Waukesha, WI. (March 5, 2019) — GPSEd is pleased to announce it has received a $50,000 grant from the Kohl’s Hometown Giving Program. These funds will address greater access, relevance and support for students in Milwaukee who are geographically, economically, or otherwise separated from early exposure to technical careers.
In collaboration with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee (B&GCGM) and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), this STEM initiative will provide awareness and understanding for students around technical careers, skills and aptitudes needed for these careers, and promote future engagement in Work-based Learning experiences available in their community.
“To be recognized as an organization that is positively impacting the Milwaukee community is an honor”, said GPS Education Partners President and CEO, Stephanie Borowski. “We know how impactful our youth apprenticeship services have been by the success of our graduates; exposing students as Freshman to the possibilities of a technical career will only increase that impact.”
The GPS STEM Career Awareness Program was launched with 80 MPS students in 9th grade attending Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education located in the City of Milwaukee. The pilot program integrates the Career Education Services of B&GCGM with STEM project-based learning activities delivered in MPS classrooms and provides local business experiences facilitated by GPS Education Partners. Through this initiative, students will see how the learning activities in their STEM classes directly align to careers with local industry businesses through a variety of work-based learning experiences from these businesses that include business tours, classroom presentations by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and community-project demonstrations.
This is the second year that Kohl’s has distributed grants to the non-profit community through a competitive application and review process. GPS Education Partners continues to seek additional funding to continue to provide more opportunities for students to make informed career choices, take more advanced coursework, and pursue Work-based Learning experiences while still in high school.
