Regaining Spiritual Wealth

Suzanne Koepplinger has been the director of the Catalyst Initiative at the George Family Foundation since 2014. Prior to this, she spent ten years as the executive director of the 
Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center. She currently serves on the board of directors for Artspace, Frank Theatre, and The Minneapolis Foundation. 

Allowing Adjustments

Work must be part of your core purpose. We have these gifts that are given to us, and it's very important that we discover how we can best utilize those gifts in the way that makes sense to us, and sometimes it takes time. Knowing what your purpose is, and knowing how it shows up in your professional life is really helpful. And purpose changes. It doesn't have to be life-long. You can have a purpose today, and ten years later you might say, "I think I have a new purpose." It can be something that evolves as we grow and change as human beings.

Paving the Path

When I was an undergraduate, I was studying theater arts. I made my living as a professional 
actor for many years. While I was in the theater here in the Twin Cities, I ended up getting married to a man who was a violently abusive alcoholic. And he nearly killed me on several occasions. I'm alive today because of the intervention of organizations like the Domestic Abuse Project, Tubman, and a couple of good cops. So, at a certain point in my life, I decided that I had an obligation to give back. In my early 40s, I chose to get a master's degree in the Art of Leadership. I thought I might be able to do administration for a nonprofit that was doing work to end violence against women, and that's what I did.

The Oldest Oppression

My grandfather was part First Nations Abenaki. We didn't know much about him when I was growing up, because in the '60s it wasn't cool to have Indian blood. It was this big mystery, so I spent a lot of years trying to learn who he was. I am more German than anything, but there is a very important part of me which is a First Nations person. I was contacted by a search firm [that was] looking for a new executive director for the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center (MIWRC), and I threw my hat in the ring. I was clear with them that I am not an enrolled tribal member, and I had never been an executive director before. They took a chance on me, and they gave me the job. While we were doing this work, I was paying attention to the Trafficking Victims Protections Act, first signed in 2000. It essentially said, "Human trafficking is a crime, and if you're a person under the age of 18, and you are sold for sex, you are a victim of a federal crime." Then I would see these 16- and 17-year-old girls being arrested and charged as "prostitutes," and I would say, "Why aren't they victims of a federal crime? Why are they being charged as criminals? We need to challenge this." A woman who had been in [the MIWRC] housing program for a couple of years and who came from some very difficult circumstances was doing really well in our program. She had started to get sober. She was working on getting custody of her kids back. She wanted to get a job. She came into my office one day, and she said, "I'm trying to get a job, and nobody will give me a break, and the only way I know how to make money is to prostitute." When she was 12, her mother had sold her into prostitution to support a crack habit. I realized this woman had been a victim of a federal crime, but she was treated like the criminal, not the men who had been purchasing her, not the pimps who were making money off of her. That ignited a fire under me.

We opened up the conversation in the Indian community, and that was very difficult because we found so much multi-generational trauma and multi-victimization. A mom who sells their 12-year-old child only does that because it was normalized for her. The average age of entry into prostitution is between 12 and 14. No 12-year-old chooses that. Most people who have been prostituted have histories of early child abuse, homelessness, domestic violence in the home, substance abuse in the home, so they're vulnerable. We started to shift the dialogue to say, "Why are we putting all the focus on the people who are victimized? Why don't we start looking at the demand? If men aren't buying it, then there's no market for selling."

From left to right: Amy Klobuchar, President Barack Obama,
Suzanne Koepplinger, Al Franken

I found a sympathetic program officer from the Kellogg Foundation [who] gave me a grant [to] hire Dr. Alexandra (Sandi) Pierce and research the sexual exploitation of American Indian women and girls in Minnesota, a report called Shattered Hearts. Then we really started to form a good team. The Women's Foundation, the [Minnesota] Human Trafficking Task Force, law enforcement, county attorneys, funders, faith leadership, and the nonprofit sector were showing tremendous leadership around the issue. So, what Minnesota has done in creating anti-human slavery/anti-sex trafficking legislation, funding, and services is revolutionary. It's one of the best state-wide responses in the country.

Therapeutic Transitions

The work at the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center was a very important part of my life. I felt that I was finally able to give back in a way that had deep meaning to me because most of the women in the families we were working with had suffered sexual violence. I'm really proud of the work that we did, but I was there for ten years, and at some point I knew that I was burning out. It's a job that requires someone with their full energy, and I didn't have it anymore. [At the MIWRC] we were beginning to understand how leadership and organizational capacity to get things done are restricted by our human capacity to be well. If you're stressed out, you can't do your best. As a survivor, you come to the work saying, "I want to help other people," and you do lots of good things, but then you don't sleep well, and you don't eat right, and you don't get enough exercise. So, the need to start to pay attention to how our organizations support self-care became a really important conversation. We started to look at how trauma was showing up in the workplace. We had mostly Native women on staff, all with their own trauma histories. When we started doing the sex trafficking work, the stories got really bad, and my staff were being triggered in ways I had not seen. I was looking for a way to help build resilience with my team, to help provide a supportive environment. How do I help the caregivers do the caring work that they do?

We met a guy named Dr. Jim Gordon, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist. He is the executive director of an organization called The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington D.C., and he had developed a model based on ancient ways of caring for ourselves and [on] research about what stress does to the body. The science tells us when you breathe deeply, it actually lowers your cortisol and inflammation levels. He had been doing some work on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and I asked him if he had any Indian people who were doing the work with him, and he said, "no." So, I got a grant from the George Family Foundation, now my employer. Two elders from the Indian Women's Resource Center and I went to The Center for Mind-Body Medicine's Fundamentals training. After the first day, those two elders said to me, "This is what Indian people need to heal from historic trauma. We want to become trainers." To this day, those two elders are the only Native people who are certified faculty at The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington D.C. They're also here in Minnesota working in Indian country. Because they are elders and they now have these additional training tools, they're very influential. During that process, I was opening my perspective to see what else is out there that I might be able to do that could align with my purpose, challenge me but not beat me up, and make me feel like I was doing something to contribute to making the world a better place.

Health and Healing

The George Family Foundation has a long history of supporting integrative health and healing. They've done that on a systems level mostly, transforming medical systems, medical schools, community-based programs [and] my organization, but they started asking the question, "What does it look like to build integrative health and healing in community?" They decided to form an initiative called Catalyst, and through a series of happy connections, I was invited to apply for the job, and I got it. I spent most of the first year on the job just talking to people in community. "What does this look like to you? Is it mind-body medicine? Is it integrative healing? Is it stress management? Is it resiliency? What's the language that you use to describe caring for yourself? What are the cultural practices that have meaning to you?" We learned a lot from having those conversations and then developed a set of strategies around how we wanted to invest in the community to help people begin to build their capacity to care for themselves in ways that have meaning in their community.

What we learned is, in Indian country elders and ceremony are very important. Well, now we have elders who also have additional tools to teach people. We spoke with Imam Sharif Mohammed, and I said, "What does it look like to begin to teach self-care in a way that is relevant to Quranic teachings?" So, he's now developed an Islamic mind-body medicine toolkit, and it's grounded in the Quran. We funded the Bantu Healing Drum from West Africa. We worked in the Latino community [to] fund curanderas, the traditional healers from Latin America who teach practices using breath, social contentedness, forgiveness, ceremony, herbs, and teas. There are lots of practices that people use in their traditional ways, and we're trying to support them.

We are trying to influence how people think about the possibilities. There's data that shows when you teach mindfulness to sixth graders you have increased attendance, better test results, less disruption in the classroom, and increased cognitive functioning. Why aren't we doing this? It's not expensive. We're not introducing drugs. It's not a whole curriculum. It's teachers beginning their day with a few simple breaths. At the Indian Women's Resource Center, we started to use a few minutes of deep breathing to start meetings. It changes the tone of the meeting. If you have a particularly pressing crisis on your hands, it can make all the difference in the world. If you're in panic mode, you're breathing high in your chest. You're not thinking clearly. If you take a moment to get your center grounded, you actually become more creative. you can reason things out a little bit more effectively. you are less likely to react and more likely to respond.

Organizations can shift community norms. If organizations start to model this different way of taking care of ourselves, it starts to have an influence on the community. People in community know what they can do once they get a little support to do it.




Story Facilitators: Omot Toung and Kate Brockevelt

I Never Dreamed of it Happening

Pastor Kurt serving overseas in Malawi.

I Was Never Really a Science Guy

During my high school years, I was thinking well maybe I should be an optometrist, so I looked up what optometry school involved. It was a lot of science, and I stopped and thought, “Hmm...now which classes do I really enjoy in high school?" Physics and that kind of stuff just wasn't, I mean I took it, but I was never really a science guy.

I Would've Had Weekends Free

When I went off to college, I knew by that time that a business track was for me, so I was a business major. Early on within my college years, there was an opportunity to specialize within the field of business, so my major was actually business with a specialization in hospital administration. That's what I graduated with and a degree in communications tacked on there. I was going to be a hospital administrator back in those days.

I would've had weekends free.

And Christmas.

And Easter.

That was my degree, and I really enjoyed my degree. I loved the classes and all, and part of the major included an internship for a summer, and they assigned me to a little Catholic hospital in South St. Paul. I started the summer after my junior year at that hospital, and part of the requirement was to rotate through all the different departments of the hospital, which was fascinating! I mean, I watched surgery, I watched a baby be born, I went to physical therapy, and materials management, the fiscal stuff, and it was really interesting. But because it was a Catholic hospital, there were nuns that operated and owned the hospital... and the nuns really took me under their wing. Here I am, a nice young college boy, right?

They were so nice to me, and somewhere during that summer, I thought, "Hmm... I wonder about being a pastor". Where'd that come from? One of the departments of the hospital was chaplaincy, so I followed the nuns, and they had a Lutheran pastor who was chaplain of that hospital too. I spent some time with them to see what they did, and that particularly didn't interest me so much, but something struck in there, and for us as Christians I go, "I'll be dodging work," but I'm not sure I really thought that back then.

That's where it started. There's another interesting twist to it. Then I started thinking, "Who should I be talking to about this?" I think it's good no matter if you want to be a teacher or a business owner... go and talk to somebody who's in the field. I went back home, and I went to one of the pastors at the church where I had grown up and talked to him about it, and he said to me, "Do everything you can to avoid this". I was like, "Woah, really?" Here you're a college student, and you hope people encourage you, "Yeah, if you're interested in that, go after it!",  and he goes, "Do everything you can to avoid it". Huh. It really stopped me in my tracks.

God Came For Me Again

I finished my last year in college, finished my degree, and I was happy with that. It was like, "Okay, well maybe that was the answer I needed". Or, "Well maybe this whole idea of being a pastor just wasn't for me". I was really interested in business, so I graduated, and I had a job offer. I just knew it wasn't the right one, so I said no to it.Then, I had a couple other interviews, and I got another job offer. That one was in like western North Dakota. I mean, the road ended in this little town, and I thought "Oh, this isn't for me either". Then it was like, "Well hell". I mean, I was told to avoid being a pastor, and now I really wanted to be a hospital administrator. The job offers were coming, but the two that I turned down just weren't right. Then people were telling me, "Well, you need to go get a master degree first, and after you get your master's degree, then come back and talk to us." And I was like, "Hold it here". I checked on masters programs, and they said you should really have some job experience, and I was like, "Okay, hold it here. I have to get a job experience before I get a master's degree, but I have to get a master's degree before I get a job. How does this work out?"

I had been a bank teller during college, so I went back home because I couldn't afford to live anywhere else. The bank took me back and gave me a full-time job as a bank teller, and it was basic minimum wage in the business field. That took me two years, and somewhere towards the end of that two years, I was kind of like, "You know, I think this pastor thing is for me". Then, I went and talked to a different pastor who was very encouraging to me, and he was excited that I was thinking about it.

I thought, "Hmm?" Okay. Well, there God came for me again, and I thought, "Aww man". I checked out seminary, and it's another four years. I was like, "Aye aye aye, my master's degree is two years, and now I have to go back for four years of school". I kind of made a deal with God at that point saying, "Okay, if I'm going to do this, I'm only going to go for a year, and if it's not right for me, if I know this is not the thing, then I get to quit. I'll just stop here somehow". I went off to Luther Seminary over in St. Paul, and within the first week, I loved it. After that I just knew it was right. There was never once I looked back saying, "Ohh, I'm not doing the right thing".

Pastor Kurt(right) with parents on his 

first Sunday at Trinity Lutheran Church.

"I Always Knew You Were Going to Be a Pastor"

A number of people just assumed that I was going to be a pastor. And they were people that had known me since I was a kid, and they were like, "You're going to be a pastor". I was like, "No. No". They were always encouraging, they were always affirming of me and what I was doing. Funny thing, after I finished college and had this two year period and then decided to go to seminary. Then I had to go tell some of my friends because I had kept this quiet. I hadn't told very many people what I was thinking about doing, or I still hadn't really figured out my calling. 

After it was all a done deal, I contacted some of my friends from college days, and a guy that I roomed with for three years in college, he wasn't surprised. I said, "Scott, aren't you surprised?" And he goes, "No, I always knew you were going to be a pastor." We had never ever talked about it. I was like, "Really?" [Scott Said,] "Yeah, Kurt. I just knew." Wow! So, it was interesting. Other people knew what my calling should be before I did.

What Gives Me Energy?

When it comes to the sense of calling, you have to say, where do I find myself feeling excited, or what can I envision doing on a daily basis that every day I'm saying, "I'm looking forward to doing this today". That whole sense of passion. For me, it's always been a pastor. Some people like the same. I have a friend who's a CPA. Those guys do pretty much the same kind of thing every day. That's who they are, and that‘s good for them. I'm a person who likes variety. For me, it's that sense of passion, knowing that the things that give me energy are variety, working with a variety of people, that situations are always new, something is different on a regular basis. Those kind of things give me energy. I think as people look at their callings, they have to ask those types of questions. What gives me energy? What makes me tick? What do I not want to do, you know? Those kind of questions. There has to be something that draws you forward. You're always looking next. That's that passion you have to connect with whatever it is that you do for a living. It's amazing. 

All I Did Was Show Up

It's pretty simple. At least for me, it's pretty simple. My profession, you don't have to be all that smart. You have to be hardworking, you have to have some basic skills that people trust you and know that you care about them, that you're interested in them.

Because of my job, I end up listening to people, I have to pay attention to what they're saying or what's going on in their life. It's just the simple fact that I listen to them, or I pay attention. For them, it's so important, however it helps them. I guess I can't define that, but then they come back, or they say to me, "You helped me," or, "When you did that, that was the best thing I could've had at that point." And I'm like, "Really? All I did was listen to you."

One was Ryan Johnson*. He was in 7th grade in March of that year when his mom called me at 7:00 am that Monday morning and said, "Ryan's dead, can you come?". I went out to their house, and spent quite a bit of time with them. My being there that day and all, I was just this non-anxious presence who was there to provide some sense of comfort, whether it was direction or somebody just to sit by them, maybe a presence. I came in there, and that's a tough one to go into when someone kills themselves. Just to be this non-anxious, caring, present person, in the midst of that. Bob* and Missy*, Ryan's parents, I'm key in their life, and all I did was show up.

I do believe this is my calling.

No question about it. 

I never dreamed of it happening.

......

*Name has been changed to ensure privacy.

Story facilitators： Andrew Emberson, Amanda Schmid, and Katherine Xue

"I just woke up one day, and knew I had to be a teacher!" - Karen Brettingen: High School Business Teacher

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

 I always loved to play office, and teacher. And so one of my Christmas presents when I was little was-you won't even know what this is-but its when you would go into a store and it would have these triplicate receipts in it, and the sales person would write out your receipt on this metal box, then they would snap it out of the bottom of the box. They would keep the top copy and give you the bottom copy of your receipt.  And so for Christmas my mom and dad bought me one of those real receipt boxes, and they also bought me office supplies to play office and teacher.

Then when I got into high school, and started taking business and marketing classes, and was involved in DECA*, I knew for sure that I wanted to go into business. I was from a very small town, I worked at a Sears catalog store, and I loved my job. I loved my job because I got to answer the phone, then take people's orders, and I loved filling out the forms. Just like that receipt back I told you about. So I would literally just take orders and fill out these really cool forms, and on a good day, I would get to type them in as well, you know just like you would do on a computer now, but those weren't the thing then.

So, then when I graduated from high school and went to school in a neighboring town they transferred me to the Sears store in the bigger town. And right away they started talking about about going into their management program. So I was studying Business Management in college, and Sears told me I could go into their management training program, and I loved retail. Loved everything about retail! So I thought that everything was a perfect fit.

Until I woke up one day, sat up in my bed in my dorm room and looked over at my roommate, and I said "I have to be a teacher!" and she asked me "what are you talking about?" And I said, "I just woke up and I know I have to be a teacher." And she asked my where that came from, and I think it was because I had such a good experience with marketing and DECA in high school, and this was October of my freshman year, so I wasn't very far, but I loved my job, loved college, loved the classes I was taking, loved everything. But I just woke up and said "Oh my gosh I have to be a teacher!"

 So I finished out out the year at that school taking all of my business classes and they were all taught by people who had just come out of business. My sales teacher was an IBM sales superstar and decided to change careers, I mean they were amazing. But that day I called up the school I knew I would get my teaching degree from, and I transferred at the end of the year and that was it.

Can you briefly describe some of the things you teach in your business and marketing internship class?

KB: Yes. So the business of marketing and trade programs for highly motivated seniors who want to get a head start in their college and career planning. So in that class I think there's three really important parts. First, there's the let's really figure out who you are. So you do the Myers-Briggs test,  the strengths finder, and the strong interest inventory to do all those assessments.  Let's really figure out who you are and then how do we match that to careers.
Next we teach that whole networking process. So how do you introduce yourself? How do you make conversation? You know dining etiquette, phone etiquette, e-mail etiquette. How you interact with business professionals, how you do informational interviews. We send you out on group job shadows so that you can practice in the safety of a small group. Then you have to go out and do it on your own. So there's the career assessment piece. Then there's the employment strategy piece. Because once you know where you are and you find your dream job in your dream industry and your dream company we want to make sure that you're the one to get the job. So we do mock-interviews, things like that. So those are kind of the three main components here.

 What are your favorite parts about your job?

 I just love everything. I think this material we're doing can change the world. I really believe that what I teach matters for people, and I am really crazy and passionate about it. I hope I can help students get excited about the rest of their life! I really feel like everything I teach is is everything I would want to teach to my kids!    Why go through college trying to do a crazy expensive career exploration? It’s truly unfortunate that we measure our worth by our ACT and our GPA and versus all the other talents that we have. And so it's like “Okay, yay! You've got 36 on your test, and you're in have a 4.0  with all AP classes! Yes. Now you can go to your dream school, and be what you want, and love it.” You’re going to go there and and do what you love and are good at! However, school's not always good at validating all those other talents outside of academia.
For this reason, I love strength finder tests, because they help to show kids what their talents lie.I just don't think high schools are good about helping people see these talents. Another favorite part of my job is helping people realize what they're good at. I really like the differences in each and every student. Teaching helps me help people, and I think that's really cool.  

What have been the most memorable events or days in your career if you can recall certain moments?

I had a girl one of my first years of teaching her first name was Kelly. I remember what she was wearing on this day. She said to me “I think I spend more time with you than I do my mom.” And she did have a great mom, but I had her in class and she was in DECA. So you know I'd see her every day in class and she'd be there after school we would go on our DECA trips together. I ask myself, do I do I pay attention to every person every day? And it doesn't mean I have to have a conversation with you but you know,  somebody has to recognize that you're in the room and I do that for people every day. That was a defining moment for me. Another one was when somebody wrote me a note and they said  “You make me want to be a better person” which makes me tear up a little bit. And I thought like that's like that was the ultimate compliment. So that was another defining moment for me.  If by teaching you I can make you feel that like, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.

What are your biggest challenges in your career?

I have a hard time saying no to things. So right now I'm overcommitted in my job. I have I've taken on too many pieces and it's hard to be great at one thing when you're stretched thin.  

So my challenge is knowing how to say no because I have DECA, I have the internships, I have marketing, and I am the strike coordinator. And I love every single thing. But it's hard to be fabulous at one thing when you're stretched too thin. So my biggest challenge is knowing how to focus on one focus, so then I can be better.

A final thought..

You hear about how some people say teachers are not respected. I cannot tell you a time where I have felt like the world didn't respect my profession, and I think it's because I love it and people see my passion. Nobody would ever do that because I love what I do, and people know that. If you’re in a career that you don’t love and respect, of course people wouldn't respect what you do.

So what do I love about my job? I love that it matters. A teacher made me believe in myself. So I love that I can help people feel good about themselves; they get excited about what they're going to do in college, and get excited for what they're going to do in their life!You have to work with motivation each day so you don't you dread going back to work tomorrow. You have to love it. I have some girlfriends who live for vacations, these well-planned fun girls trips, and they'll email each other, “72 days before we leave!” I don’t get it, like don't you love your today, why are you doing what you’re doing?  I can’t even imagine if I only lived for weekends and vacations... Find what you love because you do not want to wake up when you're 40 years old and have a pit in your stomach because you hate what you do. Then you feel like you can't do anything about it because you have a mortgage, kids, car payments, and bills to pay. Keep going keep going and then figure out what that is so that you can be happy!


Like if you're happy, if you love what you do, you feel confident, and you're nice to people then you're nice to your college roommates, you're nice to your neighbors, and nice to your family! When you're happy and nice, you make the world a better place! If we all did this for other people, just think about this big ripple effect that we have! When people are nice, they’re happy. When people are happy, they’re nice, and I really think this makes the world a better place.

*DECA is an international business/marketing club for high school students

Story Facilitators: Thomas Swartout, Bri Flasch

Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever

Coach Telecky and Isaiah Wills during an emotional 2015 win.

Jason Telecky, Monticello football coach and history teacher, talks to his former player and student, Isaiah Wills.

“I think there is a calling. I think this is it for me.”

Jason: It was not what I had chosen to do, throughout high school I assumed I was going to be a lawyer. So, Desert Storm happened in 1990 and I actually enlisted and joined the Marines my senior year of high school. After I graduated, I left and went to boot camp and the war was over in like 100 hours, so there wasn’t much going on by the time I got out of boot camp. So I was in the reserves at that point; I went on to Normandale Community College and wanted to play football again. I went there and played for a year, I played well enough that I transferred then to St. Cloud State. I got to St. Cloud State and I was playing football and my major was pre-law. The St. Cloud State football team hooked us up with jobs and we were working for the outreach program for the YMCA, and at that point I didn’t know if I wanted to go to law school. I’m working with this outreach program for the YMCA and basically I was a Phy-Ed teacher. One day it just hit me and I’m like “you know what, I really enjoy doing this. Maybe I should be a history teacher and then I could coach and then I get sports and school altogether.” Now when I look back on it, that was a really dumb decision because Phy-Ed teachers wear sweatpants and shorts everyday and they don’t grade anything, but I really enjoy teaching history. I teach a College in the Schools history class now: American history, it’s kind of my forte. I get to coach too so it really became the best of both worlds in that aspect.

“Well I’m kind of a History Buff”

Jason Telecky in the Marines, 1991

I’m terrible at math; I could never teach math. I probably couldn’t form a legitimate sentence so english is out. Science I was okay at, but history was, you know, not to toot my own horn, but history was my thing.  I mean I can remember in elementary school telling the teacher “well, you have two mistakes on this test about the Revolutionary War.” So history was kind of my deal.  When I was in boot camp I had a General Instructor try to trick me, he asked me who was the second in command in the Philippines when they surrendered to the Japanese. The second in command, not the guy who was in charge, and I told him it was General Wainwright and I think he about pooped himself. So that’s why history: I’m good at it.

“You know, I just want them to be good people.”

I want them to be good people first and foremost. I think that if you can help kids become better people in life, make good decisions that ultimately you can give them the tools to succeed. You know, the byproduct of that is if you’ve got a team full of great kids or great players, you’re gonna have success. As you’ve heard me say, “true leadership is when things are going bad then what kind of person are you?  What’s your character? Do you piss and moan or do you get up and do something about it?” We harp on that a lot, and there are times where it’s not easy, and there’s some bickering that goes on, but in the end I think that, hopefully, I’m helping them learn how to deal with those types of things and make the best out of a bad situation. Be a good person. Try your best.  I know it sounds kind of cliché, but if you’re a good person and you try your best, good things are gonna happen. It’s hard to get kids to be a good person all the time and to try their best all the time because it’s human nature right to slough off or relax a little bit. You run through a ladder, and you skip the last one, why?  Because it’s close to the end?  You’re just cheating yourself, you’re cheating your teammates, you’re cheating the program, you’re cheating people who came before you. I just want them to be good people and I want them to try their best at all things.

“Shaking hands and kissing babies”

I do love coaching and to be honest with you, the longer I’m the head coach, the less coaching I actually do. I do way more meeting with recruiters, getting things ready for kids, compiling stats, or organizing game plans, and I feel like I do more shaking hands and kissing babies than I actually do individually coaching. It’s selling signs on a football field to raise money. You get a $5,000 budget and we spend $32,000 a year on the football program a year, so that means $27,000 needs to be fundraised yearly. Sometimes seems a little overwhelming, but it’s the connection with the kids and the players that kind of keeps you around. I love to see you guys transform from 9th grade to 12th grade. I love to see you guys coming back, it’s a very unique opportunity for me. If you teach you might get a student one or two years, you know, and that’s it. I see a lot of these guys for four years. I see them grow, I see them make mistakes, I see them pick themselves back up, I see them help other people. My goal is that if everybody’s a good person, then they’ll start to help other people too. It’s kind of the old cliché like in my history classes I say, “what if everybody in the world was nice?” I mean just think about how much different the whole world would be if everybody was nice, instead of giving somebody the finger when they cut you off, you just say “I’m sure you’re in a hurry. Have a nice day.” I wish I was as nice as I would like to be sometimes too because as you know sometimes on the sideline I’m not as nice. Ultimately just try to get everybody to be nice and hope that the players will start to reciprocate that and it creates a great atmosphere when you guys come back.

Jason Telecky and former players at U.S. Bank Stadium. Isaiah on the far left, Jason on the far right.

Isaiah: I remember back in 9th grade when we were playing on the varsity field for the first time and I got an interception and I remember you sitting up in the booth yelling my name and good job. That’s basically what kept me playing football and working hard because I knew I was going to get that same response.

Jason:  Didn’t you have a punt return touchdown too in the game?

Isaiah:  Yeah. [laughing].

Jason:  Okay, so it’s not like you were doing awful, it was a pretty good game! [laughing].

Isaiah: I was just going to ask you, do you realize the impact that you have on the community?

Jason:  It’s kind of an unintended byproduct which I know is there, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think about that necessarily; I want 9th graders to see me there. I want them to know that I’m watching and that I’m cheering, but I don’t think of it as those pivotal moments necessarily. But I know, whenever I get a chance with the little kids, high fives, shake their hands, and that’s the shaking hands and kissing babies. I do know it’s a very important part of continued success here. So, I probably don’t know like the story that you just shared because you never told me, and yet I picked you up and gave you rides to school when you were younger and you were my TA for a year but you never once told me that.  So thanks for sharing now in the middle of an interview.  [laughs].  

Jason Telecky coaches youth football players at the Minnesota High School Football All-Star game at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“That’s like a super proud moment for me.”

It happens every year. It’s when a group of senior kids comes together on the football field because that carries over into the environment in the classroom. A lot of times we have kids in a class, they come, they go every hour, and you don’t get to see that bond that’s made. Every high school kid, they’re all cliquey right, and when they leave the field sometimes they go in a million directions, but when they come on the field and they all work together for the betterment of the team. That’s pretty cool. That’s a super proud moment for me. Win lose doesn’t matter because when those guys come together like that, that’s pretty fun to see when they pick each other up. You know, you don’t see it as much in the classroom because kids are pretty individualistic, but every once in awhile the classroom you’ll have a debate or something where you see kids kind of come together and like the little light bulb comes on. Those are the kind of ah-ha moments where they get pretty excited about what you’re teaching and that makes you feel pretty excited. And it’s history so we don’t get that a lot.

“There are other things that I could do, but this is what I want to do.”

I can say I’ve never regretted a single day of it. I think there is a calling. I think this is it for me. I think I do a decent job at it. Unlike a lot of the other social studies teachers, there actually are a lot of other things I could do, and I joke around all the time because some of them are like “I couldn’t do anything if I lost my job right now; I have no skill set.” Well I have a license to run every piece of equipment that’s out on that football field [being constructed] right now. Every piece of heavy equipment from the Marines. I’d never do it, but I could of went and done something like that. I contemplated joining the FBI believe it or not at one point in time because you just need a four-year degree and have a military background. So there are other things that I could do, but this is what I want to do. Each day I enjoy doing this, even when I want to ring kids’ necks [laughing]. I would say a couple years ago I thought that potentially when my daughters were in college that I might take a job at a D-III school around here because then your kids get free tuition by the way, so that’s not a bad gig. But I don’t know, I’m not gonna say that I would never do it, but it’s less and less likely. I’m getting to the age now where, I think when I’m done it might be time to go back to the old junior high and, you know, “throw the ball down the field boys. Good job.” I like where we’re at right now. I like the connections with the kids. It feels like so much more of a community here and that’s what I like; that’s what keeps me doing it to be perfectly honest with you.  

Monticello's student section, "The Cauldron" made a banner that says "Pride is Forever" in 2013.

Story Facilitators: Callie Albers, Nate Schreder, Isaiah Wills

"The feeling that you changed someone's life, you're changing your own life"

"My name is Mohamud Ahmed.  I am 20 years old, enrolling in the University of Minnesota this spring.  Currently being in Augsburg College, I look forward to switching schools due to my major and choice of school.  I am working in the social justice department and pursuing a career in the law field.  I look forward to becoming a lawyer, to having a better understanding of how our justice system works, and helping people more.  Being a first generation immigrant, I look forward to making myself someone that contributes to my community."

Mohamud Ahmed

"There's always going to be those little snippets in your life"

    My upbringing was pretty hard since I came here when I was two but before that my family was at a refugee camp in Somalia.  And that was mostly due to the civil war and after we got here it was pretty hard because my dad actually stayed behind because he was a doctor at the time and he was trying to help his people, but it was just me, my mom and five of my other siblings.  We came here, my mom got three jobs to support us and thankfully we had presents in the holidays, we had clothes, we had food.  My dad came to America when I was thirteen and at first it was pretty hard talking to him because I didn't get accustomed to him with his father role.  I felt like he was pushing boundaries, like he was telling me when to come home, he was telling me what to do.  And at first, being a kid, I was like, oh my father he wasn't with me throughout the struggle and he can't really tell me what to do, but later on I realized that he was doing this for my sake and for my advance in life.  I feel like I really owe it to my mom for basically making me who I am.  She was really doing so much that she didn't have enough time to play with us, talk to us, see how we were doing.  The bond me and my siblings have is really deep because they were the ones that were taking me off the bus, putting me on the bus, they were the ones feeding me at home, getting me lunch, helping with my homework.  So that bond won't be broken.

    I guess it started, I mean there's always been those little snippets in your life where you feel like you're not wanted somewhere and you feel like you have to actually go out and change the world.  One example was, I was in class and a girl that was sitting next to me asked me, "Hey, what sport do you play?"  Like she automatically assumed that I played a sport because I was in college, you know.  And I was like, "Oh, I don't play sports."  I said, "I came here for my education."  She said, "Oh, seriously?"  And it was that awkward moment, you know.  I was like, oh this is kind of awkward.  So the day continued on and I just didn't know about what it means to actually be black inside an institution.  So that was one of the most defining moments in my life.

    Coming into college, I wanted to go into science and then recently I've had passion, about a year or two, for going out, having people hear my voice, and protesting.  I mean, it's just the feeling you get is way greater than the feeling you get from any kind of math or science, or solving a problem, or getting a good score on an exam.  That feeling is just like, I can't really describe it.  It makes you feel amazing.  I feel like the system is in place for us to fail, for black youth, Muslim youth, Latino youth, minorities all across the board are set up to fail and it's once you break that barrier and you move on to the next point in your life, there's other barriers.  Oh you graduated college and you have a job now, but are you really getting paid what you want to get paid?  Are you getting paid equally?  I mean, all those things come into play as factors.  I guess if I could change one thing it would be the system.  It's going to be long, it's going to be hard.  I'm pretty sure I can't do it in my lifetime, so I just train anyone that's to come.  I mean the system has been in place for 200 - 300 years and that won't change, but if I can push anyway, a case at a time, one person at a time, we will get there.

"You can't defeat hate with hate"

    Experience wise, I'm the co-founder of YMC: Young Muslim Collective and YBC: Young Black Collective.  They're two groups that really work hand in hand with Black Lives Matter.  They work with different student groups on different campuses in the Metro area, Augsburg, St. Thomas, and the U of M.  We just strive to go out, protest and make a change, raise funds to payoff lawyers, payoff anything we need, give people clothes, supplies, and it's been great.  With YMC and YBC, I feel like I take control in my role and really being the founder puts a lot of strain on me, because I feel like one little mistake can really change hundreds even thousands of lives.  They say, "Oh you have a lot of events and the turnouts are amazing," and really that's the reason why we are pushing so much and we're getting a lot of funding from the communities.  If we mess up, that support is really gone because it's based on the community, so we really try to make the community happy, continuing to do that will get us far.  Recently, two or three days after Trump was elected, YMC and YBC shut down Highway 94 and I feel like that was a statement in itself.  People here really want to get into and they really want to protest and want to advocate, but all they were waiting for is that little push.  That little push is what we give them.  Go speak, use poetry to bring out symbolism and bring out how you're feeling.  Use rap, use anything you want, use art and portray your feelings and basically put your voice out there.

    We welcome everyone.  Actually, at most of our events, the people that come are people of other religions, people of other races and they just come out because what we're doing is showing people what being Muslim is really about, what being black is really about, what being Somali is really about.  Yeah we have people that come there to spread hate, but it's not really one of our major concerns.  One thing you should never do is respond with hate.  You can't defeat hate with hate.  Show love, smile, say, "Oh ok, have a great day," or "Hey, do you want to sit down with us, talk to us?  We would love to give you a platform to speak," just because everyone wants to be heard, whether it be attacking someone or helping someone.  So if you give everyone that platform to let out their feelings, it affects them.

"Every case I work with impacts me"

    [Leading YMC and YBC was] one of the things that actually helped me in my experience with CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).  That's how I actually got the job for CAIR.  I love going there, the feeling that it gives me, the work I do, watching my mentors and lawyers over there advocating for people that are facing criminal lawsuits.  I feel like the president of CAIR, Jeylani, he is an amazing Somali lawyer.  He is really my role model, because he is my mentor and he always has a smile, he is always caring about everyone, putting everyone in front of himself.  There was an instance that he was on a board that was taking some really crazy actions against minorities, so he decided to step off the board so he could obey the law and sue against them and you know, literally saying, "Oh it's not about the money," because he was getting paid a lot for being on the board.  My job really is to help Jeylani and basically retrace his mistakes and see if he got anything wrong, see if he's got any interviews or meetings.  I'm basically a secretary, but [my goal], of course, is getting into law school.  It's going to be hard, but I want to be one of the lawyers for CAIR.

    I feel like every case I work with impacts me, because it's someone that's a minority in the community, someone that's a police brutality [victim], someone that's a domestic abuse [victim], or it's between an interracial couple, you know, things between people getting hate in all types of different ways.  Every single case affects me in a way, because I feel like being Somali, being black, living in Minnesota, I cover a wide spectrum and all these identities really suit me and every single case covers one of those identities.

    CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) is one program that basically they try and start funding, survey, and keep watch on Somali kids, particularly in Minnesota, and believes they're about to join ISIS and that every single Muslim is a terrorist and that kids are radicalized at such a young age.  But right now CAIR, the biggest movement we have is against CVE.  There's a lot of groups that get funded from the government to survey kids of all different minority groups and see if they are radicalized and if they are willing to fight.  One of the biggest things we've done recently, these two CVE groups, one was getting $500,000 and the other was getting $2 million, and we made them stop getting funding and actually become anti-CVE and now they are with us, helping fight against CVE.  I feel like that just helps, those little people here and there that are backing out, saying, "This is not right.  We're sorry."  It's really amazing.

    Recently there's been trials with 6 or 9 Somali kids and how they were played and they were applying to go to Syria and join ISIS and that's really shaken up Minnesota.  They had a friend, he was working with the FBI and he was the one that was putting all these thoughts in their heads, like it came up a few times when he was like, "Oh guys, are you gonna actually go and do it?" and "Are you gonna go over?"  I guess him feeding all those thoughts provoked them and there were recordings.  The trails started off about a year ago, the kids got trialed and sentenced to really harsh time, some getting 35 years, some getting 10, some getting almost 40, but the kid who was working with the FBI got zero and he actually got money.  After the trials I was pretty depressed.  I didn't really want to talk to anyone, but you have to get up, you know, you have to actually go in and talk to the parents.  That's really the hardest part actually, talking to the parents and having them cry.  With every case we lose, it's like, what's the point?  What's the point of staying up all night?  What's the point of writing all these letters and talking to community leaders?  But, I feel like we tried really hard.  Even though they got really harsh sentences, I feel like the work we did really showed the community's really together and the kids have people actually supporting them.  That made me proud.

    Everyone takes losses here and there.  The end goal is just to get something done.  You fight so hard to get people free and them just ending up in jail, it just really shows you that even though you push really hard and you work day in, day out, that you can't really do anything if the system's against you.  So I guess the challenge is within the challenge.  Actually working and knowing that you're going to hit a roadblock and that it won't actually get pushed through, is the challenge itself.  I feel like the one thing that pushes me is that with every case we lose, the next morning there is someone else that needs our help.  So I have to get up and help that person.  I can't just sit back and say, "Oh I can't really help you out right now."  That's just not how it works.  With every new case, with every new trial, with every new person that needs help, that feeling is back.  The feeling that you changed someone's life, you're changing your own life.

Story Facilitators: Said Ahmed, Russell Sottile, Ryan Stach