United Negro College Fund hosts 'Empower Me' event to help students with scholarships and applying for college

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) hosted its 12th annual Empower Me event in Milwaukee on Friday, Nov. 11. Instead of a traditional school day, students from 25 local high schools spent the day listening to panels, talking to college representatives and turning in scholarship applications. 

"We are offering students scholarships; We are doing on-site admissions," said Stacey Spratt the director of events and the Empower Me Tour for the UNCF. 

More than 750 juniors and seniors from local high schools were at the Wisconsin Center Friday to learn more about the next steps after high school. The event had recruiters from dozens of colleges, including 12 local colleges and 20 historically black college and universities. 

"It's something I've been looking forward to my whole life, making my parents proud, graduating high school and making my whole family proud," said Mamah Konneh a senior at Hamilton High School. 

Spratt says the goal isn't just to get kids to college but get them through it. That's why the event offered on the spot scholarships and school enrollment. 

"For our black and brown kids to have an opportunity to go to college for free, to know that they are worthy to attend college, to know that opportunities that are here," said Spratt. 

And for senior Carlos Alonso, that support means everything. 

"Coming from the southside of Milwaukee, where a lot of people don't get to go to college because of money, I'm really happy that I get to see scholarships opened up to me," said Alonso.