Champion for inner-city education among 'unsung heroes'

Robert Franklin, Star Tribune

Published November 21, 2003

At age 21, with a dream and vision, Rajiv Shah started a program to mentor inner-city schoolchildren to help them develop the skills for success and prepare for learning after high school. A decade later, the nine-year-long program has graduated its first class. It serves about 300 kids from fourth grade through high school in Minneapolis and St. Paul and has enlisted 150 after-school volunteers. And today Shah is the youngest of 10 Minnesotans who will receive "unsung hero" awards from the McKnight Foundation.

Shah's nonprofit group -- Athletes Committed to Educating Students (ACES) -- uses a sports-oriented program to supplement the school curriculum in such areas as problem-solving, technology and homework. "They've done really, really good work," said Craig Vana, Minneapolis schools' executive director for high school academic support and career and technical education. "It's not just hit-and-miss. This really follows the kids all the way. They align their work with our curriculum, our standards, so students can meet those standards."

Shah, 31, said nine of the original 13 students stayed with the program for nine years. All of them graduated on time and most planned postsecondary education. ACES claims to be the first program nationally that has gotten support from all of the major Minnesota professional sports teams -- the Twins, Timberwolves, Lynx, Thunder, Vikings and Wild -- ranging from player appearances to cash grants. It also has formed an affiliation with the scholarship foundation of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and his wife, Diane.

"The Twins organization has always felt that this is a program that we needed to be involved in," said Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter. "We came away very impressed with Raj, his vision, his passion." Shah had a head start with the Twins. He's known owner Carl Pohlad since ninth grade, when he called up the then-bank executive and asked to shadow him on the job for a day. His family has always believed in education as "the universal equalizer," he said.

Shah's family, originally from India, had lived for four generations in Uganda, where he was born. His father, an accountant, was well-connected and got papal assistance to immunize that country's children. But the family left during dictator Idi Amin's rule, settled in London, then Winnipeg and finally in Arden Hills. Shah graduated from Boston University, and while waiting to get into the University of Minnesota Medical School, started ACES with Rhoda Au, a friend from Boston.

Since then, he's become a doctor specializing in internal medicine and kidney illnesses and works at Hennepin County, Fairview-University and Veterans Administration medical centers. As board chairman and a volunteer for ACES, he still spends 10 to 20 hours a week on the program, he said. ACES, with an annual budget of about $300,000, has had support from such groups as General Mills, Best Buy, the Pohlad Family Foundation, the Phillips Foundation and the Minneapolis School District's area learning center money. But the money has succumbed to state budget cuts, and the district is "scrambling" for a solution to that, Vana said.

ACES will get one small grant, the $7,500 that goes to Shah as part of the McKnight Award. He was nominated for the annual award by his cousin, Rita Kalan, a Wells Fargo bank employee who called him "a great role model and an extremely caring person, ambitious, articulate."

The award is formally titled the Virginia McKnight Binger Awards in Human Service after the late foundation board chairwoman. "A community depends on those working behind the scenes to look out for people who might be left behind," said Noa Staryk, the current chairwoman of McKnight, Minnesota's largest foundation.

Other winners

McKnight cited these other winners:

. Cal Appleby , Minneapolis, who found that meditation and yoga helped him overcome alcohol addiction many years ago, for taking meditation techniques to prisons, mental hospitals, treatment centers and hospices.

. James Dodge , Minneapolis, founder of City House, for providing spiritual help to the homeless and people coming out of prison and recovery. He also started AcountAbility, which provides tax help for low-income people.

. Jayne Frank , a St. Paul woman whose brain-damaged daughter "totally enriched our lives," for helping developmentally disabled people.

. Linda Jemison , St. Paul, for running the Ethel Gordon Community Care Center, which provides transitional housing and tutoring. It is named for Jemison's mother, who would meet needy people on the bus and try to help.

. Cindy Johnson , St. Paul, for 10 years of lobbying on behalf of people with developmental disabilities through Arc, making services available for thousands of Minnesotans.

. Nathaniel Khaliq , president of the St. Paul Chapter of the NAACP, for 40 years of service in fighting racism and crime, mentoring young people, distributing food to the needy and helping make the inner city cleaner and safer.

. Nancy Meyers , Minneapolis, for founding the Deaf End of Life Care Education Project to help ensure that terminally ill deaf people can make their wishes understood.

. John Siegfried , Chaska, a former Carver County commissioner, for helping immigrant families in a gardening project and for helping rehab homes for the elderly and low-income people.

. Char Thompson , Roseville, for nearly full-time volunteer work with two domestic abuse groups to help older abused women with problems of health, finances, self-esteem and fear.

Robert Franklin is at rfranklin@startribune.com .

Published November 21, 2003

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