County Executive, and Bay View alum David Crowley, inspire Bay View Students, Encouraging Them to Break Through the Glass Ceiling and Achieve Greatness.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley sparked curiosity and engagement at Bay View High School, his alma mater when he drew nine blue dots on the smart board and posed a challenge to students: connect all nine dots using just four straight lines without lifting the marker. The seemingly simple puzzle soon became a powerful metaphor for overcoming obstacles and thinking outside the box, as Crowley encouraged students to push beyond their limits and explore creative solutions.
Crowley spoke to students about his experiences living in the City of Milwaukee and growing up the hardships that his family faced including several moves around the city. His moves around the city gave him perspective on the needs of the citizens of Milwaukee. He himself was educated in Milwaukee Public Schools having attended a couple of MPS elementary schools before the 66-passenger coupe, AKA the Milwaukee County Transit buses, brought him to Bay View High School for his high school education.
He related that while he was at Bay View, he wasn’t the model student and had a modest 2.3 GPA. When he got out of high school he didn’t go to college and graduate right away. As a matter of fact, Crowley just graduated from UWM two months ago. He said that his biggest accomplishment was graduating from college two months ago because he proved something to himself. When he dropped out of college years ago, he had a .8 GPA. When he graduated two months ago, he graduated with a 3.3 GPA. He did all of this because as he said, ” I didn’t want a glass ceiling hovering over my head.” With this in mind, he left the students with a nugget of advice. That advice is this, “You have one responsibility. That responsibility to shatter the glass box and realize your full potential.”
Crowley’s journey in public life started when he worked for numerous non-profit organizations. In this work, he did community organizing and learned the essential skill of networking. In 2020, David Crowley became the first African American Leader elected to serve as the County Executive for Milwaukee County and the youngest to serve in this role.
As Crowley ended his presentation, he related that, “It is great to be the first, but I don’t want to be the last.” He left students with the sentiment that people are afraid to learn because they are afraid to fail. He told students to challenge their power and potential and made sure to leave them with inspiration from the Star Wars character Yoda. “Do or do not, there is no try.”
