From The Big Easy to The Bold North

With his New Orleans roots, snow wasn’t exactly on Robert Dixon Jr.’s radar. But after moving to Minnesota for his undergraduate studies at St. Thomas, he’s grown accustomed to it. Dixon enrolled in the Mini MBA for Nonprofit Organizations after connecting with the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of St. Thomas.

During the program, he found all of the instructors engaging, sincere and genuinely helpful. He gained a wealth of knowledge from faculty and made valuable connections with other professionals. Also a firefighter, Dixon currently works with homeless families and youth. He was even able to connect one of his clients to mentoring services directly through a peer he met in the program.

Dixon has an ambition to launch a nonprofit that serves to promote fire safety in disadvantaged Twin Cities neighborhoods and around the world. He constantly refers back to lessons he learned while in the program. “The most important thing I gained was the confidence to achieve my dream of founding my own nonprofit."