by Elizabeth Baier, Minnesota Public Radio

September 18, 2012

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ROCHESTER, Minn. Zakaria Mahamed wants to go to college and become a pediatrician, training he hopes will someday land him at the Mayo Clinic.

"When I see my family doctor, it makes me feel like I could be there one day," he said. "I could help these kids, I could find new cures for diseases, I can make a difference in my community."

But first, Mahamed has to make it through high school. The 11th grader thinks his chances of doing so are much better at the STEM Academy in Rochester, a charter school that aims to prepare immigrant and minority students for fields such as microbiology, nursing and engineering.

Inside the STEM Academy, teenage girls wear colorful hijabs on their heads and groups of boys speak Somali as they make their way to science, engineering and math classes. Nearly all of the 60 students are Somali-American.

Some are betting the school, in its second year, will help students who struggle in traditional schools find careers to build successful futures.

Mahamed is among them. Born in Rochester to Somali parents, he finished ninth grade at one of Rochester's traditional high schools before transferring to the math and science-focused school.

"When you're in a regular big school that doesn't have a small environment, everything is like you don't have enough time to talk and you'll never meet anybody," he said. "But here, you'll talk to everybody, you know everybody, everyone knows you, you know them."

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In Rochester, betting on a non-traditional school