Excerpt from article by Brian Martucci
"Kerissa Olmsted’s dual B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese, five years of hospitality management experience, and well-rounded extracurricular resume weren’t enough for her to break into the Twin Cities’ booming health-care field. During the summer of 2013, while taking science prerequisites at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), she applied to 20 jobs — with zero response. Her dream of a career as a licensed physical therapist was on the ropes."
A chance encounter with Brian Mogren, Director of Healthcare Partnerships for MCTC and Saint Paul College, changed her luck. Mogren runs the Central Corridor College Fellowship (C3 Fellows) program, an 18-month workforce development initiative funded by a $200,000 McKnight Foundation grant. C3 Fellows, in turn, is part of the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership (CCAP), a community development organization.
CCAP has brought together about a dozen of the area’s largest employers in advance of the Green Line’s opening, in order that C3 Fellows might place 200 MCTC and Saint Paul College students in fellowships at major Central Corridor health-care employers, like Regions Hospital and Fairview Medical Center, by the end of this year. According to Mike Christenson, MCTC’s Associate VP of Workforce Development, C3 Fellows is an early component of an ambitious, multi-year plan to encourage the Central Corridor’s biggest employers to hire, train, and promote local workers."