EDTalks: Transforming Education for a Changing World

Join us for our final EDTalks of the season as we continue to explore our season theme, Big Challenges, Realistic Solutions. This event features Anne Soto and Cole Stevens, who will discuss the many ways our education system must evolve in response to our complex and ever-changing world.

Founded in 2002, EDTalks is a dynamic happy hour event that raises public awareness of critical topics and strengthens community engagement and advocacy with and on behalf of our young people. It also provides a platform for creative leaders to showcase innovative ideas, share successes in their work, gain insight and feedback from colleagues, connect with community audiences and identify growth opportunities.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with complementary hearty appetizers and drinks available for purchase. Our program begins at 6 p.m. sharp with our two EDTalks presentations, followed by Q & A that allows opportunities for audience conversation with our presenters and deeper dives into the evening’s topic.

Tickets are $5, but all are welcome. If this event is cost-prohibitive but you would like to attend, please reach out to Heidi Draskoci-Fricke at [email protected].

Title: Educating Today’s Digital Learners for Our Global Economy

Speaker: Anne Soto, Executive Director Midwest Region, World Savvy

In our increasingly globally connected world – where communities continue to diversify – the future workplace demands a completely different set of skills to succeed in a global economy. The immediacy of global issues such as climate change, food security and public health make world-centric learning essential preparation for a changing world. Anne Soto from World Savvy will discuss the need for all students to develop skills for future success, such as an appreciation of cultural difference, critical and comparative thinking, comfort with ambiguity, and an understanding of globally significant issues. She argues that the time is now for changing the way we educate young, digital learners, and she’ll present concrete examples of how some schools – including many in Minneapolis Public Schools - are already addressing this head on.

Before joining World Savvy as its Midwest region executive director, Anne Soto worked as senior director of grantmaking for the Greater Twin Cities United Way community impact team. In that role she led a team centered on impacting regional need toward equity and accelerated new solutions defined by community. Anne has deep roots in education, starting her career as a classroom teacher, serving as a founding leader of the Oakland-based nonprofit Educate78, and working with NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy model that supports early-stage nonprofits. As the mother of three kids, a resident of Minneapolis and a native Midwesterner, she cares deeply about creating an inclusive region where all of our youth can thrive.

Title: How Education Steers the Course of Humanity

Speakers: Cole Stevens, Chief Impact Officer, Bridgemakers

Bridgemakers co-founder Cole Stevens believes our education system inextricably steers the course of humanity for better or for worse – and it must be transformed to unlock each young person’s potential and prevent violence, incarceration and other negative life outcomes. Inspired by his own personal experience in the education and criminal justice systems – as well as leaders such as Ulcca Joshi-Hansen, Martin Brokenleg, Steve Van Bockern, Larry Brendtro and Jon Bacal – Cole will present his own framework for how our democracy, society and economy can benefit from a transformational theory that reorganizes the way we look at youth and the human lives that make up the individual threads of society. He will also share some of the concrete classroom and system-based recommendations that have been developed by Bridgemakers in collaboration with justice-involved young people.

Cole Stevens is a serial entrepreneur, organizer and speaker with a lived experience that deeply influences his work. Growing up poor and biracial in South Minneapolis taught him to enjoy diverse cultures and act as a bridge between them. When COVID hit, Cole lost his service job alongside thousands of other young people. Despite the odds stacked against him, he worked to create a new reality. Cole co-led a successful legislative campaign to change a discriminatory unemployment law impacting high school students, which resulted in young people receiving over $35 million in pandemic aid across the state. Cole also used his storytelling abilities to co-found the youth-led nonprofit Bridgemakers, raise over $3 million in support of its work and launch his own consulting and publishing company to help early stage entrepreneurs of color get their start.

In the event that we reach max capacity for this event, there may not be seating available for every guest. Should you require seating, please reach out to us at [email protected]. We will be happy to reserve a seat for you.

Host or Publisher Achieve Twin Cities and Graves Foundation