The University of Minnesota has mounted a new recruiting drive to attract Minnesota’s top high school students from underrepresented minority groups to the university. The VIP Weekend program recently brought 75 high school juniors to Minneapolis and put them up in a downtown hotel.
The students attended lectures, participated in bonding exercises, and took a mini-seminar where they were required to work with other students to come up with solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems such as hunger and poverty. There was no cost to the students to participate in the program.
Keyana Scales, director of freshman recruitment and scholarships at the University of Minnesota, stated that “our goal is always to get the best and brightest talent from Minnesota on our campus. We want to make sure they are not overlooking the gem that’s in their back yard.”
Scales is the former director of admissions at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in counselor education from North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
