• COVID-19 Resources
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Promotions
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • May 9, 2025

Milwaukee Courier Weekly Newspaper

"THE NEWSPAPER YOU CAN TRUST SINCE 1964"

  • News
  • Editorials
  • Education
  • Urban Business
  • Health
  • Religion
  • Upcoming Events
  • Classifieds

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

MKE Fellows and The Links, Inc. Develop Virtual Learning Program for MPS Students

May 2, 2020

MKE Fellows annual event (Photo by Montreal Cain)

By Karen Stokes

John W Daniels III, executive director of MKE Fellows, Jaylin Durham and Nicholas Stokes MKE Fellows members and Attorney John Daniels, Jr (Photo by Ce Mke LLC)

Schools across the country are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to Education Week’s website, four U.S. territories, 43 states and the District of Columbia have ordered or recommended school building closures for the rest of the academic year, affecting approximately 45.1 million public school students.

The MKE Fellows and the Milwaukee (WI) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, are launching Five Pillars Tutoring, a collaborative-driven virtual learning project to aid Milwaukee Public School students whose education has been interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The program officially began April 22 and will target elementary school students at Ralph H. Metcalfe School, 3400 W. North Ave., an MPS school that serves approximately 350 students from grades K4 through eighth.

“Five Pillars has two significant meanings, one, the MKE Fellows is built on five pillars: internship, mentorship, civic engagement, scholarship and professional development,” said John W. Daniels III, executive director of MKE Fellows.

He continued, “The second meaning is that there are many partners and it’s not just built on a three-legged table. It’s not just MPS, The Links or the MKE Fellows, it’s also the community and the families together that are making it happen.”

The MKE Fellows and the Milwaukee Links are responding immediately to fill an urgent need.

“Because we know that ‘summer slide’ normally causes students to fall backwards over the summer, we’ve committed to continue this program past the regular school year into the summer to make sure that the kids enter the fall prepared to learn. We want to make sure we don’t have a COVID-19 backslide in addition to a summer vacation backslide,” Daniels said. “When students return to school in the fall, on average it takes them about eight weeks to get back to their previous level of proficiency.

With kids being out of school since March, there’s a real challenge to keeping them academically engaged.”

MKE Fellows, established in 2012, is a powerful initiative offering support to academically talented African American young men in Wisconsin to ensure that they graduate from college prepared for career success.

The Links, Incorporated, organization of African American women founded in 1946 is devoted to strengthening African American communities through fund-raising, education, advocacy and volunteering.

The Milwaukee Links have worked with Metcalfe students and educators for over a decade. The Links and Milwaukee Fellows are working with a team that is developing the program and have worked in various areas of education.

“We were able to quickly look at what it means to help young people so we had people who worked at Boys and Girls Club and traditional school environments,” Daniels said. “We wanted to make sure we created a comprehensive program that allowed us to quickly meet the needs of those in this population.”

The program will provide Chromebooks, home Wi-Fi access and other technical support. The collaborative partners will design and execute the online curriculum in conjunction with MPS instructional oversight, additional student tutors from Marquette University’s School of Education and operational assistance from Riverwater Partners. While initial efforts will focus on students at Ralph H. Metcalfe School, additional schools could be added as the program grows.

“We’ve already been contacted by Holy Redeemer Christian Academy and they will be starting on Monday and there’s been other schools outside our area in Madison and other communities asking how we got this done, so we are creating a toolkit,” Daniels said. “We’re going to be providing that to all outside of our reach so the program can expand past here.”

“Continuation of educational services during this unprecedented challenge must be preserved and made easily accessible to our students and families at all costs,” stated Dr. Keith Posley, superintendent of MPS in a press release.

Posley added, “That community stakeholders like the MKE Fellows, the Milwaukee Links, Marquette University, Chasing the Dream Foundation and Riverwater Partners have eagerly stepped forward as educational supporters is a clear indication of the commitment these community partners understand to be our obligation to Milwaukee students. It is essential that the learning process continues while schools are closed. We welcome the vision and efforts of this response to community needs.”

Daniels said that funding sources have come from private foundations and companies such as Hank Aaron’s Chasing the Dream Foundation. Attorney John Daniels, Jr. has also done an amazing job reaching out to community partners.

Many community stakeholders including Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Superstars, James Jones and Dr. George Koonce, and baseball legend Larry Hisle, have endorsed Five Pillars Tutoring.

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Popular Interests In This Article: Five Pillars Tutoring, Karen Stokes, Milwaukee Chapter of LINKS, MKE Fellows, Virtual Learning

Read More - Related Articles

  • Wisconsin Senate Passes Bill to Extend Medicaid Coverage for New Mothers
  • Milwaukee News Company Secures Partnership with Amazon
  • Milwaukee County Transit System Hits the Runway Celebrating 414 Day
  • Milwaukee’s Fresh Coast Jazz Festival Blends World-Class Talent and Community Impact
  • Milwaukee Common Council Approves $600,000 for Participatory Budgeting Program
Become Our Fan On Facebook
Find Us On Facebook


Follow Us On X
Follow Us On X

Editorials

Lakeshia Myers
Michelle Bryant
Dr. Kweku Akyirefi Amoasi formerly known as Dr. Ramel Smith

Journalists

Karen Stokes

Topics

Health Care & Wellness
Climate Change
Upcoming Events
Obituaries
Milwaukee NAACP

Politicians

David Crowley
Cavalier Johnson
Marcelia Nicholson
Governor Tony Evers
President Joe Biden
Vice President Kamala Harris
Former President Barack Obama
Gwen Moore
Milele A. Coggs
Spencer Coggs

Classifieds

Job Openings
Bid Requests
Req Proposals
Req Quotations
Apts For Rent

Contact Us

Milwaukee Courier
2003 W. Capitol Dr.
Milwaukee, WI 53206
Ph: 414.449.4860
Fax: 414.906.5383

Copyright © 2025 · Courier Communications | View Privacy Policy | Site built and maintained by Farrell Marketing Technology LLC
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.