All-In Milwaukee, a new charity, plans to guide low-income students through college

Milwaukee

A new Milwaukee nonprofit plans to fill a critical gap in the city's education landscape: the dearth of support for low-income students to get through college and graduate.

The nonprofit, All-In Milwaukee, aims to recruit ambitious, economically disadvantaged graduating seniors and match them with individual and corporate donors who want to sponsor a student for four years. The total cost for each student: $25,000.

Most of that donation is pure scholarship. The other portion pays for something just as critical: professional advisers from All-In Milwaukee who coach the students through four years of higher education.

Executive Director Allison Wagner said the organization will pick up where other support services for low-income students in the K-12 system typically drop off.

"Unless we matriculate individual students through college and into the workforce, we're not going to see that pay off in the workforce and in our local economy," Wagner said.

All-In Milwaukee officially launched Tuesday with a lunch and ceremony at Robert W. Baird & Co. More than 100 community and corporate leaders were in attendance. Baird committed $250,000 to All-In Milwaukee from the Baird Foundation and the families of Baird executives Paul Purcell and Mary Ellen Stanek.

Robert W. Baird executive Mary Ellen Stanek (right) smiles as Precious Drew is introduced at the launch of All-In Milwaukee on Tuesday. All-In Milwaukee is a nonprofit focused on helping low-income, high-potential students complete college.

Wagner said the organization wants to identify 30 seniors this school year and guide them into local partnering colleges in the fall of 2019. The goal is to be working with 50 new students every year by 2023, Wagner said.

All-In will mimic a Minneapolis nonprofit

All-In Milwaukee is a replication of a Minneapolis-based nonprofit called Wallin Education Partners. Since 1992, the charity started by the late businessman Win Wallin has helped more than 4,500 low-income students from the Twin Cities graduate from college.

According to Wallin, about 93 percent of its scholars earn bachelor's degrees, which bucks the trend for rates of college completion. Consider that:

Among all students entering four-year college institutions, the six-year graduation rate is 59 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
For low-income, first-generation college students who received Pell Grants, just 11 percent earned a bachelor's degree within six years, according to a Pell Institute fact sheet.
In Milwaukee, 14 percent of public school graduates in the Class of 2011 completed technical programs or earned college degrees within six years, according to the most recent data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

So why expand to Milwaukee?

Because Darren Jackson, a 53-year-old businessman from St. Paul, Minnesota, sits on the board of Wallin Partners and thinks the program is desperately needed here.

Jackson retired from his position as CEO of Advance Auto Parts three years ago and has thrown himself into the world of education philanthropy. He and his wife, Terry Jackson, met while attending Marquette University and have sponsored many Wallin scholars in Minnesota. The Jacksons also have a daughter who teaches at St. Augustine Prep and the family keeps a second home in the city.

Darren Jackson, the founder of Wallin Education Partners and retired Advance Auto Parts CEO, speaks during the the launch of All-In Milwaukee on Tuesday. All-In is an expansion of the Minneapolis-based Wallin program.

Jackson said he thinks Wallin is something that can be replicated across the country and that Milwaukee is the best place to start.

"We’re a bit like Switzerland; we want all of Milwaukee to be successful," Jackson said.

How it works

All-In plans to recruit students through partners already preparing teens for college, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, College Possible, United Community Center and MKE Fellows, or through individual relationships with schools such as the Carmen Schools of Science and Technology and Cristo Rey High School.

The students have to be eligible for Pell Grants, have at least a 3.0 GPA and a 19 ACT composite score, and be accepted by a university partnering with All-In: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette, Alverno College, Carroll University or UW-Madison.

All-In hopes to secure an initial 30 donor partners who will commit to $25,000 over four years: $18,000 for financial aid for the student and $7,000 for advising and administration fees. Wagner said that low-income college students have an average annual unmet need of $8,000 beyond their Pell Grants and scholarships.

All-In recipients will hand over their midterm and semester grades and meet with their advisers on campus and electronically. Advisers will assess the students and students will complete self-assessments. Donors will receive all the same reports.

Allison Wagner, executive director of All-In Milwaukee, speaks during the launch of the nonprofit on Tuesday. All-In Milwaukee is aimed at helping low-income, high-potential students complete college.

Wagner said corporations could use their diversity dollars to sponsor an All-In student through college, offer them an internship or two and potentially hire that student upon graduation.

"This is a way for the donor to develop talent from our city, for our city," Wagner said.

Personal coaching through college

Even academically prepared low-income students can fall off track quickly in college, often because they feel isolated or overwhelmed. Researchers have found that low-income students are less likely to return for a second year compared with their wealthier peers (79 percent vs. 88 percent). Generating money for tuition and other expenses can also force low-income students to get jobs, which can limit time for developing critical social connections.

"The personal support was a big, big part of my success," said Precious Drew, a 22-year-old former Wallin recipient who graduated in May and now works for Minnesota's management and budget department. Drew spoke at the launch event Tuesday.

She attended the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Minnesota and within a year felt frustrated and disconnected. She was one of the only black students at the small, mostly white, liberal arts campuses, and she desperately wanted to transfer to a city college. But through conversations with her Wallin adviser, Drew realized that working to forge deeper connections would serve her better in the long run.

She dug in, joined a student business group and applied at the last minute to study abroad for a semester.

"If it wasn't for the financial contributions of Wallin, I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of studying abroad because I would have been too focused on securing food and other necessities," Drew said in an interview.

"Having the adviser encourage me really opened my eyes to opportunities I didn't think I could do," Drew said. "And for that, I'll be forever grateful."

For more information about All-In Milwaukee, visit allinmilwaukee.org.

Erin Richards can be reached at erin.richards@jrn.com or (414) 224-2704 or at @emrichards on Twitter.