Members of the Northfield Promise Council of Champions and the Northfield Racial & Ethnic Equity Collaborative (NREEC) met at the Northfield Police Department meeting room on May 20 to continue their collaborative work and to discuss an effort to get more local youth on a path to economic mobility. Northfield Promise has made a commitment […]

Northfield students can now check out decodable readers as e-books through the Northfield Public Library. These e-books are accessible for free through Libby, the app that’s installed on all school-issued iPads. Decodable readers are books that are written for beginning readers and use phonics to help them sound out words. The books reinforce the reading […]

Northfield High School students attending the spring Youth Data Summit used data as a springboard for discussions about the use of cell phones in school, barriers to attendance, and ways to create a safe, positive climate for learning. The Northfield students joined students from Faribault, Tri City United (Lonsdale-Montgomery-Le Center), and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (WEM) to look […]

More than 30 people gathered at the Northfield Community College Collaborative on May 8 to celebrate the accomplishments of 10 recent graduates. A total of 14 NCCC students graduated from Riverland Community College in 2023-24 with Associate of Arts degrees, including two law enforcement graduates. Additionally, five NCCC-supported students graduated this year from other institutions: […]

Several TORCH alumni volunteered with the Northfield Middle School TORCH program during the 2023-24 school year, including three St. Olaf College students who graduated on Saturday, May 25: Athziri Marcial Rodríguez, a biology major who plans to study medicine and clinical genetics; Jose Gonzalez Ramirez, a chemistry major who plans to become an optometrist; and […]

Healthy Community Initiative’s Meleah Follen (Youth Engagement and Northfield Community Collaborative Director) and Martha Lundin (Youth Engagement Coordinator) spoke last month at a press conference at the Capitol organized by the Minnesota Alliance With Youth. They talked about how important AmeriCorps Promise Fellows are to HCI’s work in Rice County, including with the TORCH program, […]

Sixty-four representatives from more than a dozen youth-serving organizations in Rice County attended the M3 Huddle in January to discuss how their programs were meeting their goals and how they might be improved. Participants also heard a presentation by three Northfield High School TORCH students. Senior Xochitl Valdez, a former community school attendee; junior Rihanna […]

A giant scissors, a colorful mural, and excited first graders all added to the festive atmosphere at the Feb. 29 opening of the Library Oasis at the Northfield Community Resource Center (NCRC), 1651 Jefferson Parkway. Library Director Natalie Draper thanked the many people involved in the planning of Northfield’s first library branch, including city officials, […]

Twenty-eight high school students from Northfield traveled to St. Paul on Feb. 27 to participate in advocacy activities as part of Youth Day at the Capitol and Future Farmers of America (FFN) Day at the Capitol. Youth on Boards members began their day at the Minnesota History Center, where youth representatives from the Minnesota Youth […]

“Hey, you’re 16 right? Come register to vote!” hollered Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC) member Danica Sorem.  Clad in a “VOTE!” shirt, Sorem called out to fellow Northfield High School students during a lunch flex period in early October. Positioned just outside the upper cafeteria at a long table filled with voter registration QR codes, registration […]