Anne-Marie Kuiper2018 Rising Alumni

Please list any professional accomplishments you wish to mention.

One professional contribution I am particularly proud of is designing and developing a contextualized GED program for Summit Academy that is 10 weeks in duration and bridges our vocational training in Construction and Healthcare. In a short span of 30 weeks, a student can attain their GED credential and post-secondary certification with marketable skills. Summit Academy OIC now has graduated over 100 GEDs and our goal is to reach a 1000 GEDs within five years. Of course, we won't stop there!

Please list any past or current volunteer activities.

Urban Ventures, a nonprofit organization in South Minneapolis, offered a program for men at the Center for Fathering, now called Center for Families. As a volunteer, I served hot meals with a team of volunteers and staff twice a week and learned first-hand the challenges faced by men of color, in particular African American men with a criminal background, transitioning back to society. Barriers include: housing, employment, transportation, legal issues, racism and discrimination. It was one of the most eye opening experiences and set the stage for the work I do now.

What professor(s) or course(s) were most influential during your time in CEHD?

Dr. Gary N. McLean has been tremendously influential in my academic and professional career. A leading scholar and consultant in the field of HRD, Dr. McLean challenges frameworks that narrowly define and limit the study and practice of the field. He challenges boundaries and taught me to do the same, a valuable lifelong lesson. The most influential course: Statistics. It taught me perseverance and an important professional lesson - that the process is as important as the outcome.

What was the impact and benefit of your educational experience in CEHD?

My educational experience in CEHD led me to my current profession in workforce development at Summit Academy OIC addressing economic disparities in the State of Minnesota. The Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD) provided a rich training ground in theory and practice and the creativity to explore role(s) of HRD across different platforms. To date, I always look for innovative ways to drive change and identify new opportunities that will make an impact. The CEHD taught me to think outside of the box.

What is your favorite memory from the University of Minnesota?

My fondest memory is probably the luxury of being able to spend hours and hours in Wilson library and getting lost in the library stacks picking up all these great books. I would always leave with more books than I could ever read.

Who has inspired you the most during your career?

George Garnett (1955-2016). An African American graduate from Yale in the late 70s, George was a relentless advocate in addressing economic disparities in his home state, Nebraska, as well as in the State of Minnesota where he worked as the Director of Strategic Development at Summit. He was a mentor to many, including myself, and a teller of great stories. He was also a practitioner with a deep scholarly bend in history, urban planning, and sociology. Incredibly smart, hard working, and passionate, George continues to inspire me every day to put my full self into the world and to do work that leads to meaningful change.

What skills are important to succeed as an emerging professional today?

Communication. Learning to ask the right questions. Perseverance. Microsoft Excel.

What are your hobbies?

My weakness for cookbooks has led to a growing collection of books with mouthwatering photographs, stories of pasta dishes made from scratch in tiny Italian towns, Belgian chocolate desserts, and dishes that include Bourbon and pecans. In 30 minutes, I have traveled and read my way through a five-course meal.

How do others describe you?

Enthusiastic. Dedicated. Collaborative. Adventurous.

How do you describe yourself?

An outside-of- the-box thinker. Strategic. Global. Food Enthusiast.

What's a good book you'd recommend to others?

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. When Work Disappears by William Julius Wilson. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (beautifully descriptive!)

If you could have coffee with anyone from history, who would it be?

Steve Jobs. If you were to chart his life course on a graph, I imagine it would look a little like a non-linear scatter plot. He attended and then dropped out of college, continued to take classes he found fascinating, launched Apple, got fired, started Pixar…. He was led by this cross-section of interests and found ways to connect them. In his well-known Stanford Commencement speech, he spoke about “connecting the dots” – you don’t always know where you are going but when you look back, you can see how A led to B. Also, Julia Child. Of course coffee would be with dessert after a fabulous meal that includes a lot of butter.

What gets you excited about work?

Without a doubt, the impact of Summit Academy OIC’s work in the community gets me excited about the work that I do. Summit Academy OIC is an accredited, nonprofit vocational training school in North Minneapolis and we educate and train over 800 low-income people of color annually. In only 20 weeks (or 30 weeks if they enroll in our contextualized GED program) an individual can shift his/her earnings from $12,060 a year to $34,000 plus in entry-level jobs in Construction or Healthcare. These are high-growth industries with career advancement opportunities and sustainable wages. We believe that the best social service program in the world is a job and at Summit we provide a platform (with no out of pocket costs to the students) that gives students the education, marketable skills, and social networks to succeed in their professional journey and break the cycle of generational poverty.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I oscillated between wanting to be a dolphin trainer and a hotel general manager.

Outside of your job, how do you grow professionally?

I read incessantly; peer-reviewed journals, industry news, and a lot of non- fiction. Surround myself with individuals with different sets of expertise. I attend work-related trainings, workshops, and conferences.

What is a "fun fact" about you?

I am Dutch but spent all my formative years in Hong Kong. When you grow up in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan is kind of a big deal. When I moved back to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, I landed a speaking part in a Jackie Chan movie as a CIA Agent. My line: “All units search for the disc!”