Each spring thousands of our graduates enter the Minnesota workforce and begin their careers here. Minnesota Private Colleges help make future business success possible; we provide employers with college graduates who have the skills that the workplace demands. They are strong communicators, able problem solvers, creative thinkers, and they are ready to apply their knowledge in real-world settings.

Our graduates enter the workforce prepared not just for their first jobs, they’re prepared to be able to address new business challenges that emerge in the years ahead. That’s the impact of an education at our colleges.

Leadership development is also about values. One key contribution our colleges can make is helping students develop, test and become adept at using a moral compass. “There are no comforting lists of what is right and wrong in a global setting,” notes Kathy Lund Dean, chair in leadership and ethics at Gustavus Adolphus College. “Successful leaders understand moral uncertainty and pressures, and resist the absolutism that comes from simply deflecting difficult situations or conflicting values.” Working through values is at the heart of the education our colleges provide.

In large part it stems from our missions as liberal arts colleges focused on providing a student-centered undergraduate education — it’s just what we’re all about. You can see it in our small classes and the time our professors are able to spend working with and challenging our students.

And there are the experiences we are focused on providing outside the classroom, from studying abroad to internships to service-learning to undergraduate research projects. Those experiences also often include leadership opportunities, something that can be easier to come by at a smaller institution, with all the teams, student groups and arts productions that are offered.

It is more important than ever for the state’s future talent to be prepared for an interconnected world. We focus on the global context. Foreign language study is a priority. We expose our students to other nations, earning high rankings on study abroad participation. And international students are an important part of our undergraduate student mix; over 10 years their enrollment has grown 42 percent.

You can invest in your future workforce by supporting our students.

A gift to the Minnesota Private College Fund is the one way you can directly support students at all 17 of Minnesota’s private nonprofit colleges. Scholarships and programs can be tailored to fit your philanthropic priorities. To find out more, contact the Fund at 651-228-9061 or by email.

• Nearly 10,000 students earn bachelor’s degrees each year from our 17 colleges and universities.
• Our students develop the skills that employers want to see in future hires through internships, study abroad, undergraduate
  research and close collaboration with faculty.
• 26 percent of our students are from families with incomes below $40,000 — about the same share as Minnesota’s public universities.
• We are a talent magnet: Our colleges enroll 10,500 undergraduate students from other states. That compares to 9,800 at the University of Minnesota and 6,800 at Minnesota State universities