Milwaukee, Racine students come to campus

Minority students from southeastern Wisconsin will travel to the university this weekend for a three-week stay as part of the Milwaukee PEOPLE program.

Sponsored by UW–Madison, Milwaukee PEOPLE is a six-week summer academic enrichment program designed to help minority and disadvantaged high school students from Milwaukee and Racine acquire the skills, information and resources needed for college.

PEOPLE’s three-week program on campus starts Sunday, July 9, and runs through Friday, July 28. First- and second-year PEOPLE students will live in university housing and study biological, biomedical and physical sciences, along with subjects in the humanities, including language arts and writing.

The program starts Sunday with an orientation reception, 3-5 p.m., for students and their parents at Upper Carson Gulley Commons, 1515 Tripp Circle. State Sen. Gary George, D-Milwaukee, and state Rep. Robert Turner, D-Racine, are scheduled to speak during the reception.

Returning students completed the first component of the summer pre-college program in June — a three-week, half-day program at Riverside High School in Milwaukee. They will be joined on campus by the second cohort of up to 100 ninth graders from Milwaukee and also Racine.

A survey of last year’s inaugural PEOPLE class found that nearly all of the participants would recommend the program to another student. Follow-up evaluation with parents revealed that a majority of students were enthusiastic and excited after the program.

Milwaukee PEOPLE targets ninth-grade students of African-American, American Indian, Southeast Asian American (Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian including Hmong), Chicano/a, Puerto Rican and Latino/a heritage, and economically disadvantaged students. They must have a minimum 2.75 grade point average on a four-point scale. They participate in PEOPLE programs throughout their high school careers. Upon graduation from high school, each PEOPLE student admitted to UW–Madison will be eligible for a need- and/or merit-based tuition grant for up to five years.