A promising time of transition

A female student shakes hands with a woman at a ceremony.
An MPS high school senior is greeted by the leaders of MPS, UWM and MATC during the College Connections ceremony in May 2019.

As the traditional academic year comes to a close, our largest-ever class of College Connections dual enrollment students — more than 100 in all — is getting ready to graduate with as many as 21 college credits each. College Connections links Milwaukee Public Schools high school seniors with college-level credits and classroom experiences at both Milwaukee Area Technical College and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with students saving an estimated total of more than $1 million in tuition costs since the program started in 2019.

While this effort winds down for the year, our new Smart Start initiative is gearing up. Smart Start will support a pilot group of 125 MPS high school seniors planning to attend MATC or UWM with coordinated support through the admissions process, summer bridge programming, and co-curricular activities in the students’ first semester in college.

M3 is continuing to garner local and national attention, including from the American Council on Education, the nation’s preeminent higher education association. An M3 team presented our work to leaders from colleges and universities around the country, and we are already receiving requests to learn more about the M3 model from institutions in California and Colorado.

In short, our work does not stop as summer begins. We invite you to read more about our growing impact as MPS, MATC, and UWM continue to join together to transform the future of Milwaukee through education.

Sincerely,

Keith P. Posley, Ed.D., Superintendent, MPS

Vicki Martin, Ph.D., President, MATC

Mark A. Mone, Ph.D., Chancellor, UWM