While the challenges facing Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin are great, no single institution is better positioned to help address them than 51ÁÔÆæ, Chancellor Mark Mone told the UW System Board of Regents on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The region struggles with a talent shortage as well as vast inequities<\/a> that include some of the largest wealth and education gaps in the nation. A new ranking this week said Wisconsin was the worst in the nation<\/a> when it came to racial equity in education. In southeastern Wisconsin, white students graduate from college at more than twice the rate of Black and Hispanic residents, and white residents\u2019 median annual household income of $75,500 is $30,000 more than Hispanic households and more than double that of Black households.<\/p>\n 51ÁÔÆæ is helping address this problem with programs like Moon Shot for Equity, which aims to improve graduation rates for all students and close achievement gaps, and M3<\/sup>, a partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools and Milwaukee Area Technical College aimed at enrolling more students in college and helping them succeed.<\/p>\n The new Student Success Talent Pipeline Initiative, funded by a $500,000 Department of Workforce Development grant, is a partnership between 51ÁÔÆæ and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce to place 100 or more students from underrepresented populations in paid internships with Milwaukee-area corporations over the next two years.<\/p>\n This program will help provide the talent for MMAC\u2019s Region of Choice initiative, in which Milwaukee-area companies have committed to increasing the number of Black and Hispanic workers by 15% and Black and Hispanic managers by 25% by 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the largest provider of talent, with the largest population of diverse students \u2013 by far \u2013 in this region, with nearly 80% of our graduates entering fast-growing, high-demand areas,\u201d Mone said.<\/p>\nThe largest provider of talent<\/h3>\n