Medcalf: Meet these Twin Cities folks under the radar but doing big things in the community

For Kevin Robinson, his high school’s academic offerings were less important than its social opportunities.

“My freshman year, I think my favorite class was ‘Hallway 101,’” Robinson said.

That experience during his time at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, however, shaped his current mission to create an outlet for young people to discover their own talents and gifts. Robinson is the co-founder of 30,000 Feet, an organization that aims to empower “African American students in Saint Paul through culture, art, technology, and social justice.”

The group works with youth throughout St. Paul from its offices near Johnson High School. Through a variety of programs, students work on tech skills like coding, art projects and academic excellence. Robinson’s organization, which recently purchased a new building near Johnson High, has helped raise the GPAs and — more importantly — the outlook of young BIPOC people searching for purpose.

“[30,000 Feet] really means when you’re on an airplane at 30,000 feet, you’re cruising out,” Robinson said. “It means everything is fine. You’re safe to walk around, so we think there are similarities to the community. We are here to serve the community, build community, but also hopefully become a small piece of young people being successful and they can feel like when they’re done with our program they’re better and they’re good to go and they have the resources to be successful in life.”

Robinson is among a multitude of playmakers on the east side of St. Paul who’ve devoted their time and resources to uplifting young minds. But he has not done it alone. The organization is the brainchild of both him and co-founder Vanessa Young. And a fleet of impactful minds have joined them on their venture.

Quashingm Smith-Pugh, a former star basketball player at Johnson, is the organization’s community outreach coordinator. He said the staffers not only act as mentors to the students who come to them — largely by choice — but also as educators who offer their own experiences as guidance.

“One day I had an opportunity to leave out the back door to basketball practice with the rest of my friends,” he said. “They decided to leave and I decided to stay. Something that small was a life-changing experience for me because — and I share this story with all of my students — all of those guys that walked out the back door that day ended up in the federal penitentiary. The choices that we make early on in life do affect the things that happen in our future.”

I think Robinson’s work is both impactful and urgent because the Twin Cities has a problem. I think it’s hypocritical to implore our youth to seek outlets but then to close the doors to the venues and resources once available for them to expend their energy. The local malls are full of restrictions for youths who want to do what I did as a kid and just chill — I’m an ’80s and ’90s baby — with their friends. Movie theaters have security guards now. The roller rinks are closed. The public spaces for young people are largely gone.

I can’t imagine how different my childhood might have been if my mom wouldn’t have had the option to drop me and my brothers off at the arcade in Northridge Mall in Milwaukee. Well, you can’t do that anymore either because that mall no longer exists.

But I thrived in part because I had places to go and I never felt as if I had an abundance of bottled-up energy, especially during long winter breaks. That’s not the reality for youth in the Twin Cities, though.

And while Robinson started his organization to offer educational endeavors for youth in St. Paul, he also just wanted the kids to have some place to go. It’s that aspect of 30,000 Feet that’s arguably had the most significant impact, he said.

“I think if we give them something to do then I think by the time they get home, they have to go and get ready for school tomorrow, so it kind of limits their idle time,” Robinson said. “A lot of data says from that 3-7 p.m., a lot of young people get in trouble, so we want to make sure they have something positive to do. They get to build community with each other. The kids in our program, we’ve seen them building relationships.”

Just before Christmas, 30,000 Feet organized an event for the young people in its programs and their families in St. Paul.

There was a video-game room that featured “NBA 2K” and “Madden ‘25.” There was also a NASCAR simulator, which allowed participants to experience the rush of driving a race car. There were also gifts, food and art projects, too.

“They were just enjoying building gingerbread houses and things like that,” Smith-Pugh said. “We had a live mural, and kids would just come up there and paint on the mural. They enjoyed that. The movie and popcorn, for me, I got joy out of that myself. People were coming together and just having a good time.”

And, above all, there was a sense of family, which Robinson hopes to create as his organization continues to leave its mark on St. Paul.

“I think my ultimate goal is to see young people be able to see their full potential,” Robinson said. “And I want them to get a fair shake. I think that’s my thing. That’s a goal of mine.”