Minnesota Rising Blog: Post Playback x 12

We culled through 268 blog posts this past year to find the ones that capture the essence of 2012 for Minnesota Rising. Through continued collaborative work with Network Partners, bringing new blogger voices to the fore, hosting and co-hosting 18 events to advance the Cascading Conversations Tour, and recognizing emerging leaders' accomplishments and development as they continue to rise, here's how 2012 breaks down:

NETWORK PARTNERS

1. Julia Quanrud of Fourth Generation and Desiree Culpitt of Leaders of Today and Tomorrow (LOTT), facilitated a fantastic session at the 2012 Un/Conference entitled, "Mentorship and the Emerging Professional." Check out the insights their panelists offered and consider adding your own tricks of the trade in the comments!

2. The Minnesota Rising 2012 Un/Conference: Leveraging Expansive Leadership for Our Minnesota proudly featured 21 Network Partners. For a quick look back at some of them, check out profiles for FUEL Rochester, The Scene, and Twin Cities Rotaract!

3. The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network - Twin Cities continues to publish a fabulous blog chock full of emerging leader ruminations and tips for living a fulfilling life. This year, Minnesota Rising was fortunate to blog about conversations that count and ponder whether the 2012 elections were the most important in our lifetimes, as well as to weigh in on overcoming information overload!

NEW BLOG VOICES

4. Who cares about Minnesota? Jeffrey Miller does. Read on to find out why.

5. Heidi Smith served as Minnesota Rising's first intern through the Masters of Advocacy and Political Leadership (MAPL) at the University of Minnesota - Duluth. While she successfully graduated from the program on Saturday, December 22nd, we're hopeful Heidi will continue her experiential learning relationship with Minnesota Rising. Among other great posts, Heidi thoughtfully captured Jermaine Davis' ideas and energy from the March Torch Community event, "Step Up to Diversity! What I Can Do NOW: Being the Diversity Competent Leader."

6. Kate at Perpetually Nesting shares wise life experience and name-drops Minnesota Rising in her post, "Millennial Families: Reinventing [Home] Life, Generation-Sell Style."

CASCADING CONVERSATIONS TOUR

7. Minnesota Rising hosted an interactive World Cafe at the end of June to explore these questions: What are the unique and timeless traits that characterize our generation and how will we lead in a bold way that remains relevant to how society, technology, and politics are rapidly changing? How we can make sure that the talents and qualities that help us to engage others and accomplish good work are recognized, validated, and valued? Read the recap of "Millennial Leadership: Different By Design World Cafe" to see what we learned, and stay tuned to the Minnesota Rising blog to engage with this ever-evolving conversation!

8. Minnesota Rising blogger, Diane Tran, made two Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) appearances in September. Catch her on the podcasts for "Policy and a Pint: The Looming Intergenerational War" and on Kerri Miller's The Daily Circuit Friday Roundtable on the topic of "Deception on the campaign trail."

9. #mnrising hosted a table at the first annual Minneapolis Communities Connections Conference, "Building Better Communities Through Neighborhoods," posing the question, "What is the boldest, most inspiring vision you hold for Minnesota's future?" We received dozens of diverse responses, reminding us just how much Minnesotans care about the future of our state and that there are many deep values we all hold in common.

MINNESOTA LEADERS ON THE RISE

10. Minnesota Rising posted a notice in late June that the National Urban Fellows were accepting applications for their 2013 cohort of America's Leaders for Change. Tanya Schmitt passed the notice on to then STLF co-worker Irene Fernando, who applied and was accepted into the latest class. Congratulations, Irene, and thank you, Tanya, for helping us to network for what's next!

11. A 2006-2007 Humphrey Policy Fellow, I was delighted to see that several members of last year's cohort launched a book early in the year entitled, LIKE: Seven Rules and 10 Simple Steps for Social Media in Your Campaign (for Politics, Business or Otherwise). Get your own copy of the locally-grown guidebook here!

12. Sarah Burt has made it through her second successful season as the owner extraordinaire of Saucy Burt's. This summer, intrepid Minnesota Rising blogger, Heidi Smith, got Sarah to dish on all of the details about her love of food, the value of a mentor, and how she used her entrepreneurial savvy to rise to this delicious occasion!