Ideas <--> Action
(Ideas into Action)

The Whole
300 Washington Ave SE
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455
United States

Hank Butitta

Hank Butitta is a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota's Masters of Architecture program. For his Masters Final Project he converted a school bus into a tiny living space, and following graduation took a 5000 mile road trip across North America. The blog following his journey attracted a lot of attention on the internet, forcing Hank to be known for the rest of his life only as "the bus guy". Since he returned from his journey, he has been pursuing a number of varying projects including architectural design, furniture design, teaching, self-publication, and organizing a cooperative work shop for designers. His hope is to never have a real job. Fingers crossed.

Michelle Benegas

Michelle Benegas, educational researcher and teacher educator, began her teaching career working with new immigrants and refugees in an urban high school. Her research and professional interests focus on the preparation of teachers to respectfully and effectively teach diverse learners. Also a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction, she recently completed a dissertation pilot study that examines how teacher candidates learn to enact Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in a diverse school. Michelle is the founder of "A Just Education", an educational consulting firm that seeks to make schooling equitable, relevant and rigorous for all learners. For more information on A Just Education click here.

Austin Hermann

Austin Hermann, a Carlson undergraduate, recently returned from living seven months in Tanzania, where he worked with a unique firm which invests in businesses designed to fix broken agricultural value chains, through creating markets and encouraging profits. Born, raised, and educated in Minnesota, he never imagined that his education would pull him to the other side of the world to help the world's poor unlock new value.