Star Tribune: Minneapolis Step Up expands career opportunities for diverse youth
by Neal St. Anthony, Star Tribune
Hero Yang is a 22-year-old St. Cloud State University information systems graduate who services Hewlett Packard technology at Best Buy's Richfield headquarters.
Farah Dahir, 22, studying information systems at Augsburg University, will head to work this summer in the IT department of global manufacturer Graco, followed by an internship this fall at accounting firm Baker Tilly.
Lindsay Harris, 35, is a senior human resources manager for recruitment at Best Buy.
The three are bright and personable and all grew up in working class homes where college educations and middle-class business careers largely were dreams.
They also are grateful veterans of Minneapolis Step-Up, the now 20-year-old job-training program that has created 30,000 internships targeted largely at diverse, working class Minneapolis high school students who may end up machinists or marketers.