How Izzy’s Ice Cream came to be an Iconic Twin Cities company Sep 13, 2019 He has been an English major, an art graduate student and a teacher. Now, he is the owner of Izzy’s Ice Cream, one of the most iconic Twin Cities companies. Jeff Sommers knows something about winding roads, taking risks and fearlessly changing career paths. Jeff and his wife Lara took two mortgages and a $280,000 investment and transformed it into a thriving business with two locations and hundreds of grocery and restaurant distributors, an iconic Twin Cities brand and a gathering place for their community.

Q&A with Rachel Dungca: on fearlessly evolving your career Aug 2, 2019 Rachel Dungca is no stranger to change and evolution. In both her professional and personal life, Rachel has worn numerous hats. From German major to a strategic communications master’s degree graduate. From young professional to wife to mother of two. From MetroTransit Marketing Specialist to Revenue Operations Specialist to Performance Manager. These evolutions did not just happen to Rachel. Through hard work, confidence and intentionality, Rachel worked to build and seize these opportunities.

An accounting manager on getting the career you want Jun 23, 2019 Ian Petersen never lets a day go by without a goal in mind. “I did not have the opportunity to go to college right away so I ended up getting a job. I worked part-time, which was really tough because I was trying to enjoy life in my early 20s and I had goals I wanted to achieve,” Ian reflected. “It took me a long time to be serious about school, but eventually I found the motivation to stick with school.

Entrepreneur paves the way in male-dominated tech industry May 17, 2019 When Roya Ansari graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from Macalester College in 1983, she struck a deal with her parents. She had one month to move to California and see if she could secure a job, otherwise it was back to Virginia to study for the LSAT (Law School Admission Tests) to apply to law schools. “What I contribute my life to is being extremely determined,” says Roya. “I was determined to find a job.

Immigrant Goes Against the Status Quo Apr 10, 2019 In the early 1990s, the last few waves of Hmong refugees from Ban Vinai, a refugee camp in Thailand, left for the United States of America (U.S.). Anne’s family was among them. Historically, the Hmong resided in Central China, but migrated south due to pressure from the Han Chinese during the Qing Dynasty. They retreated into the mountainous areas of today’s Southern China and Northern Laos. However, due to their partnership with the U.

Chinese Cambodian turned American researcher Mar 24, 2019 During the Great Chinese Famine of the late 1950s, Bunchung Ly’s grandparents immigrated from China to Cambodia in pursuit of a better life. As a second-generation Chinese, Bunchung was culturally and spiritually raised as a Chinese person. He grew up speaking Teochew, a Chinese dialect, at home and Khmer, the official Cambodian language, with his friends. From a young age, Bunchung “[had] a hard time identifying if [he was] Chinese or Cambodian… [He was] ethnically Chinese, but Cambodian by nationality.

From a refugee in Kenya to an A+ student in the U.S. Mar 10, 2019 Umar Oyg Hassan was 13 years old when he immigrated to the United States. He had been an Oromo refugee from Ethiopia living in Kenya with his younger brother when the opportunity arose to reunite with their parents in America, whom they hadn’t seen in years. The boys were on the cusp of a new life and a grand adventure in a country they had only heard of in stories and seen in pictures.