- Council of the Great City Schools
- Outstanding 2024 Urban School Graduates
Digital Urban Educator - June/July 2024
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Outstanding 2024 Urban School Graduates
- Guilford Grad Sets Sights on Global Health Career
- Cleveland Standout Rides Bus to Personal, Academic Success
- Hillsborough Student Defies the Odds
- Oklahoma City Teen Embarks on College Journey to Become a Teacher
- Fresno Graduate Awarded Scholarship to Prestigious University
- Milwaukee Graduate Opts for Skilled Trades Over College
- New Superintendents Named in Duval County, Atlanta, and Portland
- New Leadership at Council to Begin
- Council Opens Fall Conference Registration
- Boston Urban Educator of the Year Awards $10,000 Green-Garner Scholarship
- NYC Student Awarded $10,000 Michael Casserly Scholarship
- Four Urban Students Win CGCS-Bernard Harris Scholarships in Math and Science
Milwaukee Graduate Opts for Skilled Trades Over College
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Dennis Young, a 2024 graduate of MacDowell Montessori School in Milwaukee, made great use of his high school years and has a clear eye on his future.
“I decided to go into the trades because I feel like I’d be able to better provide for my family and help out more if I were to start work sooner rather than accumulating debt and such,” Young said, responding via email to questions posed by the Urban Educator.
His motivation, he wrote, was “a mixture of being able to participate in sports and other school activities, not wanting to be in the same spot for too long, and my competitiveness. I’ve always hated to be bored ... so I always kept a busy schedule, which forced me to focus on my work in the classroom so I wouldn’t have to worry about it when I’m at work, practice, or home.”
He has run track and cross country, swam his junior year, and did cheer this past year.
Young has learned the basics of welding and the other skills needed to become a sheet metal worker in the youth apprentice program in Milwaukee Public Schools’ Department of Facilities and Maintenance Services.
With diploma in hand, he will continue training with the local sheet metal workers union to earn journeyman status.
The district’s program -- run by the maintenance program -- is unusual in public school systems.
“This is a unique atmosphere for [students] to engage with these career opportunities,” Giles Patterson, the program’s administrator and repair supervisor, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “What better place to gain these opportunities and skill sets [than] with the infrastructure we have in place?”
The program, now a decade old, has been successful in creating a pipeline for recruiting minorities into the construction trades. It is open to juniors and seniors, with a competitive selection process. Students need to maintain a 2.5 GPA and meet attendance requirements.
Young told the newspaper he opted for trades over college because he wanted options. “It has opened doors for me,” he said.
Crystal Bruce-Konuah, Young’s high school counselor, praised his high school record, calling him “a true model student, so caring and involved with helping out younger students.”
In an email, Bruce-Konuah noted that Young aims “to go into some line of highly skilled and specialized welding such as underwater welding.”
His goal, she said, “is to work extremely hard and eventually retire at a younger age. I believe Dennis will do exactly what he has set out to do.”
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