‘A game changer’: This Minneapolis technical school brings people out of poverty
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Summit Academy OIC, a job training center in north Minneapolis, bustled with activity on a sunny Tuesday. Inside, students sat in classrooms learning how to read blueprints and cut wood for special projects. Outside, aspiring carpenters built frames for homes in a large garage on campus, with electrical students wiring lights in a nearby building.
Modern and compact, its unassuming exterior belies its power: it’s one of the most successful programs of its kind in the nation.
“Summit has been a part of building just about all the stadiums in the Twin Cities,” said Leroy West, president and CEO of Summit Academy.
There are several certification programs here, like a typical trade school. Summit offers courses for careers in construction, health care and IT, as well as a GED preparation program. A new financial services program launches on March 25.
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West said their focus is on training people who are unemployed and underemployed, and providing them with skills to make a living wage. Many students are living below the poverty line before they come to school: The average household income of enrolled students is under $21,000.
“At Summit, our mantra, we believe the best social service program in the world is a career,” West said.
West said Summit is responsive to the needs of its chosen community of low-income people. That means offering programs at no cost, and that last 20 weeks — not multiple years like many schools and colleges.
“The students that are attending Summit just don't have two years or four years to wait. They need money today,” West said. “And employers need workers today.”
Summit relies on a combination of grants, donations and financial aid to cover the cost of attendance for students.
The debt-free learning promise and the shorter program length were major factors for Barbara Rankin, a St. Paul mother balancing homework and housework, as she sought to pivot away from exhausting and low-paying warehouse jobs.
Rankin is studying to become a medical administrative assistant. She calls the shift “a game changer.”
“I’m just looking forward to like graduate and get me a career, not a job. I want a career. Something that’s going to last,” she said.
Origins in the Civil Rights Movement
Summit Academy OIC was born out of the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1958, Rev. Leon Howard Sullivan launched a “selective patronage” campaign in Philadelphia, encouraging African Americans to boycott businesses that wouldn’t hire them. The boycott helped open thousands of jobs for African Americans.
To meet new demand, in 1964, Sullivan created a job training program to train these new workers, naming them Opportunity Industrialization Centers, or OICs.
The OIC model was later replicated in other cities, including the Twin Cities in 1967.
Louis King is president and CEO of the national network, OIC of America. He said at their most, there were 150 OICs across the nation. Today, 25 affiliates remain in existence – and Summit Academy is the largest.
“Summit’s outcomes, high graduation rates, placement rates, and wages — the success speaks for itself,” said King. Prior to the role, he led Summit from 1995 to 2021.
OICs expanded their mission beyond Black communities to serve poor people of all backgrounds, reflecting a changing America, according to King. In 2023, 78 percent of Summit Academy students were people of color.
King said credits Summit’s success to strong relationships with donors and employers in the region, in addition to its public policy advocacy.
With its HIRE Minnesota campaign, Summit pushed to eliminate racial disparities in the construction industry. Their coalition successfully lobbied the state to raise hiring goals for people of color on construction projects.
“There’s a lot of talk about, how do we close these gaps? How do we make sure that access to workforce development and careers is more equitable? Summit Academy OIC just answers that question over and over and over again,” said Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan.
Flanagan pointed to the similar American Indian OIC, based in south Minneapolis, as another culturally specific program with high success.
“Occupational instructional centers are just incredibly important … They’re an incredibly important part of our economy and our future workforce,” she said.
By and for Minneapolis
Daelen White knew he wanted to become an electrician straight out of high school, but math — a key skill — wasn’t his strong suit.
Summit offered an opportunity to work towards his goal, a pre-apprenticeship certificate, while he worked on his math. There, he improved thanks to more support and individualized attention from instructors.
“They encourage you even though sometimes you might be frustrated with the problem,” White said. “They actually care.”
“This is the first actual school that I felt comfortable with,” said Darnell Williams, 21, a carpentry student. He moved from Chicago to attend Summit Academy OIC after a cousin told him it is a great program.
“I feel like they got the open-door policy. That’s kind of new to me. Where you can just walk into someone’s room and if you have a problem with something or you need help with anything, you can ask that. That’s not really an option at other places,” Williams said.
Another element that distinguishes an OIC from other trade schools is that it’s operated by the community it’s in. North Minneapolis is its DNA. A Best Buy Teen Tech Center in Summit’s main campus offers an after-school resource for area teens. Instructors rallied to help clear debris after a destructive tornado hit the area in 2011.
It’s a different approach. It means representing students and caring about their whole well-being, according to school officials and instructors. Students come from a range of backgrounds — they may be pursuing a career change or impacted by the criminal-justice system.
“The biggest thing that I have noticed is actually getting them acclimated with school, because some of them have been out of school for years, maybe decades, and just getting them acclimated with that, building confidence,” said Bernie Randle, an instructor at Summit.
Randle said his job includes teaching students how to study or manage their lives outside of school.
“It’s family oriented,” Randle said. “You’re worried about and your focus is on this person becoming a better person.”
Serving 1,000 students a year
Summit recently added a new virtual reality lab to its main campus, which sits along Olson Memorial Highway, just outside downtown Minneapolis and off I-94. The financial services program is housed in a satellite location about a mile north on Penn and Plymouth Avenues.
The school has made headlines for adapting programming to address labor shortages. Last year, Summit launched job training in food manufacturing.
“If there’s a demand out there in the future workforce, we want to be that catalyst to connect the community to those opportunities,” president West said. “That’s why we’re here.”
People can sign up at any time, with sessions starting throughout the year. There are in person, hybrid, and online learning options. West said success is measured by job placement. Over 3,300 students have been placed in full-time work aligned with their studies in the last 10 years.
He recalls when Summit had under 200 students a year — now there are more than 1,000 every year. His hope is to double the number of students served. He also wants to better track if people pursue further education opportunities.
Sherling Yang had been interested in a career in IT but was unsure if it was a good fit. Summit offered an attainable way to transition from working in retail.
“It’s hard because retail you really just live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “And with everything cost-wise being on the rise, inflation, it’s time to chase stability.”
In her last weeks of her program, Yang feels prepared for an entry-level job in the field, and looks forward to pursuing college after.
“I wanted a low-cost to no-cost way to learn and get into that field,” Yang said. “And that’s what Summit offered.”
