ESFL’S Educational Alliances

Teaching and learning are the synergistic energies of all envisioned ESFL programs, whether they involve gathering oral histories among East Side residents, showing students how to use research materials for History Day projects, generating new stories through writing and performance workshops, or when graduate students in Musicology come to peruse the Fred Ho Collection. Teaching and learning have been the work of the ESFL’s co-directors’ professional lives; all programs of the ESFL, whether run by the co-directors or others in partnership, will be staffed by experienced, dedicated and creative educators.

The ESFL’s programs will aim, as they develop in the first three years of the institution, to work in substantial ways with learners of all ages. Two of the ESFL’s Strategic Alliance partners are in crucial cornerstone learning institutions on the East Side: Metro State University and the MN Humanities Center.

In addition to the support and collaborative potential of those partnerships, the ESFL’s directors have reached out to East Side public and charter schools, to discuss use of the collections and programming with their students. The East Side is rich with knowledge, innovation and commitment among its principals and teachers at the high school and middle school levels. The ESFL’s co-directors seek to facilitate deep commitments to education on the East Side, in partnership with all current educators and institutional partners. The ESFL’s co-directors wish to assert, long-term, that the East Side is a place where innovation, coordination, and community involvement are real components of local, substantial and life-long learning.

The list below will certainly grow, but currently the ESFL counts among its educational allies:

The St. Paul Public Schools, Community & Adult Education
The St. Paul Public Schools, Community Partnership Program
Roseville Adult Learning Center (a public school serving new immigrants)
UMinnesota Osher Elder Learning Institute
Local Colleges & Universities, Departments and Programs (note: in the ESFL Co-directors’ combined-50 years in higher education, there are deep connections through the local colleges and universities)
Farnsworth Aerospace Elementary
Johnson High School
Harding High School
Open World Learning Community
American Indian Magnet School
St. Paul Federation of Teachers
MN Humanities Center, Absent Narratives Program