(mellow music) - [voiceover] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(guitar music) ♪ Mm-Mm ♪ ♪ Mm-Mm ♪ ♪ Mm-Mm ♪ ♪ Mm-mm ♪ - [Nicole] Coming to you from Rochester, Minnesota.

♪ Got the feeling in your bones ♪ - [Nicole] R-Town.

♪ Make you feeling right at home ♪ - The Rochester branch of the NAACP and Mayo Clinic have joined forces to develop the RISE for Youth Program.

Here to tell us all about the program, serving youth of color in our community, are Wale Elegbede, president of the Rochester branch of the NAACP and Dr. Anjali Bhagra, professor of medicine and medical director of the office for equity, inclusion, and diversity at Mayo clinic.

Welcome, both of you, to R-Town.

- Thanks for having us, we're really honored.

This is just very excited.

- [Nicole] Wonderful.

Well to kick us off here, can you tell us what the RISE for Youth program is, and what are the program's main goals?

- Yes, I could go first.

First of all, thank you, Nicole.

I am so delighted to be on the show.

I've been following the show, and I wanna give a shout out to the entire team for bringing this to the Rochester community.

And certainly, it's a great honor to be able to share about RISE.

So RISE, which expands out to reflect, inspire, strengthen, and empower is really a program, I see it as a movement, the goal is to make it a movement, to really address the racial disparities and barriers, and empower truly our youth.

We all know that our black and underrepresented youth have not had the kind of access that some of the other youth in the community may have.

So this really is designed to provide that critical educational, as well as leadership, development skills.

In addition to access to opportunity, mentorship, sponsorship.

As well as a community in which they can grow and then contribute to the community with their awesome leadership.

- Yeah and just to add a little bit to the, it's also a strategic collaboration between the NAACP and Mayo Clinic, but there's also a key community involvement.

So that's a key piece.

A lot of our feedback we've gotten from the community, we've also talked to students.

So, this is really a great opportunity for us to make, just more investment in our community's youth.

So... - Thank you, both, for that overview.

Dr. Anjali, you mentioned in your opening remarks here, you know the disparities, and I wanted to find out a little bit more about how structural racism is impacting education outcomes for youth in our city and how this program sort of intervenes in that, Wale?

- Yeah so, when you look at the disparities in Minnesota, I mean, Minnesota's a great place to live, if you're white and the data shows that.

And when you look at just our disparities in terms of employment and educational outcomes, African-Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic, Latinos, aren't doing so good.

So, there is a need for such a program.

I mean there have been numerous reports that even show, in terms of employment outcomes, where candidates have the same skills, identical resumes, in terms of our research, and if you're black, you don't get callbacks.

So, that is just one aspect.

And also even in terms of just education, the education gap for students of color is definitely different than those of white counterparts.

And yes, poverty has something to do with that, but that is, at the end of the day, this is all symptoms of systemic racism and disparities that RISE is looking to help address.

- As part of that, those educational outcomes, and of course the Mayo Clinic is involved in the strategic partnership, Dr. Bhagra, can you talk a little bit about how those education outcomes are also tied to perhaps, disparities within healthcare, or even just the healthcare workforce?

- Yeah, absolutely.

There is a direct relationship, Nicole, to your point of educational disparities with outcomes.

'Cause we are talking of the workforce of tomorrow, which we know by 2040, majority of the workforce across the globe is gonna be diverse.

So our goal is to make this as an access opportunity to that workforce, to be able to apply, for whatever it is that they would wish to do.

It's not only for an employment within Mayo Clinic or healthcare, but this is really creating that bandwidth of a diverse workforce that will hopefully be the ultimate outcome of RISE, that's our goal, to create the diverse workforce for tomorrow.

- Yeah, and I wanna give just kudos to Mayo Clinic.

I mean, this is not like an approach of recruiting people into Mayo, this is an investment in the community.

And so the youth can take their skills to Mayo Clinic, which would be great, or they can take it back to the community.

So again, it's really an investment in the youth.

So that way they can be the leaders of the future for tomorrow.

- Thank you, both, Dr. Bhagra and Wale, we're gonna take a quick break and dig right in when we come back, thanks a lot.

(upbeat music) Be sure to stick around, We have much more coming your way on R-Town.

We hit the streets of Rochester to learn more about fashion, and we continue our conversation with Dr. Anjali Bhagra and Wale.

But up first, we learn more about Rochester's beloved Ear of Corn Water Tower in this week's art culture segment.

(guitar music) - [Allen Whipple] The Ear of Corn Water Tower was chosen by the Reid, Murdoch Company, after they had built the plant here to use a symbol, that water tower, that would represent what they are doing in the factory below.

Hi, my name is Alan Whipple, I am the retired maintenance engineer.

I worked about 40 years for Seneca and for Libby's, and help looked after the water tower.

The function of the water tower was to produce water for washing peas, corn, it takes an extensive amount of water.

The tower is 149 feet and six inches tall.

The water tower itself is made out of one quarter inch plate steel.

It is 49 foot, six inches in height, and it is 15 foot, six inches in diameter, and it holds 50,000 gallons of water.

- [Stephanie Podulke] Olmsted County recently bought this canning site, the Seneca canning site, so we now have a very valuable, beautiful, piece of property attached to Graham Park here.

And we're thinking of how we're going to use that to best help this community out.

My name is Stephanie Podulke, I'm currently the chair of the Olmsted Board of Commissioners for this year, and I've been a commissioner for 10 years.

Well, everyone is very sentimental about this, and we got a lot, also a lot of input from the public, about, "Please don't destroy that Ear of Corn Tower."

So that space that the corn tower's on is sort of sacred and will always be there and then however we use that land, it'll have to incorporate that and work around it.

It needed repainting.

It hadn't been painted in 10 or 15 years, and it was getting a little bit flaky, and they weren't sure if there was lead in that paint as well, so they used a lot of precautions, but I love what my husband said as they were up there sanding all that pain off.

He said, "Every one of those painters should be called Colonel Sanders."

And that is (chuckles) the kind of jokes that we use here, in Olmsted County (chuckles) because we're so corny.

If you think about this "Little Town on the Prairie," what do we have to make us special?

And one of those things was the Ear of Corn Tower.

And this is one thing that makes us stand out.

It's our little beacon of pride, that we are a farming community here.

This is who we are.

- [Allen Whipple] It is the most photographed water tower in the world.

The visitors always take pictures of the water tower to send back to their loved ones.

- [Stephanie Podulke] It's lit at night.

You can see it above the trees.

It's something that welcomes people into this town and I think maybe, if they're coming for the first time, and you see that there, you might think, "Wow, this is a cute little town."

This was known as the fairgrounds for years, because it was used heavily for that month, and then not used much at all.

And it's actually Graham Park.

It's a park inside the city that was donated to Rochester by Dr. Graham and his wife.

And our hope is that this Graham Park will be a center of community activity and a green space, and that water tower, will watch over it all.

- [voiceover] For more information about this story, and other R-Town features, connect with us on Facebook, twitter @KSMQ#RTown or ksmq.org/rtown.

(mellow music) - Hello, I'm Danielle Taylor, your moderator for the R-Town Spotlight.

This segment covers organizations events and happenings across Rochester.

We'd like to thank 125 LIVE for hosting and lining up our guest, and we welcome today, Debra D'Souza, specializing in mosaic art from Moonlight Fine Art and Framing.

- Thank you, for having me.

- Yes, we're excited to have you.

So, tell us a little bit more about you and your choice of medium, which is mosaic art?

- Well I've always wanted to be an artist, ever since I was young.

And my formal art training is in painting.

I have a BFA in painting.

And, but I also years ago took a stained glass class from Mike and Stephanie Podulke in Rochester Stained Glass.

And I always loved working with the glass, and it's just so fascinating and all the colors and everything.

So, I had this glass for years and years, and just started, I had noticed on online, that people were doing mosaics out of stained glass, and then that's how it started.

- So can you describe the mosaic art?

Like what does it involve?

Just a little bit for our listeners and viewers?

- A lot of times people say, "Well, you break up glass and then you put it back together."

- Right, - And make pictures.

- but that's not perception.

Yeah.

(both chuckle) Well, and that's not, that is kind of what you do, but you don't really, you cut the glass, specifically to go in the spots where you want it.

So, it's no different than painting, where you mix up the paint color and you lay that in.

This is, you pick this specific color that you want and cut it and lay it in.

So, it's like painting with glass, basically.

And so it can be very technical, or real free-flowing, that kind of thing too.

- That's wonderful.

Where can the community find your work and connect with you?

- Well, of course I do have a website, and that is debradsouza.com.

Also I have work in downtown Rochester.

I did a big project for the city recently, of the mandalas and had a group of artists help me.

And so, down the alleyway that they're trying to incorporate art into, and so I have quite a few pieces there and then we just finished a big grant project.

I had gotten a grant through the State of Minnesota, where I taught 50 students over 50 years old, and they created 50 mandalas.

- That's wonderful.

- Now that show is at 125 LIVE and it'll be going to the Rochester Art Center in December.

- Awesome, we will share your website.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

- Thank you.

(mellow music) - Hello, This is Michael Wojcik with your R-Town rundown.

If you've been on our trails and seen some magnificent blue birds standing in the waterway, you are probably looking at a great blue heron.

Why do we have so many here?

Because we have a relatively rare upland rookery, where these birds nest.

It is currently threatened by a potential subdivision and the Rochester Township Board voted 5 - 0 this week, to approve the general development plan for the subdivision, meaning it's likely coming in the near future.

There are still some tools available to both the Township Board and the Olmsted County Board, that could potentially protect this incredibly rare and sensitive environmental site.

If this is an issue that interests you, there is an online group that is working to save the rookery, and also a lot of resources where you can read about the decision and the background, and come to your own conclusions on it.

But if you enjoy those magnificent birds this is something that you should know this that will have an impact on.

Now, a lot of incredible events coming to Rochester.

It was just announced that Styx will be playing at Mayo Park, outside of Mayo Civic Center, in early May and the tickets are going on sale this week.

Rochester has an annual Hanukkah celebration downtown, and that is gonna be going on Tuesday, November 30th, and that is at University Square, formerly The Galleria.

I highly recommend you go down there and get some donuts and latkes, it is fantastic.

And you get to meet some cool folks from our community as well.

SEMYO will be having their fall concert on November 14th, at 2:30 PM at Century High School.

On November 13th there will be a Christmas market at Mayo Civic Center.

Also getting us in that festive season, The Rochester Male Chorus will be doing their Christmas concert on December 12th at Bethel Lutheran.

And finally, if you'd like to give input on the potential 6th Street Bridge, downtown, there will be a couple of virtual sessions coming up on November 18th.

And that is just a little bit of what's going on in Rochester.

(upbeat music) - My name is Stephanie and I'm here in downtown Rochester, enjoying the balmy fall weather, (chuckles) soon to become winter.

I'm originally from New Jersey moved to North Carolina.

That's why I decided to put the scarf on, because it is a bit cool and a bit chilly, but it does...

Which I may demonstrate what it does do.

So, it can be a scarf, or we can do one of these, if I put by head through it and my arms like this, and it becomes like this little capey, drapey thing back here.

There you go.

- So my name's Jose, I am from Detroit, Michigan.

Currently, right now, Detroit is 50.

I think it's here, what, the 40s almost?

It's like when I first got here to Rochester, it definitely was colder.

And I had to wear a whole jacket and a sweater underneath my jacket.

Now that I've become accustomed to the temperature here, I'm starting to again, get my body used to the colder winters that I'm gonna be facing pretty soon, these next couple of months.

So making that transition into the winter is by slowly getting my body accustomed to these colder temperatures by wearing short sleeves, or just wearing shorts here, there.

I'm not at the shorts part yet, but it's building up by making small increments and small changes to get ready for the cold temperature.

By the time it's December, I'll probably just be wearing a sweater and I won't have to pull out a winter coat, which is ideally, that's the goal for me.

- I try to be stylish.

(chuckles) So, if you'd like to call it stylish, that would be wonderful.

(music intensifies) (mellow music) ♪ Mm-mm ♪ ♪ Mm-mm ♪ - Welcome back, everyone.

We are here with Wale Elegbede and Dr. Anjali Bhagra here to talk to us about the RISE for Youth program.

In this second part of this interview, we wanted to learn a little bit more about the program.

So, can you tell a little bit about what those key program components are and how they're gonna be benefiting youth empowerment and development?

- Yeah so, I appreciate the opportunity.

So first of all, RISE for Youth, it comprises of two components: The first is RISE High, which is for the high-schoolers; and then RISE Up for the undergraduate program.

So this is gonna be a four week program that's gonna be available next summer.

Now, in terms of the critical components, we're looking at a leadership, there's a leadership component.

There's also a component of academic enrichments, communication skills, and also career pathways, whether it's product management or entrepreneurship, or just certain leadership.

So, those are some high-level key components of the RISE program.

And in terms of how we even came up with this, we made sure that we talked to the youth, and we got some really great information.

So for example, our youth have talked about having some diverse mentors.

Having mentors that really care about students.

So we're factoring all of this into the whole program.

- And Nicola, if I may add, - Yes.

- to what Wale already shared.

So, this is really trailblazing in an evidence-based way, 'cause we've used this framework to develop talent within Mayo Clinic.

And we've published on it, we've studied the effectiveness of a framework approach.

The other thing that I would highlight, we are talking about how the youth will benefit from the program, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the mentors will benefit tremendously from this program.

- Absolutely.

- This is a bi-directional human development program.

I wish I am selected to be a mentor and I get to learn.

I have the chance to sit on some of the voice of the customer interviews and to Wale's point, I was blown away by just amazing remarks and observations that our youth were making.

So, it's a bi-directional program, based on a framework that we've studied.

It's evidence-based, but it definitely is trailblazing, 'cause we'd never done this before.

- And I'll just add something quickly.

So yesterday we talked to some youths in the community, in terms of just the benefit of long-term mentoring, and one student, he talked about, when he went into mentoring, he was a book full of questions.

And when he came out of the mentoring he was a book full of answers.

And so, - Yeah.

(chuckles) - that is the type of bens that, the RISE for Youth program is gonna provide for students.

We need to make sure we have engaged mentors, it's gonna be a long-term mentorship.

So, this is gonna be a great benefit to our youth.

- I love that image of coming out a book full of answers.

And it's so great to hear all the ways in which you're centering the voice of, and the needs, of the youth and young adults in the program.

But it is a human development program, as you're saying, Dr. Bhagra.

You know sometimes these programs, not this particular program but programs like it, they have gaps, as we're sort of developing and (indistinct).

- Of course.

- Absolutely.

- Or they lack a sustainable continuum from one step to the next.

How are you thinking about program evaluation and assessment of those long-term outcomes that the program seeks to achieve?

- Yeah so, I actually look at it as a very iterative process.

This program is really rooted in transformation, sustainability and agility.

And based on the feedback that we get from our youth, so there are two components, Nicole: We're gonna have very robust short-term metrics, or evaluation points.

We've used our curriculum designers at Mayo have been really engaged in creating a robust curriculum, but we will be regularly evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness, and make the changes that we need to.

We are not gonna wait for only long-term outcomes.

- Sure.

- In the longterm, though, what we would love to see is more of outcome goals.

Where are these youth going?

Where are they taking their talents?

How are they giving back?

How are they serving as mentors to others?

How are they building their mentors?

So, and that framework is still in development when it comes to long-term, 'cause we continue to evolve it.

But in the short-term, definitely, the youth will tell us what's working and whatever's not working, will no longer be a part of the program.

- Yeah and in terms of just the commitment of Mayo Clinic, so when the NAACP went into this, we didn't, I mean, it was an intentional approach.

I've known Dr. Bhagra for a while, and there is definitely trust there.

And Mayo Clinic is fully-committed to this.

So again, we're looking for something that's sustainable, something that is, that's gonna be operationalized.

And again, this is the pilot here of getting this set up, but that commitment is there.

So, from a NAACP perspective, we are very much excited about this.

And yes, there's a lot of work to be done, but that commitment of equity, diversity, inclusion, social justice, it's definitely there.

- So, in the same vein of sustainability, I wanna ask both of you, where do you see the RISE for Youth program in the next five years?

- Yeah, I mean, for me, I think we need to make sure that the RISE for Youth program positively impacts our youth.

We have the trust is there, through Mayo Clinic.

NAACP is engaged, there is community engagement, it's not just gonna be the NAACP selected students, barbershop talk, diversity council, our Somali community, others, educators are gonna be part of that.

So I think, within five years, my personal goal representing the NAACP, is to make sure that this provides value to the students.

That they're able to have a good job, be able to track how are they doing within the community?

Are they giving back?

So those outcomes, those metrics, are gonna be key, though it needs to be valuable for offer them, to make a difference.

And for the mentors as well.

I mean, it's gonna be a way for them to get back.

And if you're talking to students and you developing those long-term relationships, that's where access and networks also naturally happens.

- You know, Nicole, I'll add to that.

I'm a dreamer and with big aspirations.

So, I truly see this in five years, this will be a movement with national RISE, risen champions, helping others grit through this.

So, I truly see this as a national-level movement in five years, I want to see our youth holding office.

I wanna see our youth, - Absolutely.

- doing whatever it is that brings them joy and leadership looks different to everybody, but I hope we'll see a lot of RISE champions at all for the next five years.

- That's a great vision.

As we're wrapping up here, how can the community get involved?

We heard a little bit about mentorship, what are other opportunities that are available for people to even just stay up to date or learn more?

- Yeah, I would say people should go to the NAACP RISE for Youth page.

If we're gonna be having updates, also through The Mayo Clinic's community page, there'll be updates there.

On the 15th we're gonna have an application, that's when the application process starts.

So they, if you're interested and you are youth, please just go and apply.

And then the application process is gonna go through February of next year.

And again, this isn't the start, this is the pivot year, but similar to what Dr. Bhagra said in terms of the five-year goal and vision, I think that is totally great.

I mean, from a national NAACP perspective, they recognized that last year a lot of organizations made commitments, in terms of equity, but maybe there's not a lot of follow-up.

And what Mayo Clinic is doing is they're not just bringing in financial resources, but the sweat equity, which is even more important, if you're fully invested in this.

So, we're excited.

- Thank you both so much for joining us.

It's a pleasure to have you on the show And we'll continue to stay up to date on things as they develop.

- Thank you, Nicole, for this opportunity.

- Thanks for having us, Nicole.

- And thank you all out there, for joining us today.

For more wonderful content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #rtown.

Be well and stay safe, I'll see you next time on R-Town, the show about Rochester.

(mellow music) ♪ Ain't looking ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Ain't looking back ♪ ♪ Ain't looking ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Ain't looking back ♪ ♪ Ain't looking ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Ain't looking back ♪ ♪ Ain't looking ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Ain't looking back ♪ ♪ Ain't looking ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Ain't looking back ♪ ♪ Ain't looking ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ (mellow music) - [voiceover] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.