Equity in Education Summit
Missing Voices: Equity in Education Summit is a collective-impact summit of educators, students, families, and community members that defines solutions to improve the future of education.
WE ARE ALL RELATED (MITAKUYE OYASIN)
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018
8:00 a.m.* - 2:30 p.m.
Saint Mary's University Center, Twin Cities Campus
* Check-in and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.
The Missing Voices Summit brings together a variety of stakeholder voices to engage in solution-oriented dialogue and actionable steps toward educational equity. Attendees draw from an array of multiple perspectives including youth (high school and college-age), parents and families, community members, teachers and administrators. Through intentional collaboration, the goal of the conference is to increase equitable learning opportunities for ALL students.
The 2018 conference focuses on educational equity with special emphasis this year regarding native, immigrant and refugee voices by embracing the idea that We Are All Related (Mitakuye Oyasin). In Lakota tribal education one gains knowledge from firsthand experience in the world and then transmits or explores this knowledge through ritual, ceremony, art, and appropriate technology. The essence of this concept is that our lives are truly and profoundly connected to others and the world around us. Now, in this time of division and polarization, we must recognize ourselves in the faces of others, particularly historically marginalized groups. The Missing Voices Summit allows for an exploration of commonalities and differences through an examination of self and others in our combined journey from Indigenous nations and along a timeline of immigration.
Conference Takeaways:
- Educational strategies focused on diversity, inclusion, and intercultural competence.
- Professional development in the form of keynote speakers, participation in creative expression, and interactive engagement.
- Information gleaned from meaningful self-reflection and community conversations that promote transformative change in ourselves and our educational systems.
Registration
Registration open now.
Educators and administrators: $125. Youth, Families, and Community Members: Free.
Ron Leith
Native Elder
Ron is a Native elder of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa and will perform a blessing upon the Summit space.
Ron Leith has been employed in the Native American non-profit field for over thirty years. He has extensive experience in program administration, program development, and community service in both urban and rural Native American communities. Ron has proudly served as a Native American representative for communities, families and children on the local, state and national levels in the fields of child welfare, juvenile justice, business, and housing all during the last ten years. Ron has been fortunate to have been selected to work with some of the most talented and gifted Native American professionals in a variety of community service fields. Ron is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, Red Lake, Minnesota.
Red Tree Singers
Native Singing, Morton, Minnesota
The drum group will perform several Honor and Traveling songs; the group includes both Ojibwe and Dakota singers.
"We learned much of what we know as singers from singing in ceremonies, sundances, and by simply observing others who had knowledge. As singers, this is our way of life. We sing around the drum for strength, happiness, and life for all people, and without the drumbeat I would be lost. The drum keeps me happy. I have been around pow wows my whole life. I started dancing when I could walk, I started singing when I was 7 or 8 years old. I've always heard this drumbeat. I can't imagine my life without the drum. It is the heartbeat of our people. It keeps us going. It brings life."
~ Joseph Erler, Red Tree Singers member
Jim Knutson-Kolodzne
We Are All Related
Dr. Knutson-Kolodzne will provide information on the 11 Minnesota tribal nations and explain the native value of “ a sense of place.” Additional information will be provided on how educators can increase their sensitivity and awareness of MN American Indian history, language and culture.
Jim Knutson-Kolodzne is a member of the Ottawa Nation from Manistee, MI. He has held several positions within American Indian education for over 30 years in the Minnesota and Wisconsin public K-12 schools, tribal colleges, and at the college level within the University of Wisconsin system and the Minnesota Colleges and Universities system (MnSCU). Jim earned a B.A. in Psychology and a M.S. in Guidance/Counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and an Ed. D. in Higher Education Administration program at St. Cloud State University. He is the founding director of the Native Studies Summer Workshop for Educators (NSSWE) and has been involved with the Native Sky Watchers program for seven years.
Wing Young Huie
"How Photographs Form Us: What Do You See?”
An award winning Twin Cities-based photographer, Wing’s artistic process has constantly evolved. Wing will show photos from his many projects, while facilitating a group discussion that will challenge initial perceptions, opening up the possibilities for multiple perspectives. How we look at photographs shows us how we look at life. What do you see?
Wing Young Huie has been photographing for over thirty years, with much of it focused on his home state of Minnesota. Although his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and museums, his most well-known projects are large-scale public installations, including Frogtown (1995), Lake Street USA (2000) and The University Avenue Project (2010), which transformed major Twin Cities’ thoroughfares into epic photo galleries. In 2000 the Star Tribune named Wing “Artist of the Year”. The resulting book was hailed by the Star Tribune as one of 25 great books ever published about Minnesota. The Minnesota Historical Society Press will publish Chinese-ness, his current project, in 2018.
Shegitu Kebede
The Value of One Life
Shegitu Kebede gives a first-hand account of what it means to be a refugee and to immigrate to the United States in the early '90s. She presents her challenges and obstacles in coming to the states and experiencing cultural shock.
Shegitu Kebede knows first-hand what refugee camps and war are like. She lived in and had her first child in a refugee camp in Kenya. Since coming to Minnesota in 1990, she has worked as an advocate for refugees. She’s been honored by several groups including the McKnight Foundation, Bridging Youth and her story has been featured in the Minnesota History Center. Shegitu is a mother, published author and motivational speaker. She travels to refugee camps in Ethiopia several times a year to improve the livelihoods of refugees by building facilities that support education to add a renewed hope and confidence in their future.
Green Card Voices
Sharing Immigrant Stories
Green Card Voices’ shares various stories of our nation’s 40 million immigrants and puts a human face to the current immigration debate. Two youth authors from the Green Card Voices project will share their stories.
Launched in 2013, Green Card Voices focuses not only on capturing individual stories, but also on demonstrating the incredible breadth of the immigrant population. We want to show that immigrants work on our farms, serve our food, teach our children, create our technologies, and start our Fortune 500 companies. Utilizing web-based video storytelling, we’re traveling the country and listening to those with the courage to share their journey, documenting each story in an authentic and unbiased way. The chronicles of those whose stories we capture are both awe-inspiring and thought provoking, portraying the diversity of the immigrant experience in the United States.