Milwaukee, WI

Teach For America corps member brings his love for math to Milwaukee

Published

1 year ago

January 12, 2025

Teach For America corps member brings his love for math to Milwaukee

Hamidreza Majidi developed a love for math and started teaching it in his home country of Iran two decades ago.

After a lengthy career in Iran’s capital city of Tehran, Majidi, 57, is now bringing his passion to Milwaukee as a corps member of Teach For America Milwaukee. Teach For America, or TFA, is a leadership development program that trains people to become educators and leaders in local communities across the country.

‘A long, long process’

Majidi’s journey to teach in an American classroom began soon after he and his family arrived in the United States in 2013, following the lead of his brother who had lived here since 1974.

Majidi settled in San Diego and initially enrolled in English as a second language classes at San Diego Miramar College to improve his English, driven by his dream of teaching in America.

Despite having the necessary certification to teach in Iran, Majidi had to meet new requirements to teach in the U.S.

“I was a teacher in Tehran, and I knew I wanted to be a teacher, but I understood that to be a math teacher I needed to get a bachelor’s degree and a certificate,” Majidi said. “But I knew it was a long, long process.”

Following his English as a second language classes, Majidi pursued an associate degree in applied math. During that time, he worked as a math tutor while studying, gaining experience that now helps him in the classroom.

From there, he followed his daughter to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was accepted to study physics. They both graduated in May, and Majidi started with Teach For America that summer.

Now he is working as a math teacher at Milwaukee’s Carmen High School of Science and Technology- South campus, a charter school located at 1712 S. 32nd St.

Lessons learned outside the classroom

Majidi moved to America with his entire family in his mid-40s. He said there were many times when he wanted to quit on his long journey to becoming a teacher in the U.S., but he learned the importance of patience and perseverance.

“I’m not very young. So imagine that being the head of the family, moving to the United States around age 45, it wasn’t easy to get to this point,” he said. “It was very hard. I had to support my family and there were financial issues. Just many, many different things.”

Despite the challenges that came with pursuing his education and dreams of becoming a teacher, Majidi emphasized that his love of math and wanting others to love it too kept him going.

“Someone told me that pressure made diamonds,” he said. ”It was an amazing statement for me. So the important thing that I learned is that if you are patient, follow your dreams, be flexible and keep going.”

Two graduates, one family

Dorsa Majidi called her dad’s hard work exciting and unbelievable.

“It’s not that I didn’t believe in him because I do,” she said. “But with personal hardships and working to provide and going to school, I just thought my dad would need more time.”

But she said her father has always had an unwavering determination in everything he’s done.

“He really cares about people and his passions, and when he is passionate about something, he puts all of himself into that thing whether it’s his family or school or his students,” she said.

Bringing individuals like Majidi into communities and empowering them to be the best teachers that they can be is the main aim of Teach for America, said Michael Nguyen, executive director.

“TFA recruits those who have leadership experience in their field and have alignment with TFA’s mission,” Nguyen said.

Understanding culture

Majidi said he is taking everything he has learned into the classroom with him.

“My first experience with math was terrible, so for a long time, I didn’t like it,” he said. “But I’ve learned it’s all in how you teach it. When you understand it, it feels great, and I want to find ways to make it enjoyable for students.”

Majidi said it’s important to understand the different cultures and dynamics of the students he’s serving.

“As teachers, we need to make ourselves familiar with the culture, because it is very important to the area you’re working,” he said. “Whether students are African American, Hispanic or Spanish, we need to know something about this culture before diving into that position.”

For more information

For more information, visit the Teach For America website.

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Milwaukee, WI

Four new community-powered fridges open on Milwaukee’s North Side

Published

8 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Four new community-powered fridges open on Milwaukee’s North Side

Community members and city leaders celebrated the opening of four new community-powered fridges on the North Side of Milwaukee. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Friday, Feb. 27, at Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, 3624 W. North Ave., to mark the occasion.

The effort to fight food scarcity by opening community-powered fridges comes after several grocery stores closed in the area, creating a food desert.

Ald. Russell W. Stamper, II, emceed the ribbon cutting ceremony for the grand opening of four new community-powered fridges.

District 15 Ald. Russell W. Stamper II, who saw several grocery stores in his district close over the past few years, served as the event’s emcee.

“We could either complain about the problem, or we could come together to find a solution,” Stamper said.

People fill up the community-powered fridge with fresh produce.

In July 2025, a Pick ‘n Save on the North Side closed, prompting the opening of a community-powered fridge at Tricklebee Café in the Sherman Park and Uptown area. Since then, several other grocery stores have closed in the area.

This led Stamper, FEED MKE, Metcalfe Park Community Bridges and One MKE to open four more community-powered fridges.

Christie Melby-Gibbons, executive director of Tricklebee Café, talks about opening the first community-powered fridge at her cafe.

Christie Melby-Gibbons, executive director of Tricklebee Café, talked about the organization’s community-powered fridge. About a week ago, the fridge was empty for the first time since its launch, so staff turned to their online community for support.

“Within 20 minutes, a woman came in with bags of food and filled the fridge for less than $100,” Melby-Gibbons said.

Danell Cross (right), executive director at Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, Metcalfe Park resident Farina Brooks (left), and other attendees applaud during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The community-powered fridge network is run by residents on a take-what-you-need, leave-what-you-can model. Taking a grassroots approach to solving food insecurity in the area, community members provide fresh produce and other healthy food options to ensure that their neighbors have access to nutritious foods.

Residents line up to fill the community-powered fridge with fresh produce.

“Everybody deserves to eat. I can’t go to sleep at night knowing my neighbors are hungry,” said Melody McCurtis, deputy director of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges.

Here’s a list of all the community-powered fridges:

Metcalfe Park Community Bridges

3624 W. North Ave.

Rooted & Rising- Washington Park

3940 W. Lisbon Ave.

Sherman Park Community Association

3526 W. Fond du Lac Ave.

Dominican Center

2470 W. Locust St.

Tricklebee Café

4424 W. North Ave.

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Milwaukee, WI

At the Bar

Published

20 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

The bar can be “the place” where memories are made, friendships blossom, and stories live forever. This episode of Real Stories MKE features stories from Dasha Kelly, Kristia Wildflower, Shep Crumrine, and Katelyn Nye. Real Stories MKE is hosted by Kim Shine and Joel Dresang with support from producer Jasmine Gonzalez and audio engineer Sam Woods.

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Milwaukee, WI

Pat Murphy Hints Brewers Landed Star Infielder in Caleb Durbin Trade

Published

1 day ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Pat Murphy Hints Brewers Landed Star Infielder in Caleb Durbin Trade

The Milwaukee Brewers were one of the more active teams in the league this offseason and it was one of the more shocking storylines to follow all winter.

They opted to trade Freddy Peralta to the New York Mets, which was a blockbuster deal, but it was expected. Peralta was on an expiring contract, and the Brewers were unlikely to be able to land a long-term deal with him. Milwaukee would much rather have control of Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams for the next five to seven years rather than a singular year of Peralta.

But they also traded Isaac Collins to the Kansas City Royals and Caleb Durbin to the Boston Red Sox. The Collins deal was a head scratcher, but the Durbin deal was the most shocking move of Milwaukee’s offseason.

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The Brewers traded Durbin and two other infielders to Boston in exchange for Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton, and Shane Drohan. Harrison is the biggest addition of the trade. Drohan has already flashed dominant potential this spring. Hamilton, who struggled last season, seemingly has the full belief of Brewers manager Pat Murphy.

David Hamilton could soon become a star for the Brewers

Milwaukee Brewers infielder David Hamilton fields a grounder during spring training workouts Monday, February 16, 2026, at American Family Fields of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. | Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“He’s got so much ability in there, and he’s got experience, and he might be a utility player but I think he can be really good for us. I think he can take his offensive game to a whole other level,” Murphy said when talking about Hamilton, per Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy.

Last season, Hamilton slashed .198/.257/.333 with a .590 OPS and a 63 OPS+. It was his third year in the big leagues and his second full year at the level and he’s yet to post an OPS+ over 100. But he’s still been worth 3.6 WAR over the last two years because of his defense and baserunning. The issue has been his bat. Even when he hit .248 in 2024, his OPS was under .700.

But Murphy seemingly believes Hamilton could take the next step at the plate, which would set him up to be a very good platoon infielder and versatile bat. He has the chance to quietly develop into a star with the Brewers if he can get his OPS over .700 and closer to .750. Obviously, this isn’t going to be easy, but Murphy seems to believe he’s closer to this breakout than many fans assume.

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