Two prominent UMN alumni are being recognized as 2024 Minnesota Educational Opportunity Association (EOA) TRIO Achievers. Cheniqua Johnson and Sam Olbekson will receive their awards at the MN EOA annual conference taking place at Giant’s Ridge Resort near Biwabik on the Minnesota Iron Range April 9 to 12. Johnson was a participant in CEHD TRIO Student Support Services and Olbekson took part in UMN Vision Quest Upward Bound, CEHD Upward Bound, and McNair Scholars.
Cheniqua Johnson
Johnson earned a bachelor of science degree from the Department of Family Social Science in 2017.
This January, she was in the news when she was elected to the St. Paul City Council from Ward 7. Johnson was the first woman, person of color, and youngest person to be elected in Ward 7 and the second Black woman to be elected to the Saint Paul City Council. She and six other women make St. Paul the largest city in the nation to have an all-female city council.
Johnson grew up in Southwest Minnesota in Worthington in a working-class family with a brother who is a vulnerable adult with multiple learning and physical disabilities. Her late father was a laborer in a pork processing plant. Her mother is a certified nursing assistant.
She is the first and only four-year college graduate from her family. Both of her parents and her brother graduated from high school. Her mother completed a training course to become a Certified Nursing Assistant, which in Minnesota requires 75 hours of training.
Johnson participated in the UMN TRIO Student Support Services program during her college undergraduate enrollment.
Her resume reads like the resume of a successful 50-year-old professional, although she is only 10 years from graduating high school. Her employment history is an amazing testament to her energy, hard work, and commitment to public service:
- Program officer at the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation
- Legislative assistant for the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aviation
- Assistant to Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley
- Legislative assistant for then Congressman Keith Ellison (MN-05)
- Events manager executive assistant at CEHD September 2017 to January 2018
- Campaign manager for Rena Moran for Ramsey County Commissioner
- Field organizer for Jeremiah Ellison’s campaign for Minneapolis City Council
- Field organizer for Jamie Long’s campaign for state representative
- Minnesota DFL state outreach and inclusion officer
Johnson’s list of volunteer community service is reflective of her passion for community service and working to create and support more equitable and just society:
- Policy intern for Governor Mark Dayton and Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith–May to September 2017
- Police Chief Examining Committee member, St. Paul
- Taskforce on Expanding the Economic Security of Women Office of the Attorney General, February to December 2021.
- Co-Founder of In Sisterhood, We Brunch, an organization that supports and brings together BIPOC women businesses, entrepreneurs, and professionals throughout the Twin Cities through brunch. We Brunch has engaged over 2,000 women of color since 2020.
- Ramsey County Special Board of Appeal and Equalization
- East Side Funders Group member
- Policy Advisory Committee member, Youthprise March 2021–present
- Minnesota Council on Foundations, January 2021–present
- City of St. Paul Cultural STAR Board, June 2022–present
- Board member Minneapolis Bridge for Youth, July 2019–present
- Facing Race Committee Member, St. Paul
- Southwest Minnesota Art Council, August 2021–June 2022
- Board of Directors Worthington International Festival Planning Committee, 2019–20
Selected honors Johnson has received include CEHD Rising Alumni 2022 and Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 2024 40 Under 40.
Here is how Johnson described how participating in TRIO Student Support Services helped her on her educational, professional, and personal path:
“I am a proud TRIO alumnus. Over the course of my career, I reflect often on how my TRIO advisors, Gregory Sawyer, Nathan Whittaker, and Kirsten Collins, introduced me to so many opportunities I wouldn’t have had without TRIO. Nathan and Kirsten helped me study abroad and in Washington, D.C.
“I still reflect on my time as a Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) TRIO student for the Keith E. Sherin Global Scholar program through Marquette University. My first internship with Illinois Senator Durbin on Capitol Hill was because of that program. Had it not been for Kirsten, I wouldn’t have applied.
“Two years after the program, I was actually hired on Capitol Hill by the same person who mentored me throughout that internship.
“It’s safe to say, I was a two-time Congressional staffer because of TRIO. It played such a huge role in my sense of belonging and brought me three advisors and friends who truly were invested in Cheniqua the person.
“To put it in perspective, TRIO Advisor Greg Sawyer is going to be the man walking me down the aisle in August for my family wedding because he has become an extension of my family.”
Sam Olbekson
Olbekson earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1994 and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University in 2005.
He is an enrolled member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation. Olbekson is one of only two Native American architects in Minnesota. He overcame significant barriers to achieve the educational and professional success highlighted below. Olbekson grew up in very humble circumstances in South Minneapolis as the child of a single parent. Olbekson’s mother was 15 years old when he was born and the family was supported by AFDC and other welfare programs through the day he left for college. He is a first-generation college student and a first-generation high school graduate. No one in his family had ever attended college and they were not able to provide the guidance and knowledge of college or professional work experiences he needed to attain his current professional prominence.
Beginning in junior high school, Olbekson participated in what is now UMD’s Vision Quest Upward Bound Program. In the 1970s and 1980s, Vision Quest’s interventions began with students as early as middle school since the dropout rates among Native students were so high that too many had dropped out before reaching senior high school.
While in Vision Quest, one of Olbekson’s advisors suggested that architecture may be a career option allowing him to utilize his artistic interests and abilities.
He “bridged” from Vision Quest to CEHD’s TRIO Upward Bound program from ninth grade to high school graduation.
In addition to Olbekson’s participation in regular Upward Bound programming, he attended a multi-week summer architecture camp at Cornell that solidified his interest in architecture and his college choice.
As a college junior and senior at Cornell, Olbekson was a participant in the University of Minnesota TRIO McNair Scholars program. During the summer research component, he worked on an “equitable and sustainable housing” research study with faculty in the UMN architecture department.
Olbekson has been recognized and been in the leadership of multiple Minnesota and national professional and community organizations. Current or former leadership positions include president of the Minneapolis American Indian Center, past president of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Board of Directors, chair of the Native American Community Development Institute, and past president of the national American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers.
Olbekson has been honored for his work with underserved communities and has been highlighted in articles and interviews in Architectural Digest, ABC News, The Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, Mpls. St. Paul Magazine, Harvard University, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and numerous other podcasts and publications.
Below are Sam’s reflections on the help TRIO programs provided on his path to his current position:
“I was fortunate to have been involved in a number of key college prep and mentorship programs that helped me understand how to prepare and apply to college. From Indian Upward Bound (Vision Quest), to Upward Bound, and McNair Scholars, I was given the guidance, confidence, and experience to make the personal and financial strategies and choices to successfully graduate from Cornell University and Harvard University.
“The Upward Bound programs I attended were instrumental in gaining an understanding of the college experience. Living in dorms during the summer, taking classes in a real college setting, and even the recreational opportunities that a campus environment provides removed the intimidation factors and unknowns of college life. I was given an enormous head start.
“After school activities, summer JTPA job opportunities within Upward Bound, ACT/SAT prep, college application guidance, and other mentorship was a significant help in applying to college. Having no one in my family with the life experience to help with this effort, Upward Bound was an invaluable resource that encouraged and pushed me to succeed.
“The McNair Scholars Program gave me the insight into the experience of graduate studies and focused research. I was able to undertake research directly related to my career path and to work with students and professors in my field. The title of my research project was “Low-income Housing Study of Near-North Minneapolis.” As an architecture student, I was able to get real-world experience working with issues of housing, sustainability, social equity, and environmental restoration with actual clients and user groups. Having this experience gave me the opportunity to be part of project work that focused on social justice and community building and to know that mission-driven work and applying personal values is possible in my profession.”
