Here are a couple public school tidbits for your Friday afternoon....
From my friends at the Italian Immersion Program at MPS' Victory School on the far South Side:
Victory will host a program from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5 that will recreate the language immersion experience that students – including my nephew – experience in the woods of Minnesota.
Five Victory students received partial scholarships from the National Italian American Foundation and the school is hoping to spread the word about the program.
I'll tweet and Facebook more details as I get them. But you can contact teacher Liz Zizzo for more, too. No Italian language experience is required.
MPS announced yesterday the opening of its first TeamUP College Access Center, 2730 W. Fond du Lac Ave., on Monday, Oct. 17
The center, which will be staffed afternoons, evenings and weekends, will offer free services aimed at prepping middle and high school kids in Milwaukee and surrounding communities for college.
Services include college application assistance and help with admissions, financial aid and scholarships. The center will also host events like writing workshops, college campus visits and counseling sessions.
"MPS TeamUp College Access Centers were designed to help students and realize the power of higher education and how it can change their lives for the better," said superintendent Dr. Gregory E. Thornton in a statement.
"Preparing to reach the dream of a college education needs to start at an early age, and the students and their families who visit our centers will get personalized help every step of the way. Our centers offer the services and resources for students to discover attending college is within their reach and we’re committed to helping them get there."
A South Side location is planned for next year.
The access center is open weekdays, 2-7 p.m., Saturdays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., and Sundays, from noon until 4.
The Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) is expanding its Midwest operations. The group works with schools, for free, to create multimedia climate science presentations to help make science "cool" (that's a climate pun for ya) for middle and high school kids.
ACE also coordinates project-based engagement and service learning, with a focus on green projects to help kids prepare for the growing green jobs sector.
The organization is already working more than a million students in more than 25 states and is in Chicago, New York and San Francisco public schools. Now, it is gearing up to get going in Milwaukee.
Stay tuned to OnMilwaukee.com for more on ACE. In the meantime, contact lead educator Leah Qusba to learn more and to help ACE connect with local principals.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
