Student debt is a problem for everyone

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Bring up student loans anywhere near a college campus and you’re sure to get more than a little nervous laughter. Despite their commonality — 61 percent of University of Minnesota students graduated with debt in 2013 — little is known about student loans.  How big are they, really? How many University fees, outside of tuition, are students accountable for? And how are we ever going to get out of debt? When you enroll in college, those answers aren’t easily found.  Minnesota lawmakers have introduced several bills this session that seek to make the answers to these questions more accessible. Continue Reading

Somali students protest hostile racial school climate

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Somalis are under attack in St. Cloud because of their race (they are Black), their religion (they are Muslims), and their immigration/refugee status (they are perceived to be untrustworthy aliens).In the 1990s Somalis began to trickle into the city, and now they are probably the largest Black ethnic group, surpassing the number of Black Americans. Like Black Americans, they also experience intense racial and cultural animus. As compared with the White population, Somalis are sharply different in four categories: race (White European vs. Black African), religion (Christian vs. Continue Reading

Two students work for more Native Americans in the sciences

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Two students work for more Native Americans in the sciencesByEthan NelsonApril 07, 2015 Native American students have traditionally had difficulties breaking into science-related fields, like biology and engineering.Two University of Minnesota students, Jake Grossman and Siddharth Iyengar, are working to change that.The ecology, evolution and behavior doctoral students are helping oversee a summer research and mentorship program that will help Native American students recognize their heritage in a field that doesn’t often reflect the values of their culture.Grossman and Iyengar are working on a summer program called Our Earth Lodge, a NASA-funded project aimed at encouraging Native American undergraduates to study climate change and potentially pursue science or engineering as a profession. Applications to participate in the students’ research will close Friday.The three accepted students will assist Grossman and Iyengar with their research in plant ecology during the program, which will be set at University-owned Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in East Bethel, Minn.The research will intersect Ojibwe traditions and experiences with biology by allowing Native American students to design their own studies.“Science and engineering research reflects our understanding, but it’s mostly a Euro-American perspective,” said Wren Walker Robbins, vice president of the Midwest’s chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, which is partnering with NASA on the project.Walker Robbins said a lot of people don’t realize that research can lack objectivity, which can discourage Native American students from entering the field if the perspectives shared in it don’t reflect their cultures.“When we look at research experience for undergraduates nationwide, Native Americans are underrepresented significantly,” Walker Robbins said.Grossman and Iyengar attended camps earlier this spring at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet to inform their mentoring approach.Neither Iyengar nor Grossman are Native American, and neither had worked with Native students before, they said.“We want to be sensitive and not ignore Ojibwe environmental knowledge,” Grossman said.He said students could do research on topics like how biodiversity affects decomposition or productivity in forests.Iyengar said students will also be introduced to a broad research community.Eric Seabloom, an ecology professor who does research at Cedar Creek, said the center is world-renowned in biology research.“Bringing students into a setting where they’re meeting foremost researchers is really exciting,” he said.The program also includes a three-day STEM summer camp held at Cedar Creek for K-12 Native American students.“They’re learning about science through the tribal lens,” said Mary Spivey, Cedar Creek’s education and outreach coordinator. “It’s a whole different way of looking at the world.” Continue Reading

Groundbreaking set for Long-Vacant Dealership, to Become Northside Center

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All around Minneapolis proof of the economic boon can be seen with the recently developed or under development commercial and residential sites – everywhere except north Minneapolis. The new Vikings stadium is taking shape nicely, transforming the downtown landscape. Over the past few years Uptown has become unrecognizable from its former self with a plethora of upscale multi-use commercial and residential buildings now dotting the area. Development is all around it seems, with the exception of north Minneapolis. Outside of the recently completed Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) headquarters on West Broadway Avenue, development on the Northside has been stagnant … to put it mildly.To drive down West Broadway in many ways looks like a trip back to the 1960s or 1970s but there seems to be a renewed interest in developing north Minneapolis and West Broadway in particular. Continue Reading

Bill proffered to unseal expunged criminal records for prospective teachers

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According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of Americans who have had contact with the criminal justice system has increased dramatically in recent decades.The agency estimates that about one in three adults has a criminal record. However, the records often consist of a non-violent crime, an arrest that did not lead to conviction or the convicted person was not sentenced to a term of incarceration.Judges can seal, or expunge, criminal records, including arrests, prosecutions and convictions for people who have demonstrated changed behavior after completing punishment.Expungement is especially helpful for job seekers whose offenses may show up on criminal background checks.Criminal records that remain sealed for those applying for teaching positions concerns Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton). She thinks it would put children at risk.She sponsors HF1401 that would require school districts to unseal expunged criminal records for prospective teachers.   Continue Reading

Hmong Drawings from Phalen Lake Magnet School

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Students at Phalen Lake Hmong Studies Magnet use a whiteboard to draw things that they enjoy or that are important to them. One student talks about her identity formation, and another student explains one of her favorite family memories.This video was made by youth at Phalen Lake Hmong Studies Magnet, as part of the Hmong Pioneers Project, with help from SPNN Youth Projects Coordinator Kao Choua Vue.Youth Participants: Tristan, Sophia, Beautiful, Kang, Micky, Edison [See original post here: http://spnn.org/video/hmong-drawings] Continue Reading

Davnie’s dual duties

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Rep. Jim Davnie just started his new job as executive director of SciMathMN, an advocacy organization that promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.According to its website: “SciMathMN is Minnesota’s statewide coalition for standards-based systemic improvements in K-12 science and mathematics education. The coalition came into official existence in 1993 with its incorporation as an IRS-approved nonprofit educational entity and with significant annual funding from the State of Minnesota. As a coalition, SciMathMN represents a variety of organizations and individuals, and it has functioned much like the statewide systemic initiatives that flourished in other states under National Science Foundation support in the early to mid-1990s. SciMathMN is led by a board of directors whose composition reflects the basis of the coalition—education, business and policy representatives. In 2002 SciMathMN moved into a new phase, having lost its state funding and resulting staff support but newly energized by volunteer involvement and emerging strategic partnerships.”It seems that two of SciMathMN’s primary strategic objectives would be to lobby the State Board of Education and the legislature on improving the standards for teaching science and math and to lobby the legislature to restore funding so they could rehire staff.It’s perfectly legal for a state legislator to also be a lobbyist, because it’s the state legislature that writes the laws determining what’s legal.  On Feb. Continue Reading

PhD Project professors Lewis, White, Jones promoted at University of St. Thomas

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The PhD Project, an award-winning program to create a more diverse corporate America, announced three Project participants have been promoted to associate professors with tenure at the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Nakeisha Lewis, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure and received her Ph.D. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Sheneeta White, has been promoted to associate professor of operations and supply chain management with tenure and received her Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr. Janine Sanders Jones, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure and received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.Lewis is one of only 95 female African-American marketing business school professors in the U.S. White and Sanders Jones are two of only 184, female African-American management business school professors in the U.S.The PhD Project was created in 1994. The project’s vision is to diversify corporate America by increasing the number of minority business professors (African-American, Hispanic-American and Native-American), who attract more minority students to study business in college.”These three professors have succeeded in the very difficult endeavor of being promoted to associate professors with tenure,” said Bernard J. Milano, president of The PhD Project and president of the KPMG Foundation, founder and lead funder of the program. Continue Reading

Group guides flow of foundation dollars to Mpls North Side

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Tawanna Black has been the executive director of Northside Funders Group (NFG) since 2013. Although NFG has been around since 2008, she is their first executive director.Black explains NFG is “a collaborative of 19 corporate, family and community foundations, including the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County and the State of Minnesota, who are working to align strategies and investments in North Minneapolis.” They have three focus areas: building social capitol, workforce and economic development, and building thriving learning communities (in-school and out-of-school-time resources).NFG is located in Heritage Park Senior Service Center, near Glenwood and Dupont in North Minneapolis. Their staff work with foundations to invest in nonprofits on the North Side, getting better outcomes for families and building a better community.The members currently invest about $15 million a year in Northside organizations just in these three focus areas. Black says that many will agree that “to date, we are still not producing the level of outcome we would like to see for Northsiders… [There are] a lot of people who are not employed, [have] no access to high-quality schools, and we still have families who do not have secure housing and financial security. Although $15 million sounds like a lot, it is not achieving the outcomes we wish to see.”NFG works to help funders be smarter about their investments do a better job partnering with nonprofits, Black explains, “so they can meet families where they are and provide services in a way that works for the families, organizations and funders, so we can achieve equity at a faster pace.”From a funding perspective, Black adds, “Our members pool and align funds to approach grant-making in new ways. Continue Reading

Twin Cities Hmong community seeks help in closing achievement gap

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Advocates from Minnesota’s Hmong community want to ensure their children are not left behind as legislators continue to tackle the state’s well-publicized achievement gap.HF1930, sponsored by Rep. Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake), would provide funding for the Department of Education to create outreach programs that help Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee families better access early childhood care and education resources, developmental screening and early reading assessments.The House Education Innovation Policy Committee approved the bill Thursday and sent it to the House Education Finance Committee. Its companion, SF1781, sponsored by Senate President Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), has been laid over by the Senate E-12 Budget Division for possible omnibus bill inclusion.Recent research conducted by the Twin Cities-based Hmong National Development, Inc. indicates that Hmong students in early education score two standard deviations below the national average on reading assessments. That gap follows these students when they transition to K-12 education, said Zha Blong Xiong, a professor of college education and human development at the University of Minnesota.About half of Hmong students in the Twin Cities are considered proficient in MCA reading exams, Xiong told lawmakers. Many of these students would have qualified for programs like early learning scholarships, but their parents aren’t aware of the opportunities, he said.“We believe that family engagement efforts are needed to ensure the hardest to reach populations, like Southeast Asian population, are gaining access to these wonderful early child education resources to close the achievement gap.”Sinying Lee is a working mother to three young children, two of whom attend a St. Continue Reading