UWEX AmeriCorps VISTA Success Story

Transcription

1 By Dominique Cherry, VISTA In Milwaukee, Wisconsin there are a large number of low-income families in the inner city and surrounding areas. In this city, youth that are considered low income and at risk, normally do not have the resources in their schools or community to teach STEM subjects. There are career jobs in the STEM field without a high number of minorities employed. Understanding and developing solutions for youth academically, UW-Extension developed a STEM program called 4-H Systematics in The systematics program is a Pre-College STEM-based program that serves seventh and eighth graders in Milwaukee s low-income assigned areas. This program was designed to teach students science, technology, engineering, and math lessons at their school while becoming knowledgeable of college options in the state. In the first year of Systematics, first partnership school was the south side; targeting low-income zip codes. There were a total of 30 students from the BayView community participating in STEM lessons and receiving college resources. As the program continued throughout the years, so did the school partnerships. For the school year, Systematics is serving 149 students from eight different schools on the North and South sides of Milwaukee. This program is becoming successful in its diversity with sixty Latino students, forty-six African American students and thirty-two Caucasian students. With this diverse student group, Eva Terry-4H systematics Coordinator organized a UW-Waukesha STEM Day. This is a one day field trip at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, where students take lessons from college professors in STEMrelated workshops. Also, students received college advice from a student panel at the University. The student panel helped to give more youth information about college, college resources and sharing with student s relatable information. I assisted Eva Terry during the University visit by chaperoning the students and attending STEM-related workshops to engage students.

2 In the late spring, towards the end of the program year, forty of the systematics students prepped and participated in the 4-H Systematics Science Fair. To conclude the program, students displayed paper board experiments and projects from STEM lessons. For the Science Fair, I recruited students and brought materials for partnered schools with little resources. Students paired up with each other and worked on experiments leading to the Science Fair. Students also took a student survey in regards to the program experience at the end of the program year. One systematic student says in the survey I feel that college is important because it can determine my future, and what I will be doing. College also keeps up my education and keeps me continued in learning. This is an important value that one of 4-H systematics goals is to encourage students to go to college and find interest in the STEM field. As an AmeriCorps Vista, I assisted Eva Terry with partnering 4-H systematics program with the North side schools in the city. Once the partnership was established between the schools and UW- Extension, I kept a communication line open for teachers/students of the new schools. I assisted with lessons to mentor students and gather materials. I enjoyed mentoring and assisting with students who became inspired to learn about their environment with science as it helped them become eco-friendly and resourceful for their families and neighborhoods. I also connected our partnered schools with other UW-Extension programs or resources. One program was the 4-H Capitol Day, a Centennial Celebration celebrating 100 years of Wisconsin growers where residents/youth visit the Capitol for State Legislative visits. 4-H Veterans, families, students and UW-Extension staff in Milwaukee came on this day to visit their assigned State Legislator at the Capitol. For this field trip, Eva Terry and I connected with the teacher and principal of one of the participating schools to ensure that students grew an interest in attending and understood the purpose of the trip to the Capitol. We were proud to have fifteen students from the North side school

3 and four students from the South side school to attend this event in Madison, Wisconsin. In conjunction with 4-H systematics, I worked with the Pre-College Institute. In July 2013, Cooperative Extension was awarded $80,000 from the UW-Extension Program Innovation Fund. This new funded resource was utilized by the Pre-College Institute to collaborate with UW-Richland, UW-Rock County, UW- Washington County, UW-Waukesha and UW Help for pre-college courses and campus visits with Milwaukee s middle and high school youth. By building on the already successful and well-established UW Extension s 4-H Systematics, the Pre-College Institute exposed and prepared Milwaukee youth, particularly low-income youth of color, through workshops on relevant topics such as financial aid and career information, and two semesters of six-week Enrichment Classes emphasizing math and reading. A Pre-College Kick-Off event created awareness for the new program. In total, fifty-five youth attended which included twenty-eight middle school and twenty-seven high school students from diverse racial, ethnic, gender and geographic backgrounds from. I recruited students and teachers from middle/high schools to attend this event. I also attended board meetings in preparation of the Kick-Off event. The youth in total that attended the Pre-College Institute were 371 racially diverse students from forty-four schools /organizations/4-h Club families. Most were lowincome and came from across with the majority coming from the central city of Milwaukee. This indicates a high demand for pre-college services, especially by middle school youth and their families. Additionally, the Institute connected these students, using a specific campus visit format that included five one-day campus visits which occurred at UW- Richland, UW- Rock County, UW-Waukesha and UW-Washington County. At one of the campus visitsin UW-Waukesha, I chaperoned and toured the students around the University and explained resources at the school. UW-Richland worked with Pre-College Institute and

4 4-H systematics to plan and recruit middle and high school students for their one week Summer College Experience. Twenty-eight students participated in a week-long academic college program at UW-Richland. At the end of the camp week twenty parents attended a ceremony for students completion of the program. I worked as a team with the Pre-College Institute by recruiting youth from schools and canvasing in communities of the City of Milwaukee for attendance at the Institute program courses. I also attended meetings and was a member on one of the Institute committees. My duty on the committee was to give ideas and suggest solutions for youth participating in the program. Toward the end of the Pre-College Institute program semesters, students and parents took a survey and students concluded that thirty-nine percent of students rated their classes Excellent and forty-four percent of students rated their classes as Very Good. Parent surveys concluded with seventeen out of twenty-two parents or family members knowing much more about preparing a child for high school and college than before. Eighteen of twenty-two parents or family members are very likely to talk to their child about high school and college classes. In Wisconsin, statistics show that there is a very low college graduation rate for African Americans in Milwaukee. This became a concern for UW-Extension professionals in and they decided to gather a group of Professionals to discuss ways to address this issue. From those meetings, the Milwaukee Promise board began. Milwaukee Promise is a program to help fund post-secondary tuition for students of Milwaukee Public Schools at any University of Wisconsin university, college, publicly-funded technical school or participating private college. Because tuition funding is only part of a successful post-secondary program, Milwaukee Promise will work with our partner schools, college access programs like College Possible and participating universities, to facilitate our students success. Milwaukee Promise s belief is that education has the power to transform people s lives and the communities in which they live. Post-secondary education is the essential route to personal fulfillment and prosperity. High student aspirations,

5 individual support and strong teacher expectations lead to better educational achievement. Every child should have an opportunity for post-secondary study. Increased levels of post-secondary education lead to increased economic stability, dynamic business communities and job creation. Increased levels of post-secondary education lead to community vitality, engaged citizens and a rich cultural environment. Strong partnerships can improve our schools and community. From those meetings and beliefs, the Milwaukee Promise board began. There are eleven board members that come together once a month to discuss funding, logic model and how to structure the Milwaukee Promise Program in Milwaukee Public Schools. The pilot school for the Promise Program is Morse-Marshall Middle and High School. For grades six through twelve for the school year, there were seventy-six percent African American, nine percent Asian or Pacific Islander, eight percent Caucasian and 5.5 percent Hispanic. Almost eighty percent of those students were economically disadvantaged. I began research of other Promise Programs and funding to share with the Milwaukee Promise Board. As a VISTA and a board member on the Milwaukee Promise, it was decided for me to have an office in the pilot school Morse/Marshall to mentor and introduce students to the Milwaukee Promise Scholarship program. I mentored and assisted fifteen junior/senior students that came into the Guidance Counselor office for appointments. Senior students received advice from me in regards to their career field, college choices and college resources. This advice helped students understand the process of college and how to maintain and utilize resources once they are accepted into a school. With the collaboration of the pilot school, Milwaukee Promise is hopeful to provide scholarship funding for a group of senior students preparing for college in the school year.