on the quad
STUDENT SUPPORT
LAB KEEPS STUDENTS ENGAGED (AND PAID)
Last summer, the Playful Learning Lab (PLL) introduced the PLAYground project, providing 30 St. Thomas students both a paying job and the experience of creating a virtual summer program for more than 80 deaf and hard of hearing elementary-age children. The PLAYground supplied free weekly themed boxes of activities and materials to students from the Metro Deaf School and the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf. PLL camp counselors (along with interpreters and staff from schools and community volunteers) hosted virtual check-ins on weekdays with the children to guide them through playful lessons on everything from nature and magic to science and engineering. When AnnMarie Thomas, founder and director of the PLL and professor in the School of Engineering and Schulze School of Entrepreneurship, realized many students had lost coveted summer internships due to the pandemic, she decided to add to the PLL’s workforce.
“I originally thought I’d have 10 people working in the Playful Learning Lab this summer and I have about 30 students on the payroll,” said Thomas, in an interview from last July. She noted Cognizant and LEGO Foundation prize money helped to pay the PLL salaries. “Anyone who wanted an internship – I hired them all back and gave them all raises. You always save your money for a rainy day and it’s pouring right now.”
ETH I CS
TORO TEAMS WITH HOFFMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION TOADVANCE PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP
The Toro Company and The Hoffman Family Foundation have joined together to honor Ken Melrose with the Melrose and The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas. The four-year gift commitment will create a $3 million endowment with contributions totaling $2 million from The Toro Company and $1 million from The Hoffman Family Foundation. Building upon the legacy of the Center for Ethics in Practice, the newly renamed center in the Opus College of Business will honor the memory of former chairman and CEO of The Toro Company Ken Melrose through research, teaching and practice activities that promote and celebrate principled leadership.
S T T H O M A S . E D U
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