FELLOWSHIP OPEN INC
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Mission Statement
MKE Fellows is a powerful and unique initiative that offers educational and career support to academically talented African-American young men from urban backgrounds in Wisconsin to ensure that they graduate from college prepared for career success and community/servant leadership. The goal is to ensure that post-secondary education and college success for this group is met. The goal is also to ensure the creation of a consistent and strong pipeline of young, African-American male college graduates ready to return to Milwaukee and other parts of the State to excel in their careers, build wealth, and become engaged leaders capable of moving our region’s African-American communities into a new era of greater health, vitality, and prosperity. MKE Fellows seeks to groom this group of young men who are not only well-educated, but who provide values-based servant leadership that will be emulated by others. Workforce development is key. MKE Fellows is committed to working in close partnership with leaders of universities and local corporations to provide these students with the support, connections, and resources they need to thrive in college, graduate, and be prepared for the professional world. Financial planning and financial literacy, maintaining high levels of graduation rates, providing career post-college career counseling, providing summer internships, and providing professional one on one and peer-to-peer mentoring are essential features of the program. Our mission is to also work with industry leaders in key technical fields to develop pathways that introduce majors and their prerequisites to Fellows early in their college experience. This positions the Fellows to explore and pursue majors and careers for which our industry partners indicate a high demand. Simultaneously, we begin to create a pipeline of high-quality professionals that industry leaders can tap as they seek to grow the 21st century jobs and fields that are Wisconsin's future.
About This Cause
There is an enormous need to devise and support programmatic initiatives designed to enhance the performance of young, African American males in college. MKE Fellows envisions a healthier and more economically prosperous African-American community that underscores a holistic support system which provides comprehensive assistance to these young men from urban backgrounds in Milwaukee throughout their college career. This approach allows them to be better positioned to attain economic viability, but also adds to support the fiscal growth of Wisconsin. Unlike traditional scholarship initiatives, which are more focused on the individual scholar, the MKE Fellows program uses a cohort strategy that creates a group of like-minded young people who build a network of support for one another. Simultaneously, the program provides academic scholarships, career experiences, professional development opportunities, community-based projects, and individual and group mentoring to build a platform for transformative leadership. MKE Fellows has also taken on a much broader mission for Milwaukee and Wisconsin: to create a group of leaders who are well educated, have a strong sense of values and purpose, are committed to service to others, and believe in the transformational opportunities that come through hard work. Young African-American men who are from Wisconsin and enrolled in a four-year college or university are eligible to apply for the program based on recommendations from education/community leaders. Once accepted into MKE Fellows, participants have access to the full MKE Fellows experience. The MKE Fellows initiative is founded upon five (5) core pillars – Career & Professional Development, Mentorship, Internships & Job Experience, Scholarship Opportunities, and Civic Engagement. Fully consistent with the MKE Fellows foundational principle of Civic Engagement, and in immediate response to the urgent worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the MKE Fellows launched an innovative Spring to mid-summer, collaboration-driven, virtual learning project designed to directly address the need for ongoing, uninterrupted educational services and limit the negative impact of the digital divide and digital equity in a low-income educational elementary school community. Minority students are much more susceptible to the lack of access to technology platforms and hardware. MKE Fellows student participants, as online tutors, and as part of a collaborative volunteer community, worked with and received the buy-in from both participating parents and students, ensuring that these students would not have a five months gap in their learning. MKE program participants also served as positive and relatable role models. The need for innovative programs like MKE Fellows is apparent and pressing. Statistics about life for African-Americans in Milwaukee and other communities in Wisconsin stand in stark contrast to what we associate with vibrant communities. This deficit will affect our State’s ability to attract new talent and entrepreneurship. Rates of unemployment, crime, and poverty are excessively high in Wisconsin, while the graduation rate for Milwaukee’s African-American high school students currently stands at 58.4%, compared to the state average of 88.6%. In fact, Wisconsin has the largest achievement gap between African-American students and their white peers in the entire nation (WI Dept. of Public Instruction). African-Americans in Milwaukee are also at the bottom of nearly every community health index when compared to other major metropolitan areas in the U.S. There are additional points that mandate a reversal of these statistics. Research reveals that African American males begin to lose interest in their education as early as elementary school. While men of color make up only six percent of the U.S. population, they account for approximately 33 percent of all student dropouts. Of those who do matriculate to higher education, generally less than one-third graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six years. Black boys have more difficulty achieving and maintaining upward mobility than others. Despite these grim statistics, there are many high-potential and resilient young black students performing above the achievement gap in Milwaukee. Unfortunately, even after they complete high school, there are persistent barriers that keep them from graduating from college and launching successful professional careers. Too often these students lack the social networks, personal mentors, financial wherewithal, and access to pre-professional experiences that portend career success and are enjoyed more generally. MKE Fellows is committed to working in close partnership with leaders of universities and local corporations to provide these students with the support, connections, and resources they need to thrive in college and graduate prepared for the professional world. Consequently, and as a result of the Fellows holistic areas of support, the college graduation rate for MKE Fellows is 85% within four years, compared to less than 40% for African-American males nationwide (that number is even lower in Wisconsin). MKE Fellows has a much more intense focus than typical university programs. MKE Fellows graduate at a much higher rate than their peers at virtually every Wisconsin college. Currently, there are 126 MKE Fellows enrolled at 30 different universities around Wisconsin and the nation. There are 60 highly qualified college bound seniors for a total program enrollment of 186 students and the goal is to reach 200. In 2020, we anticipate that all MKE Fellows will participate in professional development, mentoring and networking opportunities. As of May 2020, more than 60 Fellows have graduated from the program covering the years from 2016 to 2020. The acquisition of donated funds directly impacts individual students and ensures that they have the financial resources needed to complete their education. The financial barriers to a college degree faced by most urban minority students are formidable. The MKE Fellows merit-based book scholarship program helps offset the costs of subsidiary educational materials. In addition, MKE Fellows is building a need-based emergency fund to help support extreme circumstances in which a Fellow requires supplemental funding to complete a semester. Our legacy of established resources and existing protocols ensures total support in all areas of the academic journey. Funds are needed to support this effort.