Rickie Weeks and Brewers Community Foundation Team Up To Support "Teach for America-Milwaukee"

MILWAUKEE – Brewers Community Foundation (BCF) and Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks have partnered to serve as sponsors for the 2012-2013 “Teach For America, Sponsor-A-Teacher” initiative in Milwaukee.  Overall, the program includes a grant of $30,000 from Weeks and BCF to Teach For America.

“I’m proud to support the work of Teach For America to provide local kids with excellent educational opportunities,” Weeks said.  “Our students are Milwaukee’s future leaders.  Teach For America teachers are working alongside other excellent local teachers to help put them on the pathway to success.”

Weeks recognizes the importance of a quality education and has committed to sponsor Marquette University graduate Darnell Hamilton, a high school special education teacher at James Madison Academic Campus. Brewers Community Foundation will partner with Teach For America over the upcoming school year.  Through the sponsorship, Weeks will receive regular updates on Hamilton’s classroom and will have the opportunity to volunteer in special programs, including next spring’s Teach For America Week as a guest teacher.

Teach For America is the national corps of top recent college graduates who commit to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to expand educational opportunity. Teach For America’s network includes over 10,000 corps members teaching in 46 regions across the country and a national force of nearly 28,000 alumni at the forefront of efforts to end educational inequity.

Since 2009, Teach For America has brought over 180 teachers to Milwaukee to teach in Milwaukee Public Schools, Charter and Choice schools. In the 2012-13 school year, 95 Teach For America corps members will impact the lives of more than 6,000 students.  The organization’s mission is to “ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education.” 

Weeks, Hamilton and Cecelia Gore, Executive Director of the Brewers Community Foundation, will participate in a pregame meet-and-greet before tomorrow’s Brewers game at Miller Park.