Lakeland University has been awarded a pair of grants totaling $275,000 from the The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation to move the Office for the Advancement of Free Enterprise Education to the university’s Milwaukee center and expand its economic and financial literacy programs.
The Bradley Foundation-backed OAFEE was established two years ago as an outreach division of the now-closed Business and Economics Academy of Milwaukee, a charter school on Milwaukee’s north side, offering economic and financial literacy seminars to community members. The school closed in June.
The Bradley Foundation grant will move the OAFEE to Lakeland University’s Milwaukee Center, 9000 W. Chester St. and expand its programming.
New programs will include:
- Economics for Heroes: A series of two-day, face-to-face, web-supported seminars on personal finance and free-market economics for military veterans, police officers, firefighters and their spouses.
- Economics for Opinion Leaders: A series of two-day, face-to-face, web-supported seminars on free-market economics for Wisconsin opinion leaders, including teachers, clergy, managers of nonprofits, elected officials and media professionals, to increase their understanding of free enterprise.
- Entrepreneurship Economics Community Partnership: A five-day, face-to-face, on-campus education program for high school juniors and seniors to increase their understanding of free enterprise and stimulate their interest in starting a business and working in the private sector.
- Economic Episodes in American History: Workshops for Wisconsin high school U.S. History teachers on integrating economics into their history curriculum.
Mark Schug, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will be named OAFEE program director and a seminar instructor. Scott Niederjohn, dean of Lakeland’s School of Business and Entrepreneurship and Charlotte and Walter Kohler Professor of Economics, will serve as OAFEE senior program advisor and a seminar instructor.
The gift comes on the heels of another recent $250,000 grant from the Bradley Foundation to support Lakeland University’s new cooperative education program that allows students to gain professional work experience with area companies while earning wages and scholarships to minimize post-graduate student debt.
