DEM Hosts Event with Madison Metropolitan School District to Promote College Readiness

For the past four years, UW–Madison has partnered with the Madison Metropolitan School District’s Personalized Pathways initiative. Personalized Pathways places high school students into cohorts where their education focuses on a career field. MMSD currently has pathways in Health Services and in Information Technology & Communications. The initiative includes experiential learning opportunities to connect high school classes with future educational and career opportunities in partnership with the local community. In the past, UW–Madison has provided a campus tour for high school freshmen to connect their pathway with educational opportunities at the university. Then the pandemic came. As Todd Reck, manager for the student experience in the Division of Enrollment Management explains, “UW–Madison wanted to find a way to continue to support MMSD students during the pandemic. In Enrollment Management we have learned a great deal about hosting virtual events that we can apply to this partnership.” So, UW–Madison hosted a live virtual event.  Special thanks to Rachel Tatge and Cameron Olson in Admissions and Helena Manning in CAVR for helping to plan the event. The event featured a presentation from Ashanti Rogers (Office of Admissions and Recruitment) and Joselyn Diaz-Valdes (Office of Student Financial Aid), who discussed how all high school freshmen can prepare for their college future right now. Diaz-Valdes told students that “when you have a college degree, [it] will give you access to rooms and to spaces, to job opportunities, to career opportunities, to things that you would not otherwise have access to.” Campus and Visitor Relations student tour guides took the high school students on a virtual tour of campus and answered questions about what it is like to be a college student. UW–Madison followed the event by sending students and families resources on academic and career options related to their own pathway. DEM is proud to be supporting this community partnership to promote the equitable access to a college education. We plan to continue the pathways partnership this summer by offering an online version of the LEAP Forward Internship program taught by Financial Aid’s Kristina Rittel and Justin Mumford.