As Chair of the Nest Julia Schmelzer reflected on the Nest’s progress this past year, she was optimistic the Nest would continue to succeed.

“I would say it would definitely be considered a success, not a check the box we’re done, but we have something worth shaping more,” Schmelzer said.

According to Schmelzer, a lot of progress was made in the first year, as students and the community united to create a place for students to relax.

“I would say some big accomplishments are that we opened the space and built a coffee shop and hired staff,” Scmelzer said. 

According to employee Symone Wilson, the most successful events of the past year will be repeated in the future.

“We would like to reimplement our open mic series,” Wilson said. “We have plans to restart our destress events, like yoga and meditation as well as reimplementing tutoring.”

According to Schmelzer, student attendance continued to rise throughout the year as the Nest refined its programs and message.

“We had student attendance go from (around) 50 students a month for the first month to 400 by the end of the school year,” Schmelzer said.

According to Schmelzer, the Nest focused more on their message, in order to provide a more student-centric experience.

“We are excited to bring more intention to our mission, so we created a new vision and added core values,” Schmelzer said. “Our number one value is belonging, and our vision is a community where all young adults feel valued. We talked a lot about what does it take to feel valued as a young adult.”

According to Wilson, the Nest will continue to create new resources for students to take advantage of.

“Another thing we plan on reimplementing is an event series called ‘what they don’t teach you in high school,” Wilson said. “That could range from anything like how to recognize a scam artist, to taxes, to building your resume.” 

Schmelzer said the Nest will continue to focus on students and their needs.

“As we’re moving forward we will be focusing on what programming we can have that will really support all of our values and (make) sure our space is welcoming to all, especially the broad range of students in (St. Louis Park),” Schmelzer said.