If life is like a box of chocolates, is leadership like a delicious pie? Well, let’s think about this…to make a pie you need all the right ingredients, the right equipment and talented people to pull off the recipe. A lot goes into the making of a pie. If all the parts aren’t working in …
Atlanta. Pittsburgh. New Orleans. Grand Rapids. These are just a few stops on the 2014 Trampled by Turtles tour. The first three cities reflect a certain pattern – large and metro. Grand Rapids, Minnesota (yes Minnesota, not Michigan), however, is a bit of an outlier. Nestled between white pine forests and clear blue lakes, Grand …
By Tom Sippola
Today we welcome Tom Sippola, Multi-Media Leadership Assistant at Blandin Foundation. For over 25 years the Blandin Foundation has worked with rural leaders across the state of Minnesota to help build and sustain healthy communities. With over 6,000 Blandin Community Leadership Program (BCLP) alumni, nearly 500 Blandin Reservation Community Leadership Program (BRCLP) alumni, and countless …
What if you had to drive an hour to turn in a homework assignment. Would you make the trip? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a lose-lose situation really. You either miss out on time to do other things, like other homework or extra-curricular activities, or you risk getting a zero on an assignment. Imagine having make …
In a recent Star Tribune editorial, Growth & Justice president Dane Smith challenges us to think about how we perceive competitiveness. He argues that the focus has been narrow for far too long, emphasizing “cheap labor and lower taxes.” Smith says that, instead, competitiveness should be defined by what is done to increase human potential. …
More than 10,000 rural Minnesota middle and high schoolers are celebrating National FFA Week this week, with activities that range from meeting with government officials to hosting community meals and the Jackson County area’s annual barnyard for kids. FFA may be more familiar by its former name – Future Farmers of America – but FFA’s …
When Pipestone community leaders rallied together to apply for the Blandin Community Leadership Program (BCLP), one thing stood in their way – 318 miles of pavement. “When we talked about the expense of it because of the distance (BCLP retreats are held in Grand Rapids, Minn.), we weren’t sure if we could pull it off,” …
The Editors & Publishers Program was founded in 2005 and modeled after the Blandin Community Leadership Program. It is a program of the Minnesota Newspaper Foundation, supported in part through Blandin Foundation grants. More than 65 editor-publisher teams have gone through the program and have emerged with a deeper understanding of how to build social …
Earlier this month, Minnesota Council on Foundations (MCF) posted a blog about trends they’re seeing in the philanthropic/nonprofit sectors. That got us thinking about trends we’ve seen in rural Minnesota throughout 2013. This year we took a deep dive into rural Minnesota perspectives with our Rural Pulse study. Some key findings worth note include: The …
45 – 10 – 31 This combination does not unlock the untapped potential found in textbooks piled high in a student’s locker. Instead, this string of digits stands in the way of many students’ success. 45 – the percent of American Indian students who graduate from high school 10 – the percent of American Indian …