The Brewers Community Foundation and Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks have teamed up to sponsor Teach For America in Milwaukee under its “Sponsor-A-Teacher” program, according to an announcement the foundation released Monday.
With a combined $30,000 grant from the foundation and Weeks, Milwaukee’s Teach For America initiative will be able to recruit more teachers next year and also train and support its current program teachers.
The teaching program currently has 95 teachers impacting just over 6,000 students in Milwaukee. Next year, Teach For America executives hope to bring in an additional 100 teachers so that teachers can impact nearly 10,000 students.
Maurice Thomas, executive director of Teach For America in Milwaukee, believes the best way to reach that goal is through continued donations from organizations like the Brewers Community Foundation.
He describes Teach For America as an opportunity proposition.
“Teach For America is an opportunity for the city to bring in young talented leaders, it’s an opportunity for kids to get amazing teachers, and it’s an opportunity to sort of rewrite the history of the achievement gap in Milwaukee,” Thomas said.
The Brewers Community Foundation awarded Teach For America Milwaukee a $25,000 grant after the teaching program submitted a grant proposal to them. Weeks pledged a sponsorship of an additional $5,000 with a sincere emphasis on the importance of education.
“I’m proud to support the work of Teach For America to provide local kids with excellent educational opportunities,” Weeks said. “Our students are Milwaukee’s future leaders. Teach For America teachers are working alongside other excellent local teachers to help put them on the pathway to success.”
Through Weeks’ participation in the “Sponsor-A-Teacher” program, he has been paired up with Teach For America teacher Darnell Hamilton, who has been assigned a special education position at a Milwaukee Public Schools high school. Weeks will keep in touch with Hamilton and his classroom throughout the school year so that he can have a more intimate understanding of Teach For America’s programming.
Hamilton admires both the Brewers’ and Weeks’ support of education in Milwaukee and their belief in Teach For America’s mission to close the achievement gap.
“It’s really nice to know that there are people in the community like Rickie Weeks and the Brewers that care and value education,” Hamilton said. “They see that having this sponsorship could do great things like having motivation in the classroom for students.”
Hamilton met Weeks for the first time on Tuesday and is excited for his students to have the backing of a prominent community figure.
“I think first and foremost it’s important for them to see a community partner who’s a man of color who is successful in doing great things for his community – wanting to give back – just really building on that whole idea of what a positive role model is,” Hamilton said.
Part of Weeks’ sponsorship fund will be contributed directly toward Hamilton’s teaching efforts as Hamilton receives support from a teacher coach who will observe him and help him figure out where his students are at academically and where they need to be by the end of the school year.
Teach For America Milwaukee hopes to receive more sponsorships and will happily accept any amount from community members and organizations. The “Sponsor-A-Teacher” program has an additional benefit for the organization now through Sept. 4. Thanks to an anonymous national donor, any sponsorships of $5,000 or more will be matched with an additional $5,000. For more information about the program, visit www.teachforamerica.org/donate.
