked to participate in the evaluation process that will tweak the system for a full-scale launch in the Fall of 2007.

For more information or if you are interested in participation, please contact Kristi Gray Shepherd at kristishepherd@mn.rr.com by March 5th.

Achieve!Minneapolis Partner Programs Recognized for Excellence

Arts for Academic Achievement Wins the Sally Ordway Irvine Award:  The Sally Ordway Irvine Award program, established in 1992, is among the most competitive and prestigious arts honors in Minnesota. The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts presents four awards annually, one each in the categories of Vision, Initiative, Commitment, and Education. According to Jeff Bakken, interim President and CEO at the Ordway Center, Arts for Academic Achievement was cited in the Education category for “its significant impact on education in the arts and contribution to increasing knowledge about the arts throughout the community.” Along with public recognition and a private awards celebration, Arts for Academic Achievement and other winners will each receive $2,500.

For more information about Arts for Academic Achievement, contact Uve Hamilton at (612) 668-5335 uveh@mpls.k12.mn.us.

Girls in Action Receives General Mills’ Celebrating Communities of Color Grant: Achieve!Minneapolis is proud to announce that Girls in Action is a 2006 recipient of the General Mills Celebrating Communities of Color grants.  The Achieve!Minneapolis “Girls in Action” program works with young women in high school on personal power, leadership skills, service-learning and career coaching to help decrease violence among ninth- through 12th-graders. The girls focus on these four development areas through hands-on and integrative programming with a trained consultant for the entire school year. Positive female role models and mentors from the community, career coaches and collaborations with community organizations help strengthen the program. Last year’s inaugural program at a local high school resulted in a dramatic 50 percent decrease in school violence, suspensions and destructive behavior among girls.

For more information about Girls in Action, e-mail girlsinaction@jcama.com

Scholarships & Grants

It’s Scholarship Season!

Achieve!Minneapolis is honored to administer a number of scholarship programs created to support the higher education aspirations of Minneapolis Public School graduates.  Donors come to Achieve!Minneapolis to establish scholarships programs for a variety of reasons: as a family-supported philanthropic vehicle; as a memorial for a loved one or revered colleague; or as a way for an individual to “pay it forward” for the education they received.

Minneapolis Public School Nurses have established a scholarship for a graduate interested in a nursing career.  The Minneapolis Association of Administrators and Consultants (MAAC), the association to which many MPS administrators belong, support an annual scholarship for an MPS graduate pursuing a career in the field of education.  A retired MPS teacher left a substantial endowment to fund renewable scholarships for female MPS graduates.

Achieve!Minneapolis’ professional staff is eager to connect donors to students through the efforts of scholarship committees at MPS high schools.  Contact Janet George at 612-455-1548 or jgeorge@achieveminneapolis.org to learn more about Achieve!Minneapolis’ scholarship programs.

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