The work done by community organizations can be a great source of inspiration for students. This is particularly true where students are not simply recipient’s of an organization’s programming, but can actively work to support its goals.
Community partners are key to engaging students in meaningful real-world work. We work with community partners in three ways:
- To design collaborative projects for K-12 students that engage the students in solving issues of importance to the organization.
- To integrate programming partners may already provide into one of our initiatives.
- To leverage the expertise of partners in support of student projects that intersect with partner’s domain.
Join us at a Collab Lab
Our Collab Lab series brings K-12 educators from throughout the region together with partners from industry, nonprofits and higher-ed for monthly discussions/workshops aimed at uncovering opportunities to engage students in collaborative, real-world work. We draw an audience that is eager both to share and act on ideas. To date, we’ve pulled in roughly 500 participants who come from public, private, and charter schools throughout greater Milwaukee and more than 100 outside organizations.
Share your mission
If you are doing interesting work in Milwaukee and we haven’t yet met, let’s have a conversation. All of the work we do involves collaboration with outside partners. The trust needed to make great things happens for students and the larger community is to work together towards a common goal. Understanding your goals and capabilities helps us spot opportunities for collaboration as we listen to the goals and dreams of educators and other community partners.
Become a Fellows Program Partner
If you have programming or expertise teachers might leverage to support projects our Learn Deep Fellows are working on, let us know.
Become a near-peer mentor
One goal for all of our projects is to create opportunities for K-12 students to work with college students who are pursuing courses of study that intersect with the project at hand. We work to pair near-peer mentors with a teacher leading the project so near peer mentors have multiple opportunities to connect with students. Near-peer mentors play a coaching role, encouraging the students they work with to articulate and validate their assumptions, explore options they might not have considered, and draw connections between the work students are doing and that of the mentors.
