Beginnings

Abstract

In 2009 – against the backdrop of the Great Recession – more than 50 trailblazing students walked through the hallowed halls of the Galleria Mall at University Square, up a rickety escalator to a space that used to serve as a movie theater to guinea pig a new and novel approach to Higher Education in the 21st century. Across this new 5-episode season of Beyond the Nest, we examine the history of Rochester, the origins of UMR, the powerful personalities who envisioned a U of M campus in Med City, and those who built our first class of Raptor graduates. Episode 1 – Beginnings focuses on the founding of the city of Rochester, the calamitous events that gave birth to the Mayo Clinic, and how a young graduate from the University of Minnesota named Marilyn Stewart started a six decade-long journey to bring a U of M campus to Rochester.