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JoAnn Clark has served SPPS for 35 years as a Harding parent volunteer, PTA president, AVID tutor, community advocate and friend to the entire St. Paul community. She is also the chair of the Thinking Career and College Early Fair and has taken hundreds of students on the HBCU College Tour. We are so grateful for her service to the community and for making the future a little brighter for Minnesota students.

Focus Beyond graduate Conor O’Meara is living his dream as a sports radio host and co-owner of the new Highland Popcorn, a nonprofit snack shop that employs people of all abilities. Learn how Conor’s teachers and job coaches at Focus Beyond prepared him for success in this video honoring Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

Chaske Henry and his brother Robert Henry are students at Harding High School and founders of the drum group Ȟoká Máza. Inspired by their elder male role models, they use songs that have been passed down for generations as a way of connecting to their Indigenous heritage and sharing their culture. It is a way to forge healing and pay tribute to their roots, not only during Native American Heritage Month, but year-round.

Maria Soto is a longtime Saint Paul Public Schools staff member who is currently serving as a special education teaching assistant and on-call Spanish interpreter for the Latino Consent Decree Parent Advisory Council (LCD PAC).