Two Marquette University graduates dedicate themselves to engaging and educating in central city Milwaukee schools.
By Abby Ng
A classroom full of sixth grade students with bright eyes and open notebooks wait for a prompt from their English teacher as they prepare to write personal essays.
“What social issues do you care about?” Catherine Nelson, College of Education ’14, asks her class at St. Augustine Preparatory Academy on the South Side of Milwaukee.
Hands raise high and students mention climate change and bullying. If Nelson answered the question, she would probably say urban education.
Elizabeth Swarczewski, fifth grade teacher at St. …
A Q&A with Reggie Jackson, head griot of America’s Black Holocaust Museum, following Mission Week 2018: Truth and Reconciliation
What message do you want Marquette students, faculty, and Milwaukee community members to take away from your speech?
What I want people to know is that when we talk about truth and reconciliation, the most important part is truth. We try to get to reconciliation before we get through the truth. The truth is always very difficult, and it’s things we don’t learn about in school. We live most our lives not really knowing the truth, and that impacts our ability to get to a place where we can have conversations about reconciliation. We come in with a lack of clarity of American history, and this applies to all of us: Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asians, everybody. …
Marquette’s first cohort sent to a national conference for urban universities demonstrates the growth of community-engaged research on campus.
By Allison Dikanovic and Abby Ng
A biologist, a political scientist, a psychologist, an education counselor, and a few university administrators boarded a plane headed to Washington, D.C. together.
Though it was a fun bunch, this is not a comedic setup. Rather it describes the exceptional delegation that Marquette University sent to the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) conference last fall, where the representatives had the opportunity to interact across departments, present their research to peer institutions, and learn from the ways that urban universities across the country are building stronger partnerships with their surrounding communities.
As the largest nationwide meeting of its kind, the CUMU Conference brought movers and shakers from across disciplines and from a wide array of urban institutions together in hopes of exchanging ideas about and learning from the unique challenges and advantages that come with being positioned in a city. For the first time, Marquette sent a cohort of faculty, staff, and administrators to join this national conversation. …
A local high school student and a Marquette University chemistry professor receive international attention
By Gabriella Griffith and Carly Wolf
A new collaboration between Marquette University and Milwaukee High School of the Arts begins with heart — an anatomical heart painted by MHSA senior Caroline Kenwood.
The painting was inspired by research led by Qadir Timerghazin, Marquette associate professor of chemistry. Now Kenwood’s artwork graces the front cover and Timerghazin’s research fills the contents of ChemBioChem, a European academic journal on chemical biology. Together, the research and painting reach an international audience. This achievement exemplifies a high school student and an accomplished chemistry researcher with different talents working in tandem.
Academic journals require cover art and other graphics to help research stand out. Yet, most scientists are not adept at art, Timerghazin said. …
Marquette students, faculty and alumni provide free physical therapy to medically uninsured Milwaukee residents at the ComMUnity PT Clinic.
By Abigail Ng
Laughter echoes through Cramer Hall room 215 as the swishing sound of an elliptical hums in the background. 58-year-old Milwaukee resident, Sharon Williams, shares stories of her family as she steadily walks on the exercise machine. All the while Marquette ComMUnity Physical Therapy Clinic director and sixth-year PT student, Tyler Gregory, supports her with a hand and a smile.
“It’s been fun, kind of like an adventure,” Gregory reminisces. “When she came in the first day she couldn’t even lay on her back or her stomach because she was in so much pain.”
Now after six sessions, Williams can be seen at the pro bono PT clinic lifting weights and pulling resistance bands. …
A quick, but inspirational conversation with Rev. Bryan Massingale
By Abigail Ng
After Rev. Bryan Massingale gave his closing keynote, capping off Mission Week 2017: Black, White, and the Call of the Church with a message of hope and a call to action, I had the honor of sitting down with him for a brief conversation. As I walked away from our interview, I was amazed at how energized I felt. Something had been sparked within me, a drive to advocate for change and continue the conversation of racial justice beyond Mission Week. Rev. …
What’s at the heart of a diverse suburb’s identity — and how is it best marketed to the world? A group of Marquette business students lead the effort to provide answers.
By Allison Dikanovic
Dr. Felicia Miller, a faculty member in the College of Business Administration, recognizes that members of the community around us can serve as some of the best co-educators. She takes every opportunity she can to create projects and assignments for her branding classes that engage her students with Milwaukee.
“With these projects in general, I want my students to get an appreciation for the world outside the Marquette bubble, or whatever bubble they were living in before that,” Miller said. …
Marquette’s Assistant Financial Aid Director works overtime to increase FAFSA completion in Milwaukee Public Schools
By Abigail Ng
There are few things more exciting than getting accepted into college. On the other hand, there are few things harder or more stress inducing than figuring out how to pay for it. But Marquette Assistant Financial Aid Director Mark Levine hopes to ease that anxiety by making sure every high school senior in Milwaukee knows what FAFSA means — and why it’s essential to keeping each of their college dreams alive.
Teaming up with Milwaukee Succeeds, a data-based non-profit organization focused on improving education in Milwaukee, Levine has taken his own personal time to go out into Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to educate families about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). …
The Kantian Dinner Party Initiative brings strangers together to foster civil debate and dialogue in Milwaukee.
It is the day after the election, and the table is set.
An ambience of dim lighting and the murmur of neighboring dinner conversation weaves its way in from the front of the restaurant. Nine glasses of ice water are placed around the table. Nine empty wine glasses are lined up anxiously waiting for the bottle of red to be poured. Nine sets of silverware are rolled into nine napkins, resting on nine little plates in front of exactly nine chairs.
The Cafe Benelux table cannot fit another seat, no matter how badly someone may want in on this party. Immanuel Kant was very specific about the number of guests that were appropriate for a proper dinner party, and he’s the one making the rules for this gathering. …
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