John Stanoch, Minnesota president of Qwest and chair of the Partnership’s Education Policy Committee, presented the Minnesota’s Future Award check to Donaldson at a school assembly.

“We call this the Minnesota’s Future Award, because quality education is critical to your future and the future of our state,” Stanoch said. “We need to recognize, encourage and learn from schools like Concordia Creative Learning Academy, which teach us ‘poverty’ and ‘minority’ don’t have to be synonymous with ‘low grades’ and ‘high failure rates.’”