Cornelia “Coya” Knutson always wanted to become an opera singer. It was a distant dream for a girl born in 1912 and raised on a small farm in North Dakota, but she went for it. After earning her degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, Knutson was admitted to the Juilliard School of Music. A year into it, though, she decided a career in music wasn’t for her.
Part of our Women's History Month Series: Celebrating Pioneering Women at Work
This month, in celebration of Women's History Month, SkyWater Search Partners will highlight the achievements and legacies of Pioneering Women at Work. Here, we spotlight Margaret Hamilton, one of the most consequential yet under-appreciated figures in the history of space exploration. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist whose pioneering work in software engineering was central to the Apollo space program's success, Hamilton led the software team responsible for enabling Apollo 11 astronauts to land safely on the moon.
Part of our Women's History Month Series: Celebrating Pioneering Women at Work
Today, in celebration of International Women's Day, SkyWater Search Partners is spotlighting Martha Gellhorn, a wildly talented trailblazer whose courage and tenacity paved the way for future generations of women in journalism. More than just a witness to history, Gellhorn was a fierce and fearless participant whose words and photographs captured the raw essence of human conflict and compassion.
During this Black History Month, I hope you and your team have enjoyed immersing yourselves in some of the celebrations available to us all this February. As we approach the end of the month, it feels like the right time to step back and reflect on how we can take the lessons of Black History and use them to do better as employers and community members. What can we do to advance the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion? How do we ensure they reverberate for our teams and shape our efforts going forward? At their core, these ideals are not only about becoming wiser, more inclusive human beings in our personal lives. They're also a rallying cry, encouraging us to reconsider the systems, practices, and structures that continue to get in the way of achieving diversity and equity in the workplace.
Here are some things we're learning along the way that are important for all employers to remember as we continue on our journey.
Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director, American University Antiracist Research & Policy Center (ARPC), 2022 interview with NPR
Over the past many months, we have all watched as the term DEI (for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) gets batted around by political figures, the media, and of course, social media.
Before I continue, let’s pause to acknowledge the obvious. These three words, “Diversity,” “Equity,” and “Inclusion” are self-explanatory:
At SkyWater Search Partners, we believe that vibrant communities are built through strong community partnerships. One way we live by that value is through our Employee of the Quarter Award. Each quarter, we honor a top-performing team member with the gift of a substantial financial donation, in their name, to a nonprofit organization that is important to them.
Juneteenth is a newer national holiday, and as such, many of us have the day off work. Do take a minute to think about why this day has become a national holiday. Think about your workplace and how you and your colleagues can be inclusive an welcoming to coworkers with different backgrounds and life experiences from your own.
Today, as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we would like to pause and consider the opportunity this day holds for each of us. One way we can honor Dr. King is by asking ourselves what we can do now, going forward, that is better than what we have done so far.
This year, as we recognize Juneteenth, we’re also reflecting on the fundamental human right to freedom itself. It’s not true freedom without truly equal access to education, rewarding work, and the opportunity to earn personal income and assets that can lead to generational wealth and security.
Yet right here, in spite of all the national attention on the Twin Cities’ woeful racial disparities in employment and income, those gaps still exist. According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), unemployment rates are an impressively low 3.3%... until you look at the numbers by race. As of April 2022, Black unemployment in Minnesota was 6.7%, more than twice the state’s average – and 2.4 times the rate for white Minnesotans.
