It is my core belief that our community and technical colleges are key to providing social mobility in our country. All students can benefit, but students from poverty can especially benefit. When I made the move to Minnesota State College Southeast, it was with the intention of spreading the idea of poverty-informed practice to a new place from a new position of influence. In the spirit of being willing to be uncomfortable, it seemed appropriate to try to do this work in a place where I didn't have nearly two decades of experience and relationships to draw from, but rather had to start from day one making the case for the wisdom of better serving people in poverty. I had to hope to find kindred souls, and I certainly have! When I interviewed this summer, you could feel a level of concern and caring for students that was palpable. I'm glad to report the feeling has proven true every day since I arrived. Let me tell you more.
Regular readers know my guiding light for poverty informed work has been Amarillo College in Amarillo, Texas. Amarillo talks regularly about their Culture of Caring and the value of choosing to love the students you have. I could feel that energy immediately at MSC Southeast. There is a deep culture of helping and caring here, and it makes the possibilities of what we can do for our students and communities incredibly exciting. Poverty informed practice starts with caring. Poverty informed practice also requires learning and growing to understand our students' needs and points of view of view, but it absolutely begins with caring. I was asked to speak off campus this week on the value of poverty informed practice in higher education, and one of the audience members approached me afterward and told me that my 90 minute speech boiled down to treating people the right way and not being a jerk (his words not mine). I'm not sure I would say it exactly that way, but the sentiment is correct. So, I want to highlight the things we are doing already at MSC Southeast and the things we will do going into the future. You can find these stories across the web by looking for this hashtag #MSCSoutheastCares. Caring is an amazing place to start and let me tell you a few things I've seen already.
I spent the first day of classes on our Winona campus. The picture is breakfast provided by our Student Senate and there was breakfast in Red Wing as well. Students at Southeast already know the dangers of food insecurity and the fact it can prevent college completion, so they made sure there was breakfast for anyone who wanted it for the first week of classes.
There were no rules, no one shows an ID, there is just food for people who need it. That is a culture of help and caring. Of course, hunger is an issue that can extend beyond the first week of classes, so I was so pleased to see the students have established food pantries on each campus as well. The Senate President in Winona told me it is also take what you need, which is amazing and very poverty informed. People who are treated with understanding and respect will tend to treat you with understanding and respect. It's not complicated, it's just hard.
Being poverty informed means understanding the value of relationships (see how this stuff is kind of universal) and demonstrating care for others is a great way to build relationships. I have seen so many acts of caring in my short time on both campuses, but one today stood out in particular. I saw a young mother come in and work on getting admitted and registered for school. Like many students, she needed to bring her children with her, and the children were young also. Watching your mom get set up for school isn't the most engaging thing, so when I walked through our Student Services area, I saw the picture to the left. That's Rita, who is the welcoming face you often see when you enter the Winona campus, and she is making sure all four children are having a positive experience at our college. Not only are they set up with art supplies and a place to color, what you can't see is the Kleenex in Rita's hand as she takes care of the runny nose of our youngest guest. I'm sure that doesn't appear in her job description. We will never know if this small action today gave their mom the time and space to build the future she is dreaming of, but what if it did? What if a culture of helping and caring made that difference? My vision of poverty informed means we remove barriers to student success when we can. What if the barrier was just knowing your children were happy and cared for while you took care of business? I told Rita how impressed I was, and she very humbly told me I had a pretty low bar for being impressed. I would say all the acts of caring I've seen in two weeks might make all the difference for someone without us even knowing it.
So, I could not be more thrilled to have found my new home at Minnesota State College Southeast. We are primed to do amazing things for our students, their families, and our communities. As I have for some time, I want to tell the honest and authentic story of moving toward being a truly poverty-informed college that uses the things we learn from students with the greatest barriers to improve our college for all students. There is work to be done, but a culture of caring is a wonderful place to start. So, you can look for stories about our growth at #MSCSoutheastCares. Let's change the world together!
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