Out to Lunch: Mankato East High School principal works to center student voices

On Minnesota Now, we hear from many different people in Minnesota over the phone and in the studio. But we don’t often meet them in the community, where news and life happen. In our Out to Lunch series, MPR News host Nina Moini sits down for a meal with people from across Minnesota.

Akram Osman is entering his third year as principal of Mankato East High School. He also graduated from the school in 2009. Osman was one of the first Somali principals in the country. And he was recently awarded a Bush Fellowship to help increase representation in school leadership and reduce systemic barriers in education.

Our lunch guest: Akram Osman

The restaurant: Applebee’s in Mankato

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

What is it like for you to think back to your time at Mankato East and now current day?

We really had a good experience growing up in Mankato schools, you know, made a lot of good connections with people, teachers who were approachable and supportive. But I remember, from being a young child to when I graduated, the community had transformed to seeing more students who had similar lived experiences as me.

I think the community has embraced the change and people from different backgrounds. But there's something to be said about when you’re actually living it yourself. It’s a different experience that no one else can share with you unless they have a similar life experience.

Being a young student, not knowing the language and having to rely on one other friend who can speak the language, because I don't understand what they're saying.

A lot has changed. It's a different world. But what one piece of mentorship, leadership that I picked up as a senior in high school was my senior high principal at the time, Shane Baier, planting the seed in my mind that I should think about education.

The way he approached leadership in the school has left a profound impact on me. That’s why, you know, the principal connecting with students is such an important part of my weekly routine.

Things are changing so rapidly, and then the last five years have been difficult. How has it been balancing all of that?

It’s a collective work and there are collective commitments that we all have around all the expectations, from cell phones to ear pods to just how we’re going to treat each other. It’s been [an] interesting five years, for sure, but the focus has also been, yes, we teach the academics.

We teach the reading, the writing, the math, the science. Then we also teach the life skills. And we are really paying attention to the social, emotional pieces of the human being. So, on a yearly basis, we give out surveys to learn more about how are students doing. Are they feeling safe in schools? Do they have support staff around them when things are challenging them? So that’s how we’ve embraced, as a school community, the collective work we’re all responsible for.

How do you think about representation in your staff?

It’s a work in progress. I would say that’s the one thing that living in a community like Mankato is something I would like to change, to be honest — and improve on. And we’re doing parts of it with having [the] Grow Your Own program at the high schools, which is supporting students to explore the career of education.

Because we know when students see somebody that looks like them, speaks like them or have some lived experiences, some cultural experiences, they tend to see themselves represented in the school environment. And that helps with feeling good about school. But it honestly just feels like it’s such a slow, slow progress. If you had to ask me what's the most challenging thing, that would be it.

The Last Bite: What are the ingredients to a successful school year?

The school has adults who are happy and welcoming and supportive of the students that we serve. At the end of the day, we're there for the students. So as a principal, when I think of everybody returning, how do I model that? How welcoming am I? So I think that’s a key ingredient, is adults that interact with kids on a daily basis, being centered and supportive and ready to serve the students.

The other thing is doing everything we can to have a clean, supportive, welcoming school. And we’ve done a lot of that over the summer, from repainting spaces to making sure the carpets are washed, so then the students feel good when they’re in school.

Of course, the academics are important, but it's how people are connected to their school, if they are feeling safe, supported and then also listened to.