MPS students break record by earning $107M in college scholarships
Milwaukee Public Schools students earned a record number of scholarship dollars this year: $107 million, district officials announced Wednesday in a celebration outside their central office building.
With about 3,500 seniors graduating, that’s an average of about $30,500 per student, with wide variations among students.
As college costs rise, and the state’s own flagship university has failed to increase Black student enrollment over several decades, MPS students face more barriers than most. Scholarships can be the difference in whether students are able to pursue higher education, MPS board president Bob Peterson said.
“There’s disproportionality in who gets to go to college, and who graduates from college, and we’re here to overturn that and give a message: ‘No, everyone deserves the right to go to college, and these students are going to show the way,’” Peterson said.
MPS students’ scholarship winnings have more than quintupled in the last decade, with students earning under $20 million in 2012 and increasing that amount almost every year. Last year, students pulled in $96 million.
Administrators said the rise is in part thanks to the district establishing 20 College and Career Centers in 2017. Every high school building has a center, Superintendent Keith Posley said.
One graduate, Aajanae Bowie, the valedictorian for Obama School of Career and Technical Education, earned nearly $500,000 in scholarship funds, covering tuition and other expenses at Alverno College.
Bowie teared up as she thanked her teachers, counselors and mentors — especially for enduring virtual learning and other challenges of the pandemic.
“Your never-ending support and guidance has motivated me when I was not sure of the right direction,” she said. “Sometimes you have more faith in me than I had in myself. When hard times came, whether they were academic or personal dilemmas, you helped bring me back to my purpose and goals.”
Bowie is planning to study business and go into health care administration. She was one of 20 students to win Alverno’s Thea Bowman scholarship.
In addition to local schools, Posley said students are attending more than 70 out-of-state schools including Ivy League and 27 historically Black colleges and universities.
“I stand here and I’m reminded that children all over America walk mean city streets, and dusty country roads like I did, in quest of an education,” Posley said. “And we are here to sing the praises for our young people who have weathered that storm and received that education.”