THE VISION

PEOPLE high school students pose on Bascom Hill during a break from a summer workshop to strengthen study skills.

PEOPLE differs from other pre-college programs by working with students, families, teachers and counselors to provide the sustained individual attention critical for being academically, psychologically and culturally prepared to succeed at the college academic level.

PEOPLE began in 1999 with 66 high school students from Milwaukee. Today, approximately 1,300 students currently participate in the PEOPLE Program ranging from second grade through undergraduate college level.

As of September 30, 2008 there are 50 elementary students, 379 middle school, 578 high school and 286 college students (known as PEOPLE Scholars on campus).

PUBLIC SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS include:

  • Milwaukee Public School District
  • Madison Metropolitan School District
  • Menominee Indian School District
  • Racine Unified School District
  • Kenosha Unified School District
  • Waukesha Public School District

RURAL PARTNERSHIPS include:
Bad River, Ho-Chunk, Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, Mole Lake, Oneida, Potawatomi, Red Cliff, St. Croix and Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Nations of Wisconsin.

THE GOALS

1. Retain pre-college students of color and those from low-income households in school.
2. Help them graduate as motivated, focused young adults who are academically prepared to go to college.
3. Increase enrollment and graduation rates of students from diverse backgrounds as integral to the university's mission.

WHAT IT TAKES TO GET THERE...

• THE VILLAGE Everyone from university administrators and after-school tutors to parents and teachers has created a college-going culture around these students.

• INDIVIDUAL PERSEVERANCE Once PEOPLE students emerge on campus and realize they can achieve their dreams, they are unstoppable.

• RIPPLE EFFECT Success is infectious - students who started in the program five and six years ago are setting a positive example. Undergraduates, called PEOPLE Scholars and funded by a grant from the SBC Foundation, are now reaching back as tutors, mentors and role models to pull younger students through the pipeline.

• GRASSROOTS Word-of-mouth among educators, counselors and students has generated positive awareness for a PEOPLE as a "pre-college program that works."

WHAT'S NEW?

PEOPLE Prep is a community-based tutoring partnership with Packer and Northport Community Learning Centers in Madison. Fifty-one second through fifth-graders work with UW education majors and volunteer tutors from PEOPLE and Posse. Read more about PEOPLE Prep.

STARTING MAY 2006, significant numbers of participants began to graduate each year from UW–Madison prepared to:
• fill management and technical positions in the public and private sectors,
• pursue graduate studies to broaden career opportunities in academia or other professions,
• assume leadership positions with the nation’s civic and community institutions.

"The program's success would not be possible without all those who shared a vision during the early years. When greater opportunities are given to students of color and low-income youth, we all reap the advantages a diversity of voices brings to our campus and our world." — Walter Lane, former PEOPLE Program Director

 

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