Students Reclaim Credits for Graduation at Project Success 

May 24, 2022

Students on a St. Paul College tour trip visiting the nursing department

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on our students. They spent more than a full school year in distance learning and missed important milestones and opportunities to learn outside of the virtual classroom. Many students were unable to stay on track with their classes – and as a result, more than 500 seniors and 500 juniors did not have the total number of credits to be on-track for graduation after the school year ending in 2021. Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) created the “Senior Academy” at the beginning of school year 2021-22 to help coordinate outreach and opportunities for students needing credit.  

And students were clear about the way they wanted to do it: According to MPS, during the summer of 2021, students “stated strongly they desire more ways of learning beyond the classroom but in culturally-sustaining ways; therefore, a focus on diverse, learning experiences” as a way to reclaim the credits lost during distance learning.  

Beginning in October 2021, Project Success staff got to work offering high-quality, engaging, and culturally responsive experience learning opportunities for students wanting and needing to reclaim credits. Through college and career tours, theater experiences and residencies, and courses at the Project Success Institute, Project Success is helping MPS students recover credits and earn their diploma. 

For example, we brought students to St. Paul College for a tour of various programs they offer. PS College and Career Tour Program Manager Nabil Shuna said, “I thought this event was super rewarding because I was able to engage with students, through ways they could see themselves at the school. I asked one student what their favorite part was, and they didn’t have an answer right away, but came to me after leaving the nursing department and told me they were most interested in nursing and wanted to be able to help people.” 

Project Success created opportunities specifically for students through the power of theater, including trips to see Third Coast Percussion with Movement Art Is at the Northrop and attending the Empathy Project at Park Square Theatre.  

Students attending and engaging with the Empathy Project performers from the Full Circle Theater Company

Senior Academy students were able to participate at the Project Success Institute. Some participated in our Cooking Certificate course this year, and others came to our “Day of Improv,” created specifically for them. Project Success Institute Program Manager James Rone shared more about one of the activities:   

“One of the key attributes of improv is hearty, full acceptance. A classic improv exercise is “Clams are great because…” when someone stands in the middle of a circle and finishes the sentence in any way they want. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with clams. The other people in the circle say “yes” in agreement. By the time we reached this exercise, students were making personal declarations of identity and receiving full-throated support from everybody in the circle, responding “Yes!” after each declaration.” 

James continued, “Student feedback was overwhelmingly affirming, and that’s a credit to the students who were willing to take those kinds of risks. They were so open to having a new experience. It’s so admirable. They went the extra mile and then they were willing to be vulnerable with a group of strangers, which was not required. They chose that.”  

Students in the Senior Academy received the same kind of access to programming offered to all MPS students – transportation, food, childcare, high-quality programming, one-on-one support and more – all at no cost to them. Support from MPS helped to make this possible.  

When asked about how the students are doing this year, James shared: “I think a lot about the students who are in this position and how difficult it must feel, realizing that an important time in your life is coming to a close and also realizing that, somewhat urgently, if you don’t take certain actions, that you may not get the sort of traditional acknowledgment of your time spent in high school. I am glad that Project Success has an ethos of welcoming persistence in the way that we reach out to students. It’s always, ‘we want you here, we would love to see you. Is there anything we can do to make sure that it’s easy for you to get here?’ We do absolutely everything that we can to get students where they need to be, and to help them to feel like they are in a mindset where they can have a positive and meaningful experience even while in the midst of what must be a very, very stressful situation.”  

As we near the end of the school year, dozens of students have earned credit through Project Success programming and in the process, are working towards finishing their high school career in meaningful, engaging ways that will help them for years to come.