Public Engagement

Through last Friday's STEM conference, I learned about the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, Inc. MMEP is "a nonprofit collaborative, founded in 1987, that seeks to increase the success of Minnesota students of color in Minnesota schools, colleges, and universities.  MMEP achieves its mission by working closely with students, the communities of color and representatives from education, business, government and nonprofits to develop programs that help students of color succeed academically."

In this way, it strongly prefigures the purpose and dramatis personae of the STEM conference. It seems that there's nothing new under the sun, except - importantly - active support by the Governor and the Minnesota Department of Education. And it's a strength that MMEP's Executive Director is Carlos Mariani Rosa, who is also a State Representative.

Some of the characteristics of the MMEP design, according to its web site, include:

• MMEP is a multi-sector collaborative, dedicated to having educators, public officials, philanthropists, business people, nonprofits, students and parents at the table.
• MMEP focuses its work on kindergarten through postsecondary education and promotes a continuum of support at all levels.
• MMEP is a multicultural organization dedicated to having the diversity of Minnesota communities represented in all components of the organization.
• MMEP's financing structure requires that one third of its core-operating budget come from membership fees, one third come from a state appropriation and one third come from grants.
• The Implementation Working Group has the ability to adjust the work plan of the organization whenever it is necessary to assure appropriate advocacy and programming on behalf of Minnesota communities of color.
• The work of MMEP is as dedicated to the process of collaboration as it is to its programs/products.

MMEP's Associate Director, Jennifer Godinez, is also Director of the MMEP-associated Minnesota College Access Network (MCAN). The goal of MCAN is to "increase college enrollment and graduation among Minnesota students by significantly increasing the number of students who participate in college access programming in Minnesota." Access to demanding college-prep work, particularly algebra and higher math, beginning in 8th grade and continuing throughout high school, has been shown to be essential to college success in the STEM disciplines.

MCAN plans to use grants and technical support to

• increase the number of college access programs,
• expand the efforts of existing college access programs,
• partner with K-12 school districts and communities, and
• serve as a statewide coordinating body for college access programs.

MMEP and MCAN are the types of focused, pragmatic programs that we need if we are to make the benefits of higher education - both personal and societal - accessible to today's and tomorrow's students.