Empowering Students to Turn Career Dreams into Reality
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Achieve Twin Cities Annual Celebration: Confidence in Numbers! It was an incredible evening honoring our students, partners, and community. If you weren’t able to attend, we invite you to read this special message from Achieve President and CEO Danielle Grant—her inspiring welcome and call to get involved in supporting career and college readiness for all students.
Welcome everyone! We’re so glad to see all of our wonderful partners and friends here with us tonight for our annual celebration.
Woven throughout our event tonight is the theme of Confidence in Numbers. That’s what Achieve is all about – helping students build the confidence that their career dreams CAN become reality:
- The confidence to know yourself and your strengths.
- The confidence to navigate life’s challenges and obstacles.
- The confidence to imagine a future for yourself.
- The confidence to build your team and work alongside caring adults to create a plan to get there.
And the numbers bear this out: When our students walk alongside our amazing staff, their confidence in their postsecondary plans soars – increasing from 60% at the start of senior year to 81% at graduation. That’s transformational!
Achieve Twin Cities is truly a shared commitment by so many people to the future of our students and the health of our community. And tonight, as we gather with friends and partners, I want to reflect on our current reality and where we’re headed next.
The world around us has changed so quickly this year: an uncertain economy, a rapidly shifting funding climate, decreasing public resources, countless executive orders and unprecedented attacks on marginalized people, education, the nonprofit sector and so many other vital communities.
During these difficult and unpredictable times, we have doubled down on our mission, vision and values, and continued to put our young people first by ensuring that all young people in our schools have full and equitable access to education and career opportunities.
Today, more than ever, organizations like Achieve are essential and matter deeply. All of us are here tonight because we know that nonprofits like Achieve have a huge impact on building the kind of community where we all want to live – and where every young person can thrive.
Throughout our 23-year history, Achieve has been bold, innovative, and laser-focused on our students. We’ve continually evolved and improved our programs over the years to better serve young people. Every single dollar is carefully invested in programs and opportunities that lead to real results—better lives, stronger futures, and new success stories being written every day.
And we’re not slowing down!
Right now, the Achieve team is hard at work on some exciting new initiatives that will help students build even greater confidence and access the real-life experiences and connections they need for meaningful, life-sustaining careers and financial independence.
Here’s a sneak preview of this work that I’d like to share with you tonight.
First, we’ll be building even stronger collaborations with Minneapolis Public Schools and Saint Paul Public Schools counseling teams, Career and Technical Education, Work-Based Learning, and the City of Minneapolis – so we can better align our efforts and more efficiently expand career opportunities for young people.
Second, we’re creating new connections and pathways in our school-based Career and College Centers – making it easier for students to access career exploration advising, internships, and real-world experiences and opportunities with local employers.
Third, we’ll be engaging more deeply with Twin Cities employers – bringing students into local workplaces, bringing employers into our schools, providing more ways for students to explore a wide range of careers, and helping them imagine what’s possible for their future.
Our goal in this work is clear and compelling: that every young person has full and equitable access to guidance, resources and opportunities, which will create a more just and vibrant community and economy for all of us.
This is both an exciting and challenging time for Achieve. As we serve over 15,000 students in 26 Minneapolis and Saint Paul high schools, we are members of our broader community, where we see difficulties, despair and injustice all around us.
But we also have great hope. Our students have great talent, energy, and passion to lead us forward. More than ever, they need the tools, connections and confidence to dream and achieve life-sustaining careers. And our employers need their talent and enthusiasm to keep our communities dynamic and strong.
We can’t do this work alone. Your partnership and investment in student success is so important. And there are so many ways that you can support Achieve in this work.
First, we invite you to join us as a funder or individual donor. Particularly at this time when public resources are quickly disappearing, we need funders and individual donors to step up bravely and give generously to the work they believe in.
Next, we encourage you to support our work by becoming an employer partner, hiring student interns at your companies and providing hands-on career experience and mentoring, sharing your expertise and opportunities at our school career events, and hosting company worksite visits and other career opportunities
Finally, please become an Achieve Twin Cities ambassador in your own circles and share your excitement about the work and impact of Achieve in our communities
Your partnership is vital. Together, we can make sure that all young people have the tools they need to turn their dreams into reality. Your presence and support here tonight give me tremendous hope for the future. Thank you!
More from our Annual Celebration
Confidence in Numbers: Building a Community that Lifts Up Every Student by Achieve board chair Shamayne Braman
Confidence in Numbers video, featuring Achieve career and college center staff and students