Learn More About Madison College’s Economic Impact
If you live and work in Wisconsin, your future is tied to the success and prosperity of Madison College graduates. Firefighters, nurses, healthcare workers. police officers, engineers, architects, business leaders, culinary arts and baking professionals, IT professionals, advanced manufacturing specialists, entrepreneurs and more all get their start at Madison College. By helping students reduce or eliminate educational debt, you enable graduates to perform better at work, contribute to their families’ prosperity and improve the overall economic impact of our region. The future of Wisconsin is tied to the success and prosperity of Madison College graduates. Madison College impacts the next generation of workers by continuing to offer transformative opportunities to well-deserving, hardworking students. It will immeasurably impact every person invested in the future of our community.
If you are a company looking to support students on their journey in your field please read more about establishing a named fund or contact us to have a conversation.
“Many of us spent late May and June, 2020 watching as this country grappled with police violence and continuing racism. Wondering how we can help change things for the better. Maybe we joined in demonstrations, educated ourselves on black history and racism or supported the efforts of anti-racism groups. Maybe we persevered with the work we were already doing with more urgency than before. Maybe we constructively talked about race with friends and coworkers for the first time, ever.” Meg and Tyler wanted to make a lasting change to move towards equality and representation in the community. In that spirit, we have established the Pay it FRWRD Scholarship Fund to help finance a person of color to attend the criminal justice program at Madison College. This scholarship has been established to help remove barriers on a young person of color’s path to be represented and to increase diversity in the criminal justice field to bring more empathy and understanding to persons of color.
As the COVID-19 crisis continued to unfold, it became clear that students had delayed decisions for the future, including whether to enroll in classes. At the same time, we saw the needs of our student body continuing to grow. In response, the Madison College Foundation reopened and extended the fall 2020 scholarship application until mid-June to ensure students had more time to apply for help as they navigate the realities of this pandemic.
Over 250 new applications came in during this extension. This brings the total number of applications to 760 for the fall 2020 semester, nearly double the number of applications normally seen for the fall semester application.
If you would like to help meet these needs, please consider a contribution to our Smart Future Scholarship fund today.
The Supreme Court has ruled to block the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This affects many of our students’ and community members’ lives.
According to the American Association of Community Colleges, “Community colleges serve the majority of underrepresented students in the United States, including many Dreamers that have only known America as their home and work hard to attain higher education to better themselves and their communities. Community college education is an on-ramp to the American Dream for citizens and Dreamers alike.”
Thank you for your continued support of access for all community college students.
In response to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, the college and foundation created a student emergency support fund to ensure access to emergency funds to protect the health and safety of students and families struggling during this pandemic. This fund is designed to help lessen the burden from: job loss, temporary layoff, coronavirus medical expenses, food insecurity and other housing related expenses. Thanks to the generosity of the community, we continue to raise funds to help students with emergency needs. Since the campus closed in mid-March, over 1,000 students applied for assistance, and we continue to receive more requests each day. More than 900 students have received assistance through privately raised dollars and CARES Act funds!
Below are a few testimonials from students who have received financial support during this crisis.
“In this time of uncertainty for everyone at the Madison College, the Emergency Funding service is a resource of great value. I feel very blessed for being a recipient of this program, and I lack words to thank you. This fund lifted up a big burden from my shoulders allowing me to refocus on my academic goals for the semester. Thank you very much dear donors, may God bless you all.”
“I honestly do not know what I would have done if I had not been blessed with receiving assistance from the Emergency Funding. This has taken a HUGE weight off of my shoulders during this VERY trying time we all are facing. The fact that I can rest assured knowing that a huge chunk of my electric bill was paid for brings tears to my eyes. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! You all are my heroes!”
“Emergency Funding has benefited me by allowing me to put food on my table. Without this funding, who knows how long me and my family would have gone without food. It helped me relieve some of the stress that has come from the coronavirus.”
Kevin Foley, an Administrative Manager at Madison College embarked on a fundraising adventure to help Madison College students during this time of need. “I have had time to reflect in the past 4 weeks about how fortunate we all are to work at such a great place like Madison College, where we all still have jobs and we are still able to be paid to do what we love. Many of the students that we serve do not have this same privilege,” says Foley. On May 15, 2020 (Madison College’s original graduation date), Kevin rode his bicycle between all 9 Madison College Campuses (approximately 170 miles). All of the proceeds go directly to the students. Kevin Foley raised over $15,000 through this fundraiser.
We find ourselves coming together to ensure the health and safety of our students, staff, families, neighbors and communities as COVID-19 pandemic continues to escalate. We want to share these important updates with you.
Madison College donated 3,755 pounds of food to The River Food Pantry after the college shut down all of its buildings and cleared out its pantry shelves.
According to a Facebook post from the food bank, two minivans had to make three trips in order to drop off all of the food.
Donations included canned goods, cereal, cheese and fresh produce, among other things.
During the college shutdown, students who face food insecurity can apply to the Student Emergency Support Fund and receive grocery store gift cards.
Read the news coverage here.
Many people are doing what they can right now to step up and help during the coronavirus pandemic and that includes staff at Madison College. The college has lent a dozen ventilators to different hospitals including UnityPoint Health – Meriter, SSM Health St. Mary’s, UW health, Sauk Prairie Healthcare, and Upland Hills Health Hospital & Clinics.
“We are also donating supplies that we have that the area hospitals utilize so I thought if we have it sitting on our shelves because our students can’t be here to use it, they might as well use it,” said Amy Setchell with Madison College.
Those supplies included personal protective equipment such as N95 masks, gloves and oxygen supplies.
Read the news coverage here.
There are 323 students identified as Scholars of Promise program students in three cohorts. To date, Madison College Foundation has made 218 awards to Scholars of Promise students totaling $309,106. The average GPA of these students is 3.1!
Additionally, through Madison College’s Digital Equity initiative, Scholars of Promise students were able to receive free laptops to use for the academic year. The goal of this initiative is to reduce the barrier of students not able to access technology while away from campus. Over 73 students have received laptops! The program is hoping that it helps improve student retention and academic success.