Matthew Vue, Kong Xiong and Hashim Yonis were telling some business folks the other day about how their summer internships had been huge steps up for them in connecting the world of education to the world of work.
"STEP-UP changed my life," said Yonis, who graduated from Edison High School in 2006, then from St. Olaf College. "I was born in Somalia and lived in the slums of Kenya and Ethiopia before coming to Minnesota.
"The skills and tools I use today as a professional administrator, I first learned in my STEP-UP internships at Faegre & Benson law firm and the Minneapolis Public Works Department. STEP-UP also opened doors for me ... to college."
The Minneapolis Step-Up program, championed by the likes of U.S. Bancorp, Allianz Life, YWCA of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Thrivent Financial and more than 200 small and large employers, this summer employed nearly 2,000 city kids. Most of them hail from low-income, minority families and many of them will be the first in family to attend college, post-high school technical schools or training.
Mayor R.T. Rybak and U.S. Bancorp CEO Richard Davis, the godfathers of the operation, note that dozens of former Step-Up interns have completed college or technical school and return to careers at the companies where they interned -- the virtuous circle.
INSCAPE GOING GLOBAL
Inscape Publishing produces the popular DiSC program, one of the most widely used approaches to assessing personality and improving interpersonal skills.
As Inscape nears its 10th year as an independent company providing the training materials to business clients, CEO Jeff Sugerman says growth increasingly is coming from international sales through its distribution network of hundreds of leadership, training and consulting firms.
The DiSC program, now produced from Minneapolis in 28 languages, is the company's fastest-growing business. Sugerman estimates that a third of sales will be outside the United States this year.