Carlos Espinoza is the assistant city planner with the City of Winona. He was instrumental in much of the MIRC (Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities) activity that happened in Winona. At the 2011 Broadband Conference, Carlos spoke about their efforts to add public wireless hot spots around Winona in popular areas such as the public park, Lake Winona and the city campground.  He also spoke about Project FINE; a project we have mentioned before that provides digital literacy training to new residents, many who are also new Americans. Carlos also worked on Winona’s website to attract new residents to the area to fill the open jobs.

I was pleased to learn a little more about Carlos in a recent volume of the CURA Reporter. CURA (Center for Urban and Regional Affairs) strives to encourage University-Community engagement. Carlos was recently recognized for his work as a Krusell fellow. The article describes the special fellowships…

the program makes academic work more meaningful, enables fellows to be more purposeful in designing their academic program, teaches practical skills, and builds relationships and networks with professionals in the field.

Most of Carlos’ work for CURA centered around, unsurprisingly, urban work. He worked with City of New Hope Community Development Department, Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services (DBNHS), and Model Cities, a community-development corporation in St. Paul. But it sounds like the lessons he learned easily transferred to his more current, more rural setting in Winona. We know he helped make MIRC a greater success in his community…

I credit the Krusell fellowship with helping me gain the professional experience instrumental in being hired by the City of Winona immediately after graduating from the Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning program. Perhaps more importantly, the Krusell fellowship opened my eyes to the tremendous difference that community-development activities can have on people’s lives. Overall, the Krusell fellowship professional experiences allowed me to “get close to the action” and understand that when you work for a community development department or organization, your daily work has a direct and beneficial impact on local people and places.