Dear List Members, I just wanted to share with all of you an amazing experience I had last night.
I was at Southwest High School for the presentation of this year's Wallin/Medtronic Scholarships. For those of you who don't know about the Wallin Scholarships, they are the result of generous gifts from the Wallin family and they provide significant or full scholarships to Minneapolis Public Schools students. The scholarships are awarded based on achievement and financial need. Since the program's inception in the early 90s, over 900 students have been able to move on to post-secondary education after graduating from one of Minneapolis' high schools or alternative schools. I am serving as a mentor to one of this year's recipients. The mentorship program is in place because many of the scholarship winners are the first members of their families to attend college or vo/tech school. That's the case with the student I'm mentoring. Jose Gonzales is one of the 29 students to win the scholarship at Southwest this year. His family arrived here from Mexico a few years ago. Jose is the youngest of 6 siblings and next month he will be the first among them to graduate from high school. Jose has been admitted to the Dunwoody Institute's Auto Body and Repair program for this fall and he hopes to one day start a business of his own customizing classic cars. Jose's achievement is all the more impressive considering that he has been working evenings and weekends at McDonalds in Southdale throughout high school. Minneapolis owes a big thank you to the Wallin family and people like Southwest's Kathy Horner, who coordinates the scholarship program in that building. Let's make sure that we get these stories of success from our excellent Minneapolis schools out to the public at large. I am very proud to be a Southwest High School alumnus today. -Paul C. Rohlfing (Southwest H.S. class of '93) Lyndale 10-7 _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
