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St. Olaf junior named Phillips Scholar for mentoring Hispanic youth
July 23, 2002
St. Olaf College junior Kirstan Ketter, of St. Cloud, Minn., is one of six college students in Minnesota who was chosen last spring to receive a Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation Scholarship. She will use her award to expand the mentoring program she founded for Hispanic youth in Northfield, the college's hometown.
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| Ketter |
The Reaching Our Goals mentoring program, which Ketter founded in the fall of 2001, provides young people in grades eight through 12 a weekly one-on-one meeting with a St. Olaf student for academic and social mentoring. One of its objectives is to improve the high school graduation rate of the town's growing Hispanic population.
Ketter began by recruiting St. Olaf volunteers at the college's fall activities fair. Then, with several other Spanish-speaking students, she went door-to-door visiting Hispanic families and explaining the program. Today the organization, which became an officially recognized and funded student group last December, pairs about 25 Oles with 25 to 30 Northfield students.
"We meet every Tuesday for an hour to do homework and every other weekend we do something fun," Ketter explains. "We went to the Holidazzle Parade in the Twin Cities in December; we take advantage of free events at St. Olaf like Gospel Choir concerts and movies. With students this age, you not only have to relate to them, you have to keep their interest."
Ketter will undertake her summer project in 2003. She hopes to provide support for Hispanic students attending summer school and a safe place for them to congregate. "I'd love to be able to do some college visits with them, too," she says.
A Spanish major at St. Olaf, Ketter is considering adding a second, individualized major. If the plan she develops with the help of the college's Center on Integrative Studies is approved, she will explore the problems of Latin American "street kids" and ways in which those might be addressed.
"The Phillips Scholars selection process was extremely challenging this year," note officials at the Minnesota Private College Council, which oversees the program. "All of the applicants were talented, leadership-oriented people dedicated to community service. Each should be applauded for investing significant time and energy into the competition. Their service-program proposals were uniformly outstanding."
Each of the 16 eligible private colleges and universities selects a finalist, who goes on to compete for one of six $14,000 Phillips Scholars awards, including a $5,000 junior-year scholarship, a $4,000 summer stipend and a $5,000 senior-year scholarship.
Phillips Scholars design and implement community service projects the summer after their junior year. Applicants are encouraged to focus on areas of interest to the Phillips Foundation, such as human services, health, education, the disabled and eliminating discrimination.
Jay Phillips was a peddler's son who came to the United States when he was 2 years old. As a child he made 50 cents to a dollar a day selling 1¢ papers. He would use part of his earnings to buy bread for the poor he saw on the streets. Phillips went on to become a prominent Minnesota businessman and community leader. Jay and his wife, Rose, began a tradition of philanthropy that his family continues through the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation.
