Innovative Programming

The Steger Center currently offers summer programming focused on skill building, individual empowerment, and environmental stewardship. By 2025, the 5-story Leadership Center will be ready for leaders to gather as it nears ultimate completion in 2027.

The Steger Center continually offers a wide range of evolving and new programs as unique as the Center itself. From individual skills training to youth career empowerment and environmental stewardship, the Center seeks to cultivate a sense of self-reliance, empowerment, and a love for nature among the people we serve.

Leadership Center

The 5-story Leadership Center is a unique space intended for intimate high-level meetings, no larger than 12 leaders. The first floor includes an atrium and main conference room with ample light and space to gather. The second floor provides lodging for guests and space for relationship-building. The third floor provides indoor dining and community spaces, and an outdoor deck that wraps around the building, providing additional spaces for outdoor dining and conversation. The fourth and fifth floors provide break-out, small group discussion spaces. Throughout the building, guests can experience an architectural masterpiece, complete with artisan stained glass, fine woodworking, and stone.

Learn more about a new Leadership Development Program

Summit Academy Program Skills Development & Empowerment

Blending skill development that can help launch life-changing careers in the trades with a focus on sustainability and environmental stewardship, the Steger Center Summit Academy represents the future in our global economy. Read up on the life changing programs that bring inner city teens and adults to our amazing learning lab in Ely.

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Advanced Women's Courses Gender Equity and Empowerment

Small groups of up to eight women experience a unique skill-building program focused on timber framing or stone masonry. Participants gain valuable 1:1 mentorship with professionals and construction skills. This program expands personal horizons and contributes to the Steger Center campus.

Program Description

Dry Stone Masonry Locally-Sourced, Lasting Beauty

The Steger Center has been built, in large part, with resources from our immediate surroundings. This new course for 2023 will teach dry stone masonry skills using locally-sourced Ely Greenstone. Participants will learn unique stone mason skills that can be applied in many ways, while they beautifully blend the Steger Center into our natural setting.

Program Description

  • I’ve always wanted to model myself after someone who values what I value regarding nature and the environment. The quality of Will’s life and way’s he’s chosen to be wealthy in terms of skills and freedom show in his demeanor. He’s a friend to all and I really aspire to be that. – Kyle Huberty, Dunwoody Student

  • The Will Steger Center is awe inspiring. You can try to describe it, but you have to be here to feel it. It is a transformative experience. – Melanie Waite-Altringer – Biology Instructor – Anoka Ramsey Community College

  • Our partnership with the Will Steger Center gets students out of the concrete jungle, helps the environment and allows students to practice their craft. – Louis King – President of Summit Academy