Cedar Rapids mayor Tiffany O’Donnell gauges UNI-CUE opportunities

Cedar Rapids mayor Tiffany O’Donnell gauges UNI-CUE opportunities

Left to right: Provost José Herrera, Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell, Denita Gadson, Robert Smith

UNI-CUE staff meets with Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell

 

The University of Northern Iowa's Center for Urban Education, or UNI-CUE, recently launched a new Educational Talent Search program in six schools in the Cedar Rapids School District. Federal funding for the program will serve 500 students over a five-year period.

On Thursday, Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell visited UNI-CUE to learn more about this special partnership and UNI-CUE's role in helping first generation and low-income students envision their possibilities after high school, continue educational goals and prepare for careers.

“It's really powerful for a young person to feel a part of a higher level academic institution,” said O’Donnell. “When you've already been there before, it's not a real stretch to try and get there. So anytime we can shift paradigms for what's possible for our young people, I think that's a win.”

Although Educational Talent Search has only existed in Cedar Rapids for two years, UNI-CUE itself has a long history of advocating for lifelong learning.

“It’s critical that we’re setting up all our citizens for success, and that’s what this program has done since 1969, which I think is incredible,” said O’Donnell. “UNI-CUE sets up all our students for success, whether that’s by support through tutoring, mentoring, ACT prep, internships, Upward Bound Programming — it seems as though they’ve found many ways to reach students from all different backgrounds.”

“I am so ecstatic that today we had Mayor O’Donnell here because TRIO is really about relationships,” said Denita Gadson, director of Educational Talent Search Cedar Rapids. “We cannot succeed unless we have relationships with the students, relationships with the parents, relationships with community partners, relationships with our private partners. There's an ecosystem going on there, that we are focused on that one student but then that one student is a part of a larger community, family, a larger community broader.”

Educational Talent Search Cedar Rapids:

  • Franklin Middle School

  • McKinley STEAM Academy 

  • Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy

  • Wilson Middle School

  • Jefferson High School

  • Washington High School

     

UNI-CUE's expansion in Cedar Rapids builds upon the more than 1,200 students served by Educational Talent Search in the Waterloo area. The program has been active in Waterloo for nearly 40 years, making it one of the longest-running TRIO programs in the country.

“I think some people think that UNI-CUE only serves people of color,” said Robert Smith, executive director of UNI-CUE. “We serve all people. UNI-CUE serves everybody — always has. That’s what it was designed to do is serve first-generation low-income families. So it’s called ‘urban education,’ but ‘urban education’ doesn’t mean it excludes anybody. It includes everybody.”

According to Smith, the Educational Talent Search program in Cedar Rapids is just the beginning.

“So just by Mayor O’Donnell’s presence here, it says that the idea of getting into the Cedar Rapids area is working, and we want to do more of that,” said Smith. “My goal is not to have one program. Our goal is to have multiple TRIO programs, working with Kirkwood, working with Coe College and working with all of those other education institutions in the Cedar Rapids area. I think UNI can definitely make its presence more known, and having more TRIO programs can help us do that.”