Newly elected to the Milwaukee Public School Board representing District 5, Jilly Gokalgandhi has big plans for her new role. Committed to following through on her campaign promises, she is determined to make policies centered around equity, which include funding for special education, multilingual education, and working on restorative justice practices. As an immigrant, she brings a unique lived experience to her role and cares deeply about creating an education system that is inclusive for all students.
Nelson Soler Makes Business Learning Accessible to the Latino Community
For Latino entrepreneurs in Milwaukee and around the state, barriers exist that simply make it harder for them to start a business than it is for their white counterparts. Until Nelson Soler founded his consulting business called the Multicultural Entrepreneurial Institute (MEI), there were no business trainings available in Spanish in the area and no trainings that took into account the cultural values of Latinos.
Dr. Kyana Young and the Marquette University Strategic Innovation Fund
Dr. Kyana Young, a postdoctoral fellow at Marquette University, began working in the Global Water Center in 2016. With a background in environmental engineering, Young’s passion is finding solutions for safe water to improve global and public health. Soon after she arrived, it occurred to her that there was a lack of diverse groups of people represented in the building. But it didn’t take her long to do something about that.
She spoke with staff at Marshall High School and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), including Larry Farris, Toby Hairston, Rochelle Sandrin, Jan Haven, and Megan Sun, who helped her come up with an idea for a program that would provide opportunities to demographics that are underrepresented in scientific fields relating to water research. She applied for a grant from Marquette University with the support of the group at MPS, and was awarded the Marquette University Strategic Innovation Fund Grant. The grant made it possible for her to provide internships to students at Milwaukee’s Marshall High School and bring them to the labs of the Global Water Center to do hands-on research. When working in the classroom at Marshall High School, the youth learn how to write lab reports and do data analysis with their teacher Megan Sun. The students are taught how to apply their newly learned scientific knowledge to solve real world problems.
Each student is assigned a project for the semester by participating companies and universities. Young asked these organizations to host and mentor the youth, including Stonehouse Water Technologies, Youth Rising Up, Solar Water Works, DRM International Inc., Sun Yat-Sen University, Grand Valley State University, Assembly of God and Marquette University. Dr. Young knew that the students needed more than community partners, they needed mentors like Dr. Moe Mukiibi, the chief technology officer at Stonehouse Water Technologies (the company with the most interns in the program), to make the program a success. The program is meant to “create a path for them that could be life changing, so that they can see why they are working in a lab and see what this can become,” says Mukiibi.
“When you provide an opportunity and you back that up with resources, this is what can happen,” says Young as she describes how the students have excelled far beyond the expectations of the program. “This impacts the global community.” Thanks to Young and the team at MPS, these students have a chance to explore their interests and realize career paths that can make a major difference in their lives.
View the article on the Shepherd Express website, part of my regular Hero of the Week column.
Finding Affinity: Sung
This month I want to do something a little different than my normal blog posts. I recently spent five weeks in Vietnam and while in this drastically different culture, it made me think about how we relate to each other in Milwaukee. Hear me out for a second. At first, the country seemed so foreign that I could not relate at all, but after spending time there and getting to know the welcoming people, I started to realize that we have a lot in common. Milwaukee sometimes struggles with this because as many of us know, it is a very segregated city. This series called “Finding Affinity,” that I will occasionally post, is meant to help us find similarities in each other rather than differences. If we can connect with one another, maybe we can make the world a more peaceful place.
Affinity: /noun/
- a spontaneous or natural liking or sympathy for someone or something.
- a similarity of characteristics suggesting a relationship, especially a resemblance in structure between animals, plants, or languages.
* * *
“All of us, we’re not so different.” Those were Sung’s words as she led me through the narrow paths of the rice fields near Sapa in Vietnam. Sung was our tour guide, who proudly showed my friend and I around her village in the far north of the country. We followed her for three days up and down steep dirt roads beneath banana leaves and foggy skies. The only item she carried was her small, vibrant bag draped over her shoulder, made using of the colors of her village. Adversely, we were weighed down with our large backpacks hugging our waists, with the newest back-support technology. It was a simpler way of life that she shared with us, but not necessarily an easier one.
Sung is 38 years old, no taller than four and a half feet, with five children and a husband. The family lives with her husband’s parents because that is the tradition in her culture. While Sung works the rice fields and leads tours to support the family (as most of the women do), her husband’s parents take care of the children and the home. Having her children in school, Sung explains to us, is more important than anything because she wants to give them the opportunities she never had. And isn’t that what all parents want? Her daughter recently taught her how to spell her own name because Sung never learned to read or write. Yet, her spoken English is nearly perfect, thanks to the tourists she has talked with every day for the last 6 years.
My friend and I shared long conversations with her, revealing pieces of each other’s lives for about 10 hours a day, and we slowly came to realize how similar we are, regardless of the cultural differences. We are all searching for happiness and finding a balance in our lives. Often all of us must compromise our hobbies and desires for our obligations. The moment this all became obvious was when we took a break from hiking to swim in a peaceful river at the base of a waterfall. As I was sitting on a rock drying off, I noticed Sung was perched atop the adjacent boulder with her long hair let out, deep in thought looking over the valley. It was her bold independent gaze that I recognized in myself; a woman determined to achieve her goals, no matter the cost.
We often get caught up in the conveniences and privileges in our lives, but we too easily forget that we all want the same things: peace, freedom and happiness. Sung opened my eyes to her way of life and made me realize how lucky I am, but the truth is that we all have challenges and we all have to find a way to make the most of what we’ve been given. On our last day together, we walked up a dirt road with the occasional motorbike zooming by, to sit above what seemed like endless rice fields stretching below us. I tried to imagine what life would be like if I called this home. After sitting quietly next to Sung for a few minutes, I looked at her, and she looked back and smiled.
Silver Spring Neighborhood Center
As you pull off Silver Spring Drive onto 64th Street, you may not think twice about the large building in the quiet neighborhood but once you walk through those front doors, you are greeted by smiling faces and a vibrant chandelier made by the kids that are part of the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center (SSNC). The community center is a nonprofit organization that services the people in the neighborhood through programs relating to health & wellness, education, and employment. At the heart of this organization are the people that work tirelessly to ensure these community members thrive in their city. “Whenever you are doing social service work, it is so critical. You go through a lot internally. It’s no easy job,” says Devin Hudson, the Development Director at the SSNC. The work they do at the neighborhood center opens so many doors for the individuals that take part in the programs.
The Silver Spring Neighborhood Center started in 1958 as a settlement house servicing the Westlawn neighborhood. The center was a resource for new residents to turn to as they started their lives in Milwaukee. Throughout SSNC's history, their partners have helped shape who they are and who they impact. So in 1986, the center partnered with the UWM College of Nursing, which allowed them to implement programs like health care services for people that are under-insured, classes to teach teens about choosing healthy foods, collaboration with the Childhood Development Center and the list goes on. At the core of these programs is the director Jean Bell-Calvin, who has been with the UW-Milwaukee Silver Spring Community Nursing Center since the start. “It’s a blessing to do the work that we do,” says Jean, “It’s about resources. It’s about how you advocate for resources in the community and it’s a challenge.” The lives Jean has touched in the community is hard to put into words, much less fit into a blog post.
Jean Bell-Calvin (left) and Devin Hudson (right)
The next major partnership happened in the early 2000s when SSNC joined with Browning Elementary School, part of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). The two started their cooperative because MPS was focused on bringing neighborhood schools back to the city. A neighborhood of support is what binds these organizations together.
The core of the SSNC's programs have always been youth oriented, but they also have a number of programs for adults such as their GED program and the Transform Milwaukee Program which opens job possibilities for those with a criminal background or a child support order.
For those in the area needing guidance or a way to start over, the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center stands as a center for hope. The SSNC has quality employees that can work with you to make the program successful. As soon as you step onto the campus, you are confronted with encouragement and place of comfort away from the challenges of everyday life. The SSNC's impact on Milwaukee is overwhelming. Learn more about what they are accomplishing on their website: www.ssnc-milw.org
Milwaukee Talks Green
“The partnership works perfectly because we get to engage the community and broaden our reach by working together.” That’s Jessy Ortiz, Outpost’s Sustainability Manager talking about how she and Anastasia Kraft created Milwaukee Talks Green. Jessy and Ana started this group this past January because they wanted to inform our community about sustainability. The group meets roughly once a month to host events with guest speakers, tour local facilities, clean up rivers and more. “The whole idea of MKE Talks Green is to educate our community so people will know more and can make better decisions in their everyday life,” explains Ana Kraft.
But lets back up a moment because these two ambitious women didn’t even know each other until November 2016. Ana, originally from Germany, saw things differently than many Americans because she grew up in a country with small cars, renewable energy, extensive waste management and elaborate recycling. “Instead of complaining, I wanted to meet people. I’m sure there are many people out there that care about the environment and want to learn something,” she says. Inspired by TED Talks, she decided to make a Meet Up group where speakers could present to the community and everyone could discuss the topic afterwards.
Enter Jessy Ortiz and Outpost Natural Foods. At about the same time, Jessy and the company were discussing how to better engage the community in sustainability. The original idea was to start a group only for owners of the Outpost co-op, but when Ana showed up at the Bay View location asking if Outpost would host the Meet Up group, it made more sense to include the whole community.
Ana and Jessy plan out the events with themes based on the time of year or relevant holidays. For instance, in March their theme was water for World Water Day and they invited speakers from Milwaukee River Keeper, Feed Mouths Filling Minds and water expert Dr. Moe Mukiibi. In April they focused on local farming, hosting speakers from the Young Farmers Program and Victory Garden Initiative. In the summer months, they organized outside events like a tour of Milwaukee recycling facilities and of the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. August’s theme will be sustainable grazing and later in the fall they will be focussing on energy efficiency.
The two women emphasize that the group is meant to inform people of what’s already going on in their community and hopefully inspire them to get involved. “The idea is think global, act local,” says Jessy. “This is one way for Outpost to extend their mission: to provide owners a healthy, diverse and sustainable community.”
“Education is the most powerful tool we can use to change the world,” Ana passionately states. “Hopefully we will create a community where people see their impact.”
To join these two inspiring women at their next event, visit their Facebook page and learn more about how Milwaukee is becoming a sustainable city.
View the full blog at www.MKEinFocus.com
Kathy Papineau and MKE Kitchen
It's hard to capture all of the things that Kathy Papineau does for the community in one blog post. The best way to describe Kathy Papineau is that she puts her community before herself. She runs three businesses that all work together: MKE Kitchen, Localicious and Soup in a Jar. On top of all that, she is a huge advocate for the local food movement in Milwaukee and a role model for composting and eating local.
Kathy first became interested in food at a young age. She grew up in Manitowoc, WI with 5 siblings, an unhealthy father, and a mother that didn't have much time to cook. Kathy's childhood fueled her motivation to eat healthy and learn to cook by watching cooking shows on TV and reading magazines like Home & Garden and Good Housekeeping. Years later as a stay-at-home mom, Papineau started her catering company Localicious around 2007. She started small in her home kitchen, but the business kept growing until 2012, when she opened MKE Kitchen, her commercial kitchen in Riverwest. Soup in a Jar is her food truck you may see around town that she uses to sell her homemade soup and meet new customers. Naturally, Kathy thought of others before herself. “If I was going to build a kitchen for my business, I thought I should build a kitchen big enough so that other people could build their businesses too," she explained.
But that's not all the kitchen does, not even close. Kathy teaches cooking classes to kids, and the classes incorporate the importance of composting and the benefits of a local market. “Schools need to find room in their curriculum to cover stuff like that,” she says. At the same time, the kitchen acts as a meeting place for local food groups such as volunteers from the Urban Ecology Center advocating for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs. Papineau has created a welcoming place for ideas to spread and for the local food community to grow.
Kathy moves fast and doesn't sit still for very long which means she has a million ideas for the future. She wants to teach a course about starting your own business to teach people about all the business technicalities they don't consider at first. Whether she planned it or not, Kathy has become a guide for the new entrepreneurs that rent from her and she's willing to share her experience. One of those new entrepreneurs, Collin Wallace of Chillwaukee, talked about how helpful Kathy had been to his new business. “She’s very accommodating and gives us the space we need, and puts us in touch with people and news stations,” he said.
With every new idea, Kathy stays true to her core goal: “I want people to eat healthier. I want them to understand the relationship between their food, their health and the environment. That’s what I want.”