Yesterday Mary Magnuson and I got a chance to visit the Community Tech Hub in Deer River near the Leech Lake reservation in MN with Myrna Peterson, who I met in 2021 when we talked about her work with autonomous cars, education and community. The hub opened last November. It’s an afterschool program/place for kids aged 12 to 20. I don’t want to say too much because it’s much more fun to go through the video tour with our high school guides. Their enthusiasm says it all.
The highlights:
- They have sound equipment for recording. They recently had Indigenous hip hop artist Thomas X work with students on music. You can see them all perform on Saturday Oct 7 at the Deer River High School gym at 4pm – for free! (Thomas X is a great live and the kids are inspiring – so if you’re in the area it could be fun.)
- Dinner is served at the Tech Center for everyone Monday through Thursday. Snacks are also available.
- Kids learn from each other. They are invited to work on homework, self-directed projects and even just hang out. Sounds like entrepreneurialism is welcome too.
- They collaborate with so many people including creating a calendar with Indigenous kids in Arizona. Working online, they “paint” together in real time (and not) on the pages of the calendar.
- The hub is open until 8pm but folks leave earlier because many students are reliant on the school activity bus, which is otherwise used for afterschool sports.
- They work with Smart North and have a sister hub in South Minneapolis.
- Like so many community projects, the power is in the people. From staff to patrons and everything in between, people seem happy and lift each other up. You can see it as they speak. They clearly make an effort to be inclusive – like hosting a dinner for the cheerleaders.
