March 24, 2023
Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters, Our learners have been working very hard the past couple of weeks! We have quite a few learners who are just about ready to finish the last of their credits, and one who did! Congratulations to Ameed for completing his credits for graduation! We are already at the end of 3rd quarter, which means there is only 9 weeks of school left. Learners have been going over their credit plans to be able to meet their goals by the end of the year. We had the Big Ideas Truck stop by Empower and some of our learners were able to try welding, heavy equipment operating, and woodworking through virtual reality. We have also continued to help with the food pickup for the Backpack Program. We are looking forward to spring break and hopefully some melting snow in the near future! Upcoming Events: March 24: End of 3rd Quarter March 30-31: No School- Spring Break April 7: No School- Good Friday April 12: Construct Tomorrow May 25: End of Year Picnic May 26: Graduation Practice May 28: Graduation May 29: No School- Memorial Day June 1: Last Day of School
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January 27, 2023
Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters, The past two weeks have been productive! Congratulations to Mariah for graduating! A few learners have started a new project where they are creating their own bank and store to rival the current Empower Bank and Store. We have also started our studio remodel project, and made custom album covers to hang on the wall as decoration. Last Thursday, Empower took a mini field trip to the sledding hill and had a fun time sledding for a while! We are excited to announce that we have begun planning and decorating for the Valentine’s Tea! The Christmas Tea will now be held as a Valentine’s Tea on Tuesday, February 14. All family and supporters are invited to come enjoy tea, appetizers, and other treats along with some fun games! We hope to see you all there! There are a few other fun events coming up including Legislative Day where learners will take a trip to the state capitol to tour and lobby for alternative schools. We will also be taking a skiing/snowboarding trip to Trollhaugen, and heading to Construct Tomorrow where students can try out and learn about many different careers in the trades. Upcoming Events:
Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters,
We don’t have much to report as the past few weeks have been filled with many snow days and Christmas break. We hope you all had a happy and restful break. We are very glad to be back at Empower and to get back into our routines. So far in 2023, we already have a graduate! Congratulations to Rachel for completing all of her credits for graduation! Learners have created goal sheets for the new year to help keep them on track, and we have begun planning field trips, guest speakers, and projects for this year. Some representatives from the Minnesota National Guard have been here to help some of our learners study for their future careers in the National Guard! Overall, we have had a good start to the year. Upcoming Events:
Remember all events are updated on our website. We encourage your continued support of our learners in their efforts to make it to school on time and reach their academic goals. Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters,
Empower has had a very productive last couple of weeks. We have decided to remodel some parts of our building and have chosen paint colors, started priming the walls, tore down shelves, and installed a countertop! Some learners have started decorating for Christmas, and with the recent snow, a few learners helped shovel out cars in the parking lot. We have even started doing some workout challenges to help with our strength and endurance while earning credit and Empower dollars! We are so thankful for everyone who attended our Thanksgiving/Miigwech feast. It was very fun to have a family-style homemade meal and sit around the table laughing and talking with each other. A special thank you goes out to all of the learners and parents/guardians that helped to set up, decorate, bring food, make food, or clean up. All of their hard work helped make the day so special. As the end of the year approaches, learners are working hard to meet their credit goals and we are checking in to make sure everyone is on track. Our annual Christmas Tea is approaching quickly, so make sure you mark your calendars for December 22. We will have coffee, tea, hot cocoa, snacks, and lots of games! All families and supporters are welcome and encouraged to attend! Upcoming Events:
November 11, 2022
Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters, It is hard to believe it is already the end of First Quarter. Our learners have accomplished so much, we are excited to see where this next quarter takes us! We have had many happenings in the last two weeks, starting with Alecia and Elijah graduating! We are so proud of their hard work. We had our first “Empower Week” where we had dress up themes for each day to show our school spirit. We have started decorating for Christmas, and planning our Miigwech/Thanksgiving Feast and Christmas Tea. We conducted a mock election and learned how to research candidates, register to vote, and fill out ballots. Some learners applied, interviewed, and accepted jobs at Empower where they can earn Empower Dollar Salaries. Congratulations to Ameed- Head Custodian, Jase- Content Creator, Andrew- Banker, and Phoebe- Food Manager. We also headed over to Thunderblades in Princeton and had a very fun and exciting day rollerblading, roller skating, and playing in the arcade! Looking ahead, we are very excited to continue having fun, building community, and earning credits. Some of our coming events include:
Remember all events are updated on our website. We encourage your continued support of our learners in their efforts to make it to school on time and reach their academic goals. October 28, 2022
Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters, It was a short reporting period with MEA Break, but our learners have been working hard. We have started a new tradition at Empower- Empower Week! We have dress up days for all of next week to show our spirit. Monday 10/31: Halloween Costumes Tuesday 11/1: Formal Day Wednesday 11/2: Switch Day Thursday 11/3: Celebrity Day Friday 11/4: Pajama Day We also started our very own TikTok which has been getting lots of views and attention! You can follow us @weareempower. Additionally, a few learners ran the concession stand for the junior high dance to earn money for our program! Congratulations to Mackira and Haley who already got accepted into colleges, and good luck to our other learners who have applied but have not heard back yet! We are excited to see all of the great things our learners will continue to do! Here is a reminder of our upcoming events:
Remember all events are updated on our website. We encourage your continued support of our learners in their efforts to make it to school on time and reach their academic goals. October 14, 2022
Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters, We have had a very busy past two weeks with lots of learning, credits being earned, and many team bonding experiences. We have gotten our routine down and our learners have their goals set for the year. A few highlights from the past few weeks have been a visit from Shortybuff and an overnight field trip to Lake Beauty for the MAAP STARS Fall Leadership Conference. A few learners painted some of our desks before moving them to make room for the new ones that they built. Shortybuff paid us a visit and taught our learners about free-styling and the equipment needed to start recording songs. He even brought in a few things to revamp our studio! Jase, Ameed, Isaac, Niv and Alecia all attended the MAAP STARS Fall Leadership Conference where they did the Leap of Faith, played laser tag, went fat-tire biking, played lights out dodgeball, and participated in some activities to help with their communication skills. They were able to bond with students from other alternative schools and make new friends. Lots of fun, learning and new experiences were had by all. Our MAAP STARS Chapter has elected leaders. Congratulations to Ameed, President; Jase, Vice President; Isaac, Treasurer; Niv, Journalist; Alecia, Parliamentarian! Here is a reminder of our upcoming events:
Remember all events are updated on our website. We encourage your continued support of our learners in their efforts to make it to school on time and reach their academic goals. Greetings to our Empower Learners and Supporters,
It is great to see both familiar and new faces at Empower for the year. We are off to a great start and have been settling in with our new routines and many have gotten a great start on earning their credits. We are very proud of our learners for stepping up and taking ownership of their learning by mapping out their credit plans, and coming up with many project ideas. We have had a very successful first two weeks, and some of the highlights include:
We have plans for many events this fall but have yet to nail down exact dates. Our plans include going to the school forest, hiking at Banning State Park, and maybe a trip to Rhine Lake or the Sculpture Park in Minneapolis. Here is a reminder of our upcoming events:
We encourage your continued support of our learners in their efforts to make it to school on time and reach their academic goals. Well, we made it through another exciting, challenging, rewarding, and learning school year. We, the staff at Empower, believe that this caps off another successful year, but the real credit for any success at Empower is the effort of our learners and you that support them. So a big thank you for all you have done to encourage your learners throughout the year. You may pick up on a theme of thank yous in this newsletter.
The annual, world-famous, End-Of-Year Picnic was a resounding success. Thank you to all the friends and family members who attended this event. As always, the day was filled with abundant food, fun games, a reflection of the year, and recognition of the work our learners accomplished. Thank you to the learners and staff who helped make this event so memorable with all the prep. Not to be outdone, last Sunday was a great day in the history of Empower, with 19 Empower learners walking in the high school commencement ceremony. Empower consisted of 27% of the entire 2022 graduating class. An impressive feat and shows great credit towards the Empower learners who reached this life's milestone. GREAT JOB Learners, Family, and Supporters. On a personal, Brad would like to thank all those past and present for the heartwarming gift and cherished memories as I leave Empower. I have had the privilege of working with many exceptional learners and families on this 10-year run. Thank you all. Learners, if you want to continue earning credits throughout the summer doing the things you are working on now or new projects/classes, keep in touch with us. Completed work can be turned in, and new work can be picked up in the high school office. We will also have our totes outside the front door, but those will only be checked on Wednesdays. Next year's returning families: You should receive an enrollment interview reminder in mid-August mail. We will be setting up those meetings for the end of August. If you haven't received your reminder letter by August 15th, don't hesitate to contact us to set that up. We are looking forward to starting next year and the changes that will naturally come as we mature our program. Coming Events: Summer School: To be determined, we are expecting it to start around July 25th (we encourage you to work independently throughout the summer) Summer Open Study Wednesdays (3:30-5:30): June: 8, 15, & 22 August: 3, 10, 17, 24, & 31 |
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