November 17, 2005 - MPR’s Mark Steil looks back at the origin story of the Floyd of Rosedale trophy, which goes each November to the winner of the Minnesota-Iowa game. On one level, the bronze pig is just another collegiate prize. But few people know it had its origins in a 1934 game with racial overtones.
November 23, 2005 - MPR’s Toni Randolph looks at Newgate Education and Training Center, a Minneapolis technical school that teaches people how to fix cars. The program pays for itself by selling the cars the students repair. For some students, the Newgate Center is a free education…for others, it's a route out of poverty.
December 15, 2005 - The mothers of Somali teens who have been dealing drugs have suggested something that no one expected. They say the best solution is sending them back to Somalia. MPR's Sea Stachura has more.
January 24, 2006 - Report cards are an important part of a student's education. But what happens when a school gets a poor report card? Progress reports are a part of the No Child Left Behind law. The federal law requires that schools achieve certain goals in many different areas like attendance, graduation rates and test scores. Two years ago, officials at Pelican Rapids High School were told their school needed to improve. Minnesota Public Radios Bob Reha reports on the schools efforts to raise its grades.
February 27, 2006 - MPR’s William Wilcoxen reports on Teacher Quality Enrichment, a scholarship program that is helping diversify the ranks of the district's ESL teachers. St. Paul's public school district is trying to boost the number of immigrants teaching English as a second language.
March 9, 2006 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann interviews Lee Pao Xiong, director of Concordia's Center for Hmong Studies, about the first ever International Conference on Hmong Studies. Academics from around the world are coming to Concordia University to talk about a culture undergoing dramatic transition.
April 13, 2006 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles students preparing for the first "Poetry Out Loud" competition in Minnesota.
April 18, 2006 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann talks with Jacob Reitan, director of the Soul Force Equality Ride; and Jay Barnes, Bethel University's Provost, about a visit of the cross-country bus tour by gay-rights activists to Bethel University.
April 21, 2006 - Governments in every part of the world encourage tourism as a way to boost their economies and improve the standard of living in their nations. But a certain percentage of tourists aren't traveling to see the sights or enjoy the weather. A conference at the University of Minnesota this weekend looks at the disturbing growth of sexual trafficking of children and how leaders in the tourism industry can help combat the problem. One of the keynote speakers at the "United Front for Children" Conference is the head of the United Nations Children's Fund, Ann Veneman. Veneman is a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and has led UNICEF for nearly a year. She says the underground nature of the problem makes statistics hard to come by, but the U-N estimates that 1-point-2 million children are trafficked around the world each year.
April 28, 2006 - MPR's Marisa Helms reports on Neighborhood House, a St. Paul community center providing services for the growing numbers of immigrants and refugees in the metro area. Neighborhood House is celebrating the grand opening of its new building in St. Paul, which is named after Paul and Sheila Wellstone.