MINNEAPOLIS — As part of their celebration of Black History Month in 2017, the Minnesota Timberwolves honored Leon Tazel III during a timeout of one of their February home games for his work as founder of the Tazel Institute.

It was going to be a one-off recognition. Assistant general manager Noah Croom would hand Tazel a ball at half-court and on everyone would go with their lives.

But, as they were standing in the tunnel waiting to go onto the court, Tazel struck up a conversation with Croom, explaining his institute’s work and what it aimed to do. He then asked Croom if the Timberwolves would participate. That conversation sparked a partnership. Last week, Croom and the Timberwolves hosted students from the Tazel Institute for the second straight year, giving local African-American high school students a behind-the-scenes look at the franchise’s operation.

The idea to start an institute came to Tazel in 2013. His daughter, then a sophomore in high school, was subpoenaed to appear at a juvenile center in Minneapolis after witnessing a fight. Tazel accompanied his daughter to the facility, which he described as “African-American males and females scattered all over the floor like the floor of Wall Street.”

He watched as public defenders and the kids they represented cut deals and teenagers celebrated walking away with sentences of community service.

“I said, ‘There’s something wrong with this,’ “ Tazel said. “I looked at my daughter and said, ‘I’ve got to do something about this.’ “

On his drive home that day, Tazel was left to ponder why some kids end up in those situations, when the answer came to him.

“What I came up with is it’s all about what our kids are or are not exposed to,” Tazel said. “It’s the only difference between kids.”

Tazel’s idea was born. He was going to put together “a program of exposure.” According to its website, the institute aims “to educate and expose diverse students, specifically young African-American men, to the inner workings of professional business in the many industries that make up our economy.”

Tazel set up opportunities for African-American high school students to take trips to various businesses in the Twin Cities to get in-depth looks at the different people and positions that make companies go.

“I’m looking for things these kids would never think of or touch to open their eyes,” he said.

The institute’s pilot program in the 2015-16 school year featured 20 kids — 10 from Park High School and 10 from Rosemount — and visits to four area companies. It has expanded each year since. Now, there are roughly 150 high school students involved from the seven schools that make up District 196 and District 833: Rosemount, Eastview, Apple Valley, Eagan, East Ridge, Park and Woodbury.

The institute visits companies from industries that vary from higher education to medical to insurance companies and beyond. A group recently visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Each visit offers kids insight into various career opportunities.

Rosemount High School student assistance coordinator Will Finley chaperones the trips, and recalled a student who was inspired by one of the visits to chase a career in wildlife and refuge.

“Who would think a kid from Rosemount, (an) African-American, would be interested in wildlife and refuge?” Finley asked. “But going to those programs, seeing a gentleman drive up all the way from Missouri to talk about turtle research, and now all of a sudden, (the student) wants to do an internship down in Missouri, he wants to go to school to be a park ranger. So just that exposure piece has turned the lights on and removed some of the clouds over these kids and what they’re thinking is an opportunity to them, because they see somebody that looks like them in a certain role.”