Step Up celebrates its 2024 intern, supervisor and employer of the year honorees

Step Up has wrapped up another great summer, with over 1,030 Minneapolis young people completing work readiness training and paid career experiences with 72 employer partners throughout the Twin Cities. To celebrate a successful season, Step Up interns and supervisors were invited to attend a Minnesota Twins home game. Step Up also hosted a pre-game ceremony to honor the 2024 intern, supervisor and employer of the year award recipients.

Step Up Interns of the Year

This year, nearly 50 young people were nominated by their supervisors as interns of the year! The four honorees include:  

Emaleah Scott, Step Up Level 1
This summer Emaleah worked with Pillsbury United Communities at the Sisterhood Boutique. Her supervisor says she was extremely creative and focused on achieving her goals, and also skilled at bringing the interns at her worksite together. “Before Emaleah started, no one talked to each other besides work conversations,” her supervisor said. “But after she came, she made a lot of friends and made everyone else feel more comfortable.”

Kaelin Braziel, Step Up Level 1
Kaelin completed her first summer of Step Up with an internship at Anew Dimension Child Care Center. In nominating Kaelin, her supervisor Katie said, “When Kaelin started her internship, she volunteered to work in the classroom I described as being the most challenging. She took on the challenge and has done great! She even also took the responsibility, without being asked, of cleaning up the mudroom by the playground.”

Nina Nguyen, Step Up Level 2
Nina worked at Target this summer as a data stewardship and data quality intern. She also took on the task of serving as manager for the Target interns’ group project, where she scheduled and led meetings, delegated action items, and communicated next steps. Nina was strongly endorsed by her mentor Alex Pickett, who says that her performance quickly caught the attention of her team, other mentors and even Target leadership. “Nina is bold and assertive and has demonstrated outstanding communication and leadership skills,” he says. “She pushed herself outside of her comfort zone this summer and the team at Target said they felt challenged to keep providing challenging projects for her!”

Jibril Ahmed, Step Up Level 2
Jibril served as a Step Up intern at Minneapolis Public Schools’ Sullivan STEAM Middle School with the STEM Cycling Class. Jibril was nominated by his supervisor Matt, who shared that “Jibril excelled in building relationships with students and developing a high level of trust with them. With this trust and his growing confidence, Jibril actually led the STEM Cycling class many times,” which allowed Matt to have more time to work with students one-on-one as needed. Matt says students felt the same respect for Jibril that they had for their other instructors, and he was also regarded as an outstanding intern by school staff.

Step Up 2024 Supervisors of the Year

One of the cornerstones of Step Up’s success are the many incredible supervisors who show up every day and support interns in countless ways. From the many award nominations Step Up received from interns this summer, these two outstanding supervisors were selected for recognition.

Antavia Paredes-Beaulieu

Antavia is a supervisor at Migizi Communications, a long-standing Step Up employer that hosted 26 Step Up interns this summer. Antavia was nominated by not one but three of her interns! In their nominations, one student said, “She is a very supportive, helpful, well-prepared person. Ever since she’s been my supervisor, I’ve learned a handful of different skills while having fun. She’s opened multiple different opportunities for me. I really appreciate her and I think she deserves to be supervisor of the year.” Said another intern, “She gives you time to think and explore different things instead of forcing it on to you, and because of that, I’ve learned a lot of new ways to make money and start a career.” And her third nominating intern said, “She always explains more and more about the careers we’re exploring and she makes us love them.”  

Cory Foss

Cory works at the Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center at the University of Minnesota, where he hosted two Step Up level 2 interns this summer. Cory provides a wide variety of experiences for his interns, from drone certification to cooking lessons with recipes and groceries to take home to cook meals for their families. He is a multi-year Step Up supervisor of the year nominee who consistently teaches valuable technical skills to his interns and also intentionally engages in meaningful mentorship. His interns say he is compassionate and patient while teaching new skills and provides positive reinforcement and constructive feedback. They describe him as super kind, helpful, flexible, and an inspiration to help them explore great future career opportunities.

Step Up 2024 Employers of the Year

This year, Step Up recognized two outstanding employers that have been intentional in developing strong partnerships with Step Up and creating high quality experiences for their interns. Combined, 51 Step Up interns worked at their organizations this summer.  

Agape Child Development Center
Agape Child Development Center is a long-time Step Up employer which is often requested by interns who are interested in child development or education. Agape offers a variety of experiences for young people, from assisting in the childcare center to supporting teachers in the classrooms and learning clerical skills at the front desk. They work hard to ensure that their interns are learning and growing. Tyseanna, the center’s lead preschool teacher and primary Step Up intern supervisor, is efficient, proactive and organized when it comes to intern schedules and tasks. This summer Agape also demonstrated an abundance of flexibility when they took on additional Step Up interns after another worksite closed unexpectantly. Agape provided a highly successful, meaningful and productive internship experience for their 30 interns this summer. Accepting Agape’s award was Tyseanna Johnson.  

Allina Health, Level 2
Step Up’s Level 2 Employer of the Year award went to Allina Health, an early Step Up partner which has recently reinvested in the program. After hiring six Step Up interns in 2023, Allina increased their commitment and hosted 15 interns this summer, each earning over $20 dollars per hour. The organization provided unique experiences and a high level of support through professional development opportunities and by building meaningful relationships. Allina has embraced Step Up as a strategy for bringing new talent into their organization over the longer term, even keeping on six of their summer 2023 interns, including three that are still employed at Allina today. And out of Allina's 15 interns this summer, 11 are staying on at the organization. Accepting Allina’s award was Liz Martin, a Step Up alum and Allina’s manager of integration and optimization.

Our heartfelt congratulations to these outstanding interns and the supervisors and employers who are building hope for the future by investing in the young people who will power our communities for decades to come.

Learn more about Step Up and how you can become an employer in 2025.

Step Up is a partnership of the City of Minneapolis, Achieve Twin Cities, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, and Project for Pride in Living.