Recent stories in IQ Magazine

 The greatest transfer of wealth in history is set to occur as baby boomers, flush with their own inherited and accumulated wealth, decide on the legacy they’d like to leave behind. In the Fall 2024 issue of IQ Magazine, read how a Central Minnesotan, Don Bottemiller, and his family give to their community.

 The Initiative Foundation is 1 of just 2 lenders in Central Minnesota certified as a Community Development Financial Institution. In the Spring 2024 issue of IQ Magazine, read about how that bridges the gap for organizations like Seal Dwyer and the Rainbow Wellness Collective, which otherwise never could have realized office and community space in downtown St. Cloud. 

 Longtime SCSU professor Glen Palm and others fostered ideas for a place children and families could play and learn in community in St. Cloud. The plan included more than $10 million in public, private and in-kind contributions. The Fall 2023 issue of IQ Magazine details how the Initiative Foundation's largest grant helped make it happen. 

 To help rural towns recover from the devastation of COVID-19 on revenue and workforce shortages, the Initiative Foundation is serving as administrator of $4.5 million in funding from a large appropriation by the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development. The Fall 2022 issue of IQ Magazine explores the impact on Little Falls theater owner Susy Prosapio. 

  Lam Chuol is a product of a 12-week program for underserved and early stage entrepreneurs, piloted by the Initiative Foundation since 2017. After he coming to the U.S. at the age of 9, he earned his accounting degree and worked for several national tax preparers before branching out on his own. The Spring 2022 issue of IQ Magazine relates how he and other academy alums can make a little help go a long way. 

Representation in Central Minnesota's largest city is bound to change after voters go to the polls and select three new members of the St. Cloud City Council. Candidates include one incumbent (George Hontos) and five newcomers (Scott Brodeen, Tami Calhoun, Hudda Ibrahim, Mark Johnson and Omar Podi). Follow the results and fallout in the Minnesota Star Tribune.

A St. Joseph couple, Craig and BriAnne Hern, bought the land to go into business, but area residents helped them decide what that would be: The House Food and Tap. The growing food hall concept isn't just for large metropolitan areas anymore.

After a 2022 referendum failed to advance an ambitious plan for renovation the Municipal Athletic Complex, St. Cloud will pair $7 million in local sales tax revenue with $10 million in state funding to update hockey facilities.

 The Albany boys basketball team punched its ticket for a 3rd straight state tournament with a 40-point romp on March 14 at Halenbeck Hall. Senior Sam Hondl (pictured, left), who is headed to MSU-Moorhead to play in college,  led the Huskies to a 32-0 record as the 1st unbeaten state champ from any class in 13 years.

Seven of 8 top-10-ranked individuals, including Jaxon Bartkowicz (pictured), won their matches but host Holdingford lost to Staples-Motley, 30-28, after a technical fall at heavyweight finished just short of the pin needed for team victory in the 2025 Section 7A championship. Fans in the gym outnumbered the town population. 

Hunter Behling and Elijah Fitch each scored twice to key a bitter 5-2 victory on Feb. 4 -- the Storm's only win since Apollo and Tech combined in 2016. Jackson Dhein (pictured) and a strong defensive corps helped senior goalie Landon Jennings finish with 28 saves on a night of conflicting emotions involving a lot of familiar faces.

 The 2024 Class A champion St. Cloud Cathedral boys hockey team returned to state again in 2025 following a 7-0 shelling of Monticello in the Section 5A title game. Mr. Hockey finalist John Hirschfeld led the way, including a 5-point game against Little Falls, and junior goalie Keaton LeGrande backstopped a key midseason win over the previously unbeaten Magic. 

The St. Cloud State women's volleyball team, ranked No. 2 in the nation,  bounced Concordia-St. Paul in the 2024 Central Region semifinals but came up agonizingly short in the championship. Ella Thompson (pictured) was 1 of 4 Huskies to make the all-tournament team, but Kenzie Foley was the story, finishing the most dominant career in school history.

A prep football classic on Nov. 1 in Collegeville resulted in Kimball High School avenging a long period of futility and advancing to the state tournament for the first time in 33 years. Owen Mortenson made some big plays and the Cubs knocked off Holdingford, 26-20. A week earlier, St. Cloud Cathedral won a 7th game of the season for the 1st time since 1995.

There have been just 4 Rhodes Scholars in the history of Saint John's University, founded in 1857 in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the College of Saint Benedict, which began in 1913. Jervon Sands' story of how he became one of them is historic and unique.

Despite a generational divide of 56 years between their graduation dates at Saint John's, Bob O'Hara and Troy Fritz have forged a friendship in their love for adventure. O'Hara, who has been paddling the north for more than 50 years, helped Fritz plan the canoe trip of a lifetime. He needed 4 months to complete it in 2024 -- 2,700 miles from northern Minnesota to Nunavut.

Mark Vande Hei launched himself from Saint John's University to the record for longest continuous space flight in U.S. history. He later returned to Central Minnesota to try and inspire others to follow in his footsteps.

Philip Davis, prime minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, became the first sitting head of government to visit the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University when he appeared for the annual Eugene McCarthy Lecture. (Dec. 12, 2023, content and photos by Kevin Allenspach) In 2022, the event brought out SJU alum and 4-star U.S. general Paul Nakasone. (Oct. 21, 2022, content by Kevin Allenspach)

Keith Sweet II graduated from Saint John's in 2019 and already is making a name for himself in Hollywood. He served as an intern on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and has become the youngest writer in the history of the Star Trek media franchise. He has worked on a Netflix feature and, as a writer, sold a series to Amazon MGM Studios. He has also collaborated on a feature with DreamWorks Animation. (Nov. 9, 2023, content by Kevin Allenspach)

Annually, a large number of Bennies and Johnnies get inside access to the United Nations annual conference on climate change. (Oct. 18, 2023, content by Kevin Allenspach) The most recent groups ventured to Dubai in December 2023 and continued a tradition going back more than a decade in which they take advantage of official observer status to conduct interviews and research among the most exclusive areas of the biggest international event on the topic. (Dec. 6 and 13, 2023, content by Kevin Allenspach)