Marcos A. Cruz is trying to change his city and the world \u2013 one block at a time.<\/p>\n
He was born and raised on Milwaukee\u2019s south side, and has lived on the same block for the last 15 of his 21 years. Moreover, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior is a block captain and community activist with the Layton Boulevard West Neighborhood Association.<\/p>\n
So in many ways, he\u2019s already using his lessons from the School of Education\u2019s department of educational policy and community studies. \u201cI am part of the neighborhood,\u201d Cruz said, \u201cand I\u2019m bringing the knowledge I get from the university back to the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s learned how to improve his block by working with neighborhood associations, city officials and his alderman. It started with flower planting and cleanups, then shifted to a water conservation project with the city. In summer 2015, the group used a small grant from the city to help pay for installing alley lighting on garages. \u201cA lot of neighbors didn\u2019t feel safe,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s changing, and next up is a summer block party. Residents in his 53215 ZIP code who once rarely spoke to each other now chat, and often mow lawns or shovel snow for elderly neighbors. Meanwhile, people there have gotten used to seeing Cruz going door to door.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them ask me, \u2018What\u2019s a young guy like you doing this for?\u2019\u201d Cruz said. \u201cI told them, \u2018This is my neighborhood. I want it to be a great place to live, and part of that is environment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a mix of young and old, families and singles, Hispanic and Caucasian. A neighborhood of historic Polish buildings and culture is absorbing infusions of new immigrants and their culture. Sometimes, there\u2019s a language barrier between newer Hispanic residents and longtime residents who are primarily Caucasian. \u201cBeing bilingual, I can reach both sides,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cGoing into isolation mode isn\u2019t good for the well-being of the community. We all live in the area, so we should all take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That philosophy has roots in both his family and his education. He and his mother co-captain the block. His high school, Pius XI, encouraged volunteer work and commitment to the community. Now, he\u2019s starting to take those lessons full-circle.<\/p>\n
Cruz recently started a work-study job as a mentor and adviser to young people at Hope House of Milwaukee. He hopes it boosts the graduation rate among local high schoolers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel I can make a difference by reaching out to them,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cIf they do graduate from high school, they feel that things are stacked against them and they can\u2019t afford to go to college. I tell them if I can do it, you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
51ÁÔÆæ junior and neighborhood block captain Marcos Cruz is using his School of Education lessons to help his south side Milwaukee community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":33064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[249,250],"section":[122,124],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[260],"uwmnews-feed":[347,148],"class_list":["post-33051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-community-engagement","tag-student-success","section-campus-community","section-students","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","related-coverage-community-engagement","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-education"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 15:38:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/835"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33065,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33051\/revisions\/33065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33051"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=33051"},{"taxonomy":"display_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_categories?post=33051"},{"taxonomy":"related-coverage","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related-coverage?post=33051"},{"taxonomy":"uwmnews-feed","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/uwmnews-feed?post=33051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}