WAUKESHA – With coursework completed in UW-Milwaukee’s master’s degree program in geography, Nathan Winkler, a graduate of Menomonee Falls High School and resident of Pewaukee, decided to apply this knowledge even before finishing his degree. For the next year, he will help faculty and students at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha incorporate service to the community in the learning experience. The state has engaged 35 such positions through its Wisconsin K-16 AmeriCorps*VISTA Service-Learning Project.
Funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, workers will coordinate service-learning programs throughout Wisconsin. These young people are charged with finding ways to develop partnerships between higher education institutions and low-income communities.
Seeking himself to serve, Winkler says, “I got into this a couple years ago when I was looking for something to do after I completed my undergraduate degree. I wanted something with a civic element.” Not completely altruistic, he also thought he might receive teaching certification. His name was not selected at that time. However, once AmeriCorps was restructured into an asset-building organization, he changed his focus, too.
UW-Waukesha secured one of the 35 slots in the Wisconsin project but not an individual to fill it. Last summer, Assistant Professor of English John Allen, who has published a book on homelessness, contacted Winkler about the opening. The position fits Winkler’s academic interest in economic geography and gives him an opportunity to compare theory with application, he says. Training for it will give him insights on grant-writing, non-profit work, and the university as an institution, he expects as well. Sue Kalinka, Ixonia, the student leadership development coordinator, has been involved with service learning at the campus and will supervise Winkler.
From his office on the Waukesha campus, Winkler will solicit needs from community organizations and try to match them with academic inquiry, getting students to do and professors to approve primary research which also addresses those needs. Students will learn, for example, how the homeless survive by serving them and then write an English composition describing the newly discovered reality.
In another case, college students studying math for elementary teachers will go into schools, tutor students, learn from them what obstacles confront them, and help them adopt systems to surmount them.
Behind the effort stand the project’s three specific goals: to create strong, sustainable anti-poverty programs; to improve academic achievement and aspirations of low-income children in grades K-8; and to cultivate sustainable infrastructure for campus-based community service and service-learning with a focus on alleviating poverty.
Other long-range goals (from the Web site http://www.uwp.edu/departments/community.partnerships/wicampuscompact/Vista/index.cfm) include:
- To improve, expand, or begin community service-learning programs at K-16 institutions and community/faith-based organizations.
- To increase the number of student and community volunteers active in programs designed to improve academic achievement and awareness and readiness for college.
- To develop service projects that address the root causes of community problems and have a significant impact on their solution.
- To integrate service and academic study.
- To build public awareness of the value of student contributions to their communities.
- To leverage additional educational resources from government, corporate, and private sources.
According to the compact, these efforts eventually will mean more students from low-income families may earn the academic qualifications and become motivated to attend college, giving them a better chance to free themselves from the cycle of poverty.
Winkler started in the position November 22, and will be on campus full time for a year. He sees his work with AmeriCorps*VISTA as a stepping stone. After this he hopes to scout out a Peace Corps site requiring his socio-economic knowledge and skills, not simply a strong back.
UW-Waukesha has the largest enrollment among the 13 freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses. For information about programs, admission, or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at (262) 521-5200 or visit the Web at waukesha.uwc.edu.
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