The Wayfinder Blog

Burnsville High School junior Shreyas (Shrey) Pothini is the 2021 recipient of the Excellence in Community, Education and Leadership (ExCEL) award.

AVID is a program dedicated to equipping students with strategies to prepare for greater academic rigor as they move through their school years and start thinking about college and career preparedness.

Maria Pena Chavez received a Minnesota Aspirations in Computing Award (MNAiC) for her computing and information technology aptitude, leadership ability, academic history and plans for post-secondary education. A senior at Burnsville High School, she is one of only 18 students to be named a state winner.

Kaitlyn Palacios, a full-time PSEO (post-secondary enrollment option) student at Burnsville High School (BHS), was selected to participate in an internship program through Genesys Works, a not-for-profit organization that helps high school students “break through barriers and discover through meaningful work experiences that they can succeed as professionals in the corporate world.” 

Jenna Foertsch, a 2015 Burnsville High School graduate and University of Minnesota - Twin Cities alumna, is blazing her own trail as she begins working at NASA.

Burnsville High School and Burnsville Alternative High School students combined to earn 870 credits worth more than $464,000 in tuition through the University of Minnesota’s College in the Schools (CIS) program during the 2019-20 school year. 

Thanks to a grant from The Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) totaling $25,000, a pilot group of 15 Burnsville High School students were able to participate and earn money in a four-week Summer Internship and Sustainability program.

All students in grades 6–12 have access to fine-free student public library cards through Dakota County and Scott County libraries. This partnership means students can easily access library resources including online one-on-one homework help, research tools, e-books, audiobooks, movies/TV DVDs, music CDs, translation services, electronic magazines and print books. 

A school year disrupted by a global pandemic made learning challenging for many students, especially for those in Burnsville High School (BHS) Pathways courses designed to provide hands-on learning to earn college credit. Despite the challenges and uncertainty, Meagan Haase, a 2020 graduate and one of six students in the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course, set her sights on her goal and became the first student in last year’s program to pass the National Emergency Medical Technician exam.