A New Age in Education

From immersive cultural experiences to aspiring-entrepreneur programs, Twin Cities schools are rethinking the ways they prep students for college and beyond.

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Will Lyman, a junior at The Blake School in Minneapolis, traveled to Vietnam last June after taking part in a Global Immersion course that featured local Vietnamese-American speakers and touched on subjects like the history of colonization, the Vietnam War, diaspora, and the country’s social and economic challenges. Lyman and his 11 classmates got to see examples of what they studied firsthand during three weeks of immersive experiences, including staying with a family and working in the rice paddies in Ta Van village, and visiting local schools. 

“[I met] people who had lived their entire lives in almost opposite circumstances as we had lived ours,” says Lyman. “What I found is that everyone shares a preexisting connection. . . . We can’t afford to marginalize and assume.”

Grace Percich, a senior at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, traveled to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with her classmates last year to watch the launch of a rocket carrying an experiment they had made. The trip was part of her school’s International Space Station program, the only one of its kind in the Midwest, where students work in teams to design an experiment that is sent to the International Space Station. Percich and her classmates had the opportunity to meet with NASA directors. “Just to sit in a room full of people that have the job I one day hope to have was amazing,” she says. According to Rebekah Peterson, Minnehaha Academy’s director of marketing and communications, some students choose the school specifically for the ISS program, as was the case for Percich. 

Shivani Nookala, a 2016 graduate of Breck School in Golden Valley, worked on a community garden project to address food insecurity after taking a class at Breck’s Melrose Family Center for Servant Leadership, which teaches the principles of leading by serving others. 

“The class gave me a framework for how to successfully take action when it came to a cause I wanted to make a difference in,” says Nookala, now a sophomore at Wellesley College. 

“I definitely feel as though my involvement with the Melrose Center not only better prepared me for college, but it gave me such an advance on where I am in my personal leadership journey and how I am anticipating what I want to get out of my career.For me, the Melrose Center planted seeds in me.”  

Mason Dunlap, a 2017 graduate of Minnetonka High School, was inspired to launch his own business after participating in Minnetonka’s VANTAGE Advanced Professional Studies program.

“After completing my very first business plan through the VANTAGE program, I realized that entrepreneurship was right up my alley,” says Dunlap, now a freshman majoring in business at University of Arizona.“I loved the thought of being able to work for myself and to be able to use my creativity in order to better the lives of others, whether that be raising money for a cause or creating a product that could make someone’s day just a little easier.”

Dunlap’s Den Clothing Co. sells T-shirts and apparel nationwide, and donates 10 percent of profits to organizations like Habitat for Humanity.

Dunlap says the workload he faced while in VANTAGE helped him improve his time management, a useful skill to carry him into college.

“It also gave me exposure to real-world business experiences that many people do not receive until they are well out of college,” he adds. “I learned how to interact with adults in a professional manner, create and present professional-grade presentations . . . and interview properly in a professional environment.”

These are just a few of the success stories resulting from a shift in philosophy in education. Read on for more information about how local schools are pushing the limits of traditional curricula, tapping into students’ interests and strengths, and preparing them for the next chapter in their lives.

A Global Perspective

Dion Crushshon, Blake’s director of global programs, accompanied Lyman and his classmates on the Vietnam visit. “I think these programs are invaluable as preparation for college and for life,” he says. “The students learn the danger of accepting a single narrative about a foreign country, they experience rich and complicated cultural diversity. . . . The opportunity for real-life personal connections and engagement across cultures is what drives the overall experience.”

The International School of Minnesota in Eden Prairie promotes global awareness from an early age with its rigorous world language program starting in preschool. Students take French or Spanish five days a week, with the option of taking Mandarin starting in eighth grade. The school is part of a global educational system called SABIS with a presence in 20 countries around the world. The school keeps up with the growing standards for college readiness by offering about 20 advanced placement (AP) courses certified by The College Board. In addition to its college prep curriculum, the school has an on-staff college counselor who leads a four-year advising program for students and their families.

At Minnehaha Academy, upper school students spend a week participating in what’s called a Cultural Field Experience. They go to a variety of organizations around the city, state, country, and world. “While they may work to serve others and volunteer, that isn’t the end goal,” says Peterson. “It’s to open the eyes and minds of students in new and life-changing ways. . . . They hear the stories of others and hear perspectives of others that may be different than their own.” Some students choose to do a homestay right in the Twin Cities through City Stay, living with Hmong or Somali families, and “this cultural competency will serve them as they go out into the world,” she adds.

Incubating Innovation

St. Paul Academy and Summit School has been expanding both its humanities and its math and science curriculum in recent years, enriching students’ experiences through impressive new facilities. The Huss Center for the Performing Arts was constructed in 2015 and houses the school’s highly regarded performing arts program. Electives in theater arts, video, and the history of race have been added in recent years. 

There is a new and robust focus on computer science and engineering in the upper school, including the hiring of Dr. Kate Lockwood as director of computer science and engineering. She teaches several courses and coaches the school’s robotics team, which qualified for the state robotics championship in its first year in 2016.

The school received a $15 million gift from alumnus Hugh K. Schilling—the largest single gift ever made to an independent school in Minnesota—which is helping to fund the construction of the 39,000-square-foot Hugh K. Schilling Math and Science Center, due for completion in August 2018.

“The goal of [the Cultural Field Experience] is to open the eyes and minds of students in new and life-changing ways. . . . They hear the perspectives of others that may be different than their own.”  

 —Rebekah Peterson, Minnehaha Academy

In addition to Minnetonka’s much-lauded VANTAGE program— where juniors and seniors solve real business problems for local companies and participate in Shark Tank-like competitions—there are several other innovative courses being offered in the district. In 2016, it launched an authentic laboratory experience for students, where they design and tackle research questions that are specific to their area of interest in a collaborative environment. In 2011, Minnetonka introduced “The Big Hunt for Ideas,” based on crowd-sourced innovation programs in various industries that invite its employees to suggest opportunities for new programs or ideas to fix problems that they see at the classroom or school level. “This approach to organizational improvement and innovative thinking has produced a wide range of successful ideas, including several game-changing programs for our students, such as the VANTAGE program,” says Jac Qui Getty, executive director of communications for Minnetonka Public Schools.

For the last 45 years, Groves Academy in St. Louis Park has been making strides in education and literacy for students with learning disabilities, attracting students from across the metro, state, and country. Through innovative programs, such as project-based learning, students in the upper school learn how to reverse engineer projects to understand the components needed to complete each task and in what order. “Although the idea may seem simple, we have found that this approach to learning has not yet reached most other schools in the private and public sectors,” says executive director John Alexander. “This has been a very effective and rewarding approach for our students who continuously come back and tell us that this is the most valuable program at Groves Academy. Teaching process is almost as, if not as, important as content.”

Groves has had similar success in its use of assistive technology in its middle and upper schools. Inside the classrooms, they use text and speech readers that put the text on a screen and highlight the material, assisting students who struggle with reading. In addition to text and speech readers, students are given microphones that translate spoken word into written word, helping them express their ideas on paper, where they can edit it to communicate exactly what it is they wish to say. 

“These tools are simply not found within other mainstream institutions, and yet they are so pivotal in our mission to bring children with learning disabilities to an even playing field with other students,” adds Alexander.

Groves Academy has found innovative uses for technology in the classroom, such as text and speech readers that assist students who struggle with reading.

Promoting Self-Discovery

While the approach to college prep has been evolving for the last 20 years, one thing most local schools seem to be encouraging is self-discovery. 

“We are increasingly working to help students focus inward and discover their own passions, interests, and learning styles so that they can personalize their own academic experience—something that will help them stand out as unique individuals during the college application process,” says Jill Field, interim communications director at Breck. “Our college counseling staff believes firmly that the more thoughtful and self-aware students are, the better able they are to choose a college that is truly a good fit.”

Sara Kyle, director of college counseling at Blake, echoes this sentiment. “As students are going through the [college exploration] process, they’re learning a lot about themselves,” she says. “The more they learn about themselves, what they thought they wanted in a school can change dramatically. When we start working with students, it’s all about their wants, and by the end they are thinking of what they need from a college more than what they want.”

“We’re trying to feed a student’s natural curiosity. Yes, we’re a college prep school, but our guiding policy is that college isa match to be made, not a prize to be won. It’s not about the name of the school but rather helping the students find a set of schools that fits them intellectually and personally.”

 —Sara Kyle, Director of College Counseling, Blake

Minnehaha Academy encourages self-awareness in its students: “College preparation doesn’t just mean excelling academically, it means learning to be highly adaptable, curious, and attuned to the dynamics of a rapidly changing world,” says Peterson. “Students who think critically, can discern multiple facets of complex problems, and, most importantly, who have depth of character, a healthy and humble opinion of themselves, and care for others will succeed.”   

Lessons in Living

Technology rules most realms, but in readying students for post-degree life, Minnesota colleges and universities are trading electronics for experiences.

While much of the world appears to be locked in a staring contest with smartphones and tablets, when it comes to preparing students for life after college, Twin Cities educators are unplugging. Schools certainly embrace technology in other ways (hello, first-of-its-kind planetarium at the University of Minnesota), but learning to live in the post-graduate world requires just that: living. Whether it’s by literally nudging them into conversations with executives, or taking trips to faraway lands, schools are putting students face-to-face with each other and their futures.

Carleton College

Internship funding program: As long as students create and stick to a budget, Carleton provides the funds so students can go after any and all opportunities—not just the paid ones—and save money for the future.

Saint Mary’s University

Leadership degree: During the 18-credit minor in leadership, students learn life skills from world influencers, the most recent being Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes, who got on the students’ level—literally, she sat cross-legged on the floor—with advice she’d give her younger self if she could.

Wealth of Nation Building game: The name of this actual game is critical thinking. During this Model UN–esque competition, students negotiate and trade their way to a sustainable economy, solving problems they may encounter out there in the real world along the way.  

University of Minnesota

Flipgrid: OK, so this one does involve some screen-staring, but in an incredibly productive way. It’s a virtual discussion board where students from around the world come together and talk about global issues while developing confidence in their ability to put a face on their opinions.

Cultural exchange program: Dr. Marina Aleixo’s course on U.S. immigration isn’t by, or even in, the book. She takes students to Arizona to learn about problems on the border from the people impacted the most.