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The recipient of the award, Saint Paul Central High School teacher Jan Mandell, and 12 nominees ranging from nonprofit leaders to local clergy, were honored for the first Ambassador Award on March 8 during a special ceremony at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Mandell dsignated the cash award of $10,000 to the Central Touring Theatre of Central High School to further advance anti-racism work in the East Metro.
Ambassador Award Recipient Jan Mandell uses her passion for teaching and theater to create a more-equitable society inside the walls of Saint Paul Central High School and beyond.
As founder of the school’s Central Touring Theater (CTT), Mandell has led the way for nearly 30 years in creating a safe space which attracts a multi-racial, multi-economic and multi-intellectual group of students who come together to be themselves, tell stories, break down barriers and produce theatre that’s as powerful as it is entertaining.
"As a child, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement kindled my rage toward racist activities," she says. "I got into this work witnessing racism as a child, failing because of dyslexia and learning to use the arts to prove I could learn."
Mandell and her company of student actors present their plays to a broad range of audiences in Saint Paul and beyond. The company’s performances, focused on contemporary issues of race, poverty and prejudice, receive positive reviews from audiences of adults and children.
"The basis of theater is building an ensemble, trust, relationships and communication," says Mandell. "Theater is the perfect tool to fight racism because it requires trust building."
The success of CTT reaches much farther than Saint Paul. Mandell’s teaching methods led to the creation of an arts literacy project in partnership with Brown University, in Providence, R.I. to teach students and teachers to use theater methods and multicultural text to develop teaching strategies to address the achievement gap.
"Being involved and working with kids in a creative environment has kept me hopeful, kept me conscious of the issues and kept me an activist," says Mandell. "There is always hope in young people. They can see a different future."
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Jan Mandell Named 2007 Ambassador
