Vision
Within the next three years, our vision is to build Learn the Seas ~ America into an exemplary youth educational community in greater metropolitan Milwaukee by providing challenging and compelling, academic and character development of adolescent youth through freshwater, marine, and other outdoor education experiences. With annual funding of $1.2 Million, we build youth through:
a college-ready, charter high school program for our most underserved urban youth;
career development and pathways for future green-collar employment;
preparation and practice for service and/or work within water-based and maritime-based industries and agencies.
Mission
We build boats and adolescents academically, physically, and personally for higher education, career development, and service for a more sustainable world.
Through freshwater and marine education experiences, the Inland Seas Charter School of Expeditionary Learning combines a challenging, college-bound academic curriculum and outdoor adventure to prepare adolescents for higher education, career development, and service.
Our History
Learn the Seas – America, Inc. (LSA), founded in 2004, is an experience-based learning community whose mission is dedicated to the academic and character formation of primarily urban, underserved youth through freshwater and marine education programs. LSA currently operates the Inland Seas Charter High School of Expeditionary Learning and RAFT (Real Apprenticeships For Teens), an after-school and summer jobs-readiness program. LSA currently employs 15 staff, and the school’s operating budget this year is $1.1 million.
William Nimke founded the organization in 2004 and is the executive director. For more than ten years, he worked with Pier Wisconsin Ltd. in varying roles as education director, director of advancement and partnerships, and board member. The crowning jewel of that project was the construction of the 137-foot, three-masted schooner Denis Sullivan. In 2000, he received the Informal Science Educator of the Year Award from the National Science Teachers Association. It was onboard the schooner Denis Sullivan that he began to understand the unique power of the ship as a teaching tool and the transformation in learning and character formation it can have in individuals and groups.
The Inland Seas School of Expeditionary Learning, which has 95 students this year, combines a college-bound academic curriculum and outdoor adventure to prepare adolescents for higher education and life-long learning journeys. ISSEL provides a challenging and compelling high school program through study of the ecology, cultures, and histories of our local rivers, the Great Lakes, and the world’s oceans.
RAFT (Real Apprenticeships for Teens) is an enrichment and jobs readiness program. Youth ages 13-17 choose to participate in wooden boatbuilding, bicycle mechanics and repair, or environmental monitoring. Summer participants complete a paid apprenticeship program and become eligible to be hired as part-time instructors.
Now in its fourth full year, it is vital that LSA be able to expand its capacities to provide dynamic experiential education programs to an increasing number of urban, underserved adolescents in the City of Milwaukee. In the fall of 2007, LSA moved into a newly renovated 15,000 sf facility at 2156 S. 4th Street along the Kinnickinnic River in order to fulfill its mission to youth and families. Approximately 45 percent of the student population are African American, 45 percent are Hispanic, and 10 percent are either Caucasian or mixed. Since opening in January 2006, the Inland Seas School has grown from 33 to 95 students, with plans to attain an enrollment of 115-120 by next year.
Over the past year key financial support has been awarded from Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Wisconsin Energy Foundation, Safe & Sound, Inc., the Waukesha County Community Foundation, the Helen Bader Foundation, Elizabeth A. Brinn Foundation, Safe & Sound, Inc., and several local businesses. In 2008, LSA was presented a $100,000 Matching Challenge Grant from an anonymous donor. LSA successfully raised more than $120,000 toward the matched funds!
Additional community support and collaborations include the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, Bike Federation of Wisconsin, Milwaukee WaterKeeper (formerly Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers), and River Revitalization Foundation.