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Each term, one participant from each HECUA program takes on the role of student blogger, sending regular dispatches from the field. Amaris Rodriguez-Price is HECUA’s student blogger for Inequality in America this spring. She is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with an undeclared major. Read on for her first post! HECUA educates future […] Read More »

Each term, one participant from each HECUA program takes on the role of student blogger, sending regular dispatches from the field. Darby Ottoson is HECUA’s student blogger for Making Media, Making Change this spring. They are student at University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, majoring in Strategic Communication, minoring in Environmental Sciences, Policy, Management, and Interdisciplinary […] Read More »

Each term, one participant from each HECUA program takes on the role of student blogger, sending regular dispatches from the field. Eleanor Giese is HECUA’s student blogger for Art for Social Change this spring. They are a student at University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, majoring in art, minoring in social justice. Read on for their […] Read More »

When I see someone who does not have what I have, I think “they probably want x, y, and z because I enjoy/have those things.” Because of my experience, imagining new housing and coffee shops sounds like a great way to bring people out of a mode of survival in the Jackson neighborhood where we stayed, but that’s because I’m only seeing the neighborhood from MY lens. How would I have ever been able to guess their needs? Read More »

Think of where you are sitting/standing right now and all the other people who have occupied that same space. Now think that those people were property to another human being. My eyes saw the same fields stretching out in front of me. My skin felt the same Louisiana sun beating down. The weight of past lives that have been lived and injustices that have been suffered hit me like a semi truck. Read More »

All these people, and many, many more, helped me bridge the gap between textbook and reality and inspire me to embrace, whole-heartedly, the resistance against injustice and inequality within the country. They opened themselves up to the class and used their radical vulnerability as a means to teach us of the oppression they have faced and will continue to face. And it is for this that I think HECUA is so dang special. It provided the means for radical relationships to form and created space to learn from those who are leading the fight against inequality in America. Read More »

Working as a social media intern at MRLF, I have been exposed to a vast network of affiliates and worker organizations and their efforts in union and worker movements. From Education Minnesota’s district education town hall forums with local representatives, to Amazon worker protests organized by Awood Center, I have nonstop exposure to what is happening in the worker world. Read More »

Welcome to HECUA’s Alumni Profile series. Each month we’ll catch up with a HECUA alumni, and see how their time in a HECUA classroom influenced their career goals, their life in the community, and their pursuit of continued education. If you or a friend would like to participate in this series, please email lohmans@hecua.org. This […] Read More »

My HECUA internship at the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation has helped me begin to loosen my restricted perception of who can and should organize, and where organizing is most effective. These experiences have exposed me to the endless opportunities where change can be implemented. Read More »

When people ask me what the Inequality in America program is, time and time again I fail to feel as though I have given a fulfilling answer. This is because we are learning so dang much. In February alone, we have learned everything from the benefits of asset-based mapping to the effect that poverty has on cortisol levels. Read More »