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Cheering erupts from the 80 middle school students anxiously sitting in the Shorewood High School auditorium. The students are cheering for themselves and the work they’ve put into their middle school production of the musical “The Wiz.” What makes this production unique is that two schools are involved, Shorewood Intermediate School and Messmer Preparatory School. |
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Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero |
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Shorewood and Messmer are about one mile apart geographically, but worlds apart economically. Shorewood’s population consists largely of white, affluent students. Messmer’s private, Catholic school is predominantly black and urban. This collaboration is the idea of Maripat Wilkinson, a full-time drama, speech and English teacher in her first year at Messmer High School. She had been the full-time drama teacher at Shorewood High School, but when the program was reduced to an extracurricular activity, she was hired at Messmer. She currently teaches extracurricular drama at Shorewood, Messmer Prep and High School.Before Wilkinson, Messmer Prep had no drama department. Shorewood Intermediate School students seemed to take theirs for granted. “Shorewood kids didn’t realize how good they had it,” said Wilkinson. “At the same time, the Messmer kids were thinking that they wanted to be up there on stage, too.” Thanks to Wilkinson’s vision, the idea for a combined middle school production was born. They’ve been working together since January. “The Catholic environment at Messmer makes me a better, stronger person and (allows me) to have as much positive impact as I can,” she said. Her attitude is not lost on these students. At one rehearsal one could see the appreciation in the eyes of the students as they sang and twirled across the stage. To read the entire article on these Messmer students:
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Milwaukee-area businesses are generating interests in engineering and technology by providing money, moral support and workspace for high school students who are competing by creating robots. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a multinational organization that aspires to get students interested in science, math, engineering and technology. The Manchester, N.H.-based nonprofit was launched in 1989 and operates the FIRST Robotics competition in which teams of high school students, sponsored and assisted by local companies and volunteers, design, assemble and test a robot capable of performing a specified task in competition with other teams.
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When word got out about Messmer's interest in FIRST, scores of people came to aid the team. Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) students Lauren Halatek and Erik Zurkoski heard of Messmer's endeavor and immediately volunteered to help. Halatek founded the Milwaukee FIRST Support Organization (MFSO) at MSOE in 2002. "(MFSO) is a club organization to promote FIRST robotics within the community," Halatek said. The club has about 20 active members and sends MSOE students to assist the Milwaukee-area teams, including Messmer, Thomas Moore, Bradley Tech and Rufus King high schools. "Messmer needed mentors because a lot of the team members are young, so they haven't been through the basic physics or engineering courses," Halatek said. "Basically we're here to sort of broaden their knowledge." Competing teams also offer friendly advice and aid each other. The team from Bradley Tech opened up its facilities for Messmer to use on Saturdays. Teams throughout the state exchanged excess monies they've received from businesses to aid each other in building an ideal robot. During a luncheon, Thomas Bentley III, chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Bentley World Packaging, heard C.G. Schmidt Construction Inc. vice-president Craig Coursin talk about the importance of business and community involvement in a program such as FIRST.  |
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"(Volunteering) won't make you a nickel, but it is good for the morale of your people," Bentley said. "Business-wise it's a 'feel good' thing. It's a project that makes great sense." About 15 kids participated in building the Messmer robot. Messmer had the option of working jointly with another high school's robotics team. "But we decided it was important we have our own team" said Richard Anderson, another Messmer FIRST robotics team advisor. Eric Pearine, a freshman at Messmer, plans to participate in the FIRST competition next year. "I like the idea we're building an actual robot that works," Pearine said. "The most difficult part is learning about the electronics and where they go, how they work." To read the entire article on these Messmer students: |
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