Notre Dame Middle School

Friends

Being part of a community is more than just where you live. It’s how you live. Community means sharing the work . . . and the accomplishments. It means giving the gifts of time, talent, and resources, knowing that you are creating a legacy in which others will do the same. These organizations help shape the character, cultural interests, and well being of our students. Thanks to them, the NDMS community – and its impact – reaches far beyond these walls.

Northwestern Mutual
NDMS is a partner school of Northwestern Mutual and they share a long-standing relationship. Northwestern Mutual sponsors the “Read to Achieve” program for our students that motivates them to read. Northwestern Mutual also provides our students with the opportunities to attend numerous environmental field trips through the Schlitz Audubon Center including hiking and canoeing and other events in Milwaukee area. Last year, all of our students were able to attend the “Quest for Immortality” exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Without the generous support of Northwestern Mutual, our students would not be able to participate in such a wide array of educational field trips and activities that they do.

Tyme Out Youth Center
More NDMS students attend this camp than any other camp we offer. Located in Nashotah, the TYME OUT Youth Center provides a welcoming environment where children and adolescents are encouraged to deepen the commitments, convictions, and values by which they guide their lives. Weekly overnight camps offered by the Youth Center include: creative writing, leadership for young Catholic teens, CampBrainbusters, Rockets & Rollercoasters Science Camp, soccer, art, and dance. The TYME OUT staff offers character education as well. NDMS staff and students made use of the Center for our retreats. The expert staff led us in group activities, writing, and reflection on our all school theme of respect. It was an enriching experience for all!

Metavante Corporation and the YMCA One-On-One Mentoring Program
All eighth grade students share their last year at NDMS with a caring mentor from the Metavante Corporation. With the help of the YMCA and their mentors, students work on goal-setting, team-building skills, homework, and critical thought about core values. To culminate the experience, the entire group of mentors and students collectively participates in a community-service project.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish continues to be a strong supporter of our efforts here at NDMS. At the beginning of the school year, we are able to ensure that all of our students are prepared with adequate school supplies thanks to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s generous donations. Throughout the year, parishioners volunteer in our After School Enrichment Program as study-hall tutors and each month volunteers also provide a week’s supply of after-school snacks. The volunteers also prepare an annual Spaghetti Dinner for all NDMS students and their families – they even serve and clean up afterward. Their impact reaches beyond this campus: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton has also provided scholarships and assistance to our graduates as they enter private high schools in the area.

Marquette University
Through its Service Learning and Community Action Programs, Marquette University has provided the volunteers that have helped to make the After School Enrichment Program a success. Smaller groups of students enjoy interactive presentations on physics and women’s health and the University also offers scholarships to its summer Golden Eagles Basketball Camp. Several of our graduates have even reaped the benefits of participation in Marquette’s Upward Bound – an intensive pre-college program that prepares our students for the rigors of higher education.

Hispano-American Medical Association of Wisconsin
This group of professionals from Wisconsin has provided financial support to NDMS for the past six years. The Association has also eagerly provided positive role models for our students in the form of speakers for our annual events and volunteers for our various programs.

GE Healthcare
The employees of GE Medical consistently provide a backpack full of supplies for each member of the student body! This incredible generosity allows the students of NDMS to begin each school year fully equipped to succeed.

Milwaukee Shakespeare Company
This organization offers weekly drama instruction during the After School Enrichment Program. Our students develop leadership and drama skills through courses in speaking verse, basic acting, and stage performance. The Milwaukee Shakespeare Company helps our students understand that the messages in the plays and poems of William Shakespeare are still relevant in the lives of young people today. The language of the Bard, when presented in an enjoyable and exciting context, can transform ordinary words into powerful images and turn the theater into the most exciting of classrooms. The Milwaukee Shakespeare Company also provides several scholarships to its two-week professional theater-training program at the Broadway Theater. Selected students are instructed in stage movement, voice and speech, improvisation, contemporary-scene study, classical-scene study, and musical theater!

I.J. Seher Boys & Girls Club
As part of the After School Enrichment Program, NDMS students travel on a weekly basis to the I.J. Seher Boys & Girls Club to use their swimming pool.

Elm Grove Tennis Club
Recognizing the athletic talent of our students, the Elm Grove Tennis Club has created a tennis program for the girls of NDMS. The program provides our students with weekly tennis instruction as well as the opportunity to engage in positive competition with one another. Initiated in 1999, this program has proven to be a favorite for our students.

Sewing Club
The Sewing Club within the After School Enrichment Program has been part of the NDMS community since the school began. Each week caring and dedicated volunteers armed with sewing machines
and yards of fabric instruct our students on sewing skills and the latest techniques. Together they make everything from hats and hot pads to pillows and tote bags!

United Community Center
NDMS is proud to have formed a neighborhood partnership with the UCC, allowing our students to participate in a comprehensive fitness and nutrition program. Via the After School Enrichment Program and Graduate Support Programs, our students and graduates are instructed in dance aerobics, work-out routines, and kick-boxing. They also receive valuable lessons about healthy living and eating right. Thanks to the UCC, our girls have been given another exciting opportunity to care for their bodies, their minds, and their spirits.

Women’s Speaker Series
On Friday afternoons throughout the school year, prominent Hispanic women from the Milwaukee community are invited to NDMS to make presentations to our entire student body. These women share their inspiring stories of personal and professional success with our students, demonstrating firsthand – from fellow Hispanic women – that a college education, meaningful employment, and a prosperous family are realistic goals that can be achieved. These speakers are true role models for our girls.

Shalom Club
SHALOM is the International Network of the Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation. Shalom ministers in such a way that it expresses the values and attitudes of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation on the personal, communal, national, and international levels. Part of the After School Enrichment Program, the Shalom Club has attracted many NDMS students who examine critical issues and take action that leads to reconciliation, solidarity with the oppressed, the promotion of human dignity, collaboration with ecological movements to safeguard the earth, and the establishment of a culture of peace.