Last year, the Phi Theta Kappa (Beta Mu Kappa chapter) students were able to ensure warm hands for 55 area children during the cold Wisconsin winter via our Mitten Tree Drive. We’re doing it again on all three campuses and need YOUR help to decorate our trees and spread some love! Let’s do even better this year! The donated mittens we collect will be delivered to the Boys & Girls Club of Fond du Lac, Boys & Girls Club of Washington County and the Boys & Girls Club of the Tri County Area at the end of the drive. Donations are being accepted November 1 – 22.
Mitten trees will be located outside the libraries on each of our campuses. Whether you donate one pair or many, each will touch a heart!
In addition to Phi Theta Kappa, Moraine Park has a NEW Academic Honor Society. Students who maintain a 3.5 GPA or above after obtaining at least 12 college credits towards an associate degree are invited to join the honor society. Check out our web page for more information on PTK and AHS.
In celebration of Every Child a Reader – Children’s Book Week, student volunteers at each MPTC campus library will sticker, bookmark, and pack 1,500 books for rural elementary and middle school children in our district. Each child will receive their very own new book focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
“Moraine Park students and employees are committed to helping fulfill community needs, sharing their time and talent, connecting and volunteering to help and improve the communities where we live, work and go to school,” MPTC Communications Manager Kristina Haensgen said. “This United we Read with MPTC project is the perfect way for our community engagement sponsorship dollars to have a great impact for 1,500 kids across our district!”
“When I contacted my friends at our United Ways this summer to talk about possibilities for a fall student volunteer project, I never imagined what a wonderful idea they would have; and how wide our impact could be!” Student Community Impact Coordinator Anne Lemke said. “Thank you so much for all the collaboration and teamwork to make this great project successful! Also a shoutout to 4imprint for their generous donation of bright green MPTC logo gift bags for each book!”
Legal Action of WI is coming to Moraine Park’s Fond du Lac Campus! Tuesday, October 26 from 3-6 pm, legal experts will be on-site to help our students. Sign up here for a time to get free, confidential legal help! Walk-ins will also be accepted.
MPTC is partnering with Legal Action of Wisconsin and the statewide Lawyers for Learners project to help our students overcome legal obstacles, and empower them to move forward to achieve educational and career goals!
Whether a student is already involved in a court case or has a question about a situation that could involve a legal problem, Lawyers for Learners can help! Legal experts will meet with students either virtually or in person to explain legal processes, answer questions and provide advice on topics such as driver’s license issues, traffic issues, criminal issues, bankruptcy, immigration, housing, family matters, and more.
“What an awesome community partnership opportunity for MPTC!” Jackie Morgan, MPTC Student Community Equity and Engagement Specialist said. “Many times, legal issues can cause a student to put their education and career on hold. Affording legal help is definitely a challenge for our students. Partnering with Legal Action of WI and the Lawyers for Learners Project connects our students with the legal resources they need.”
MPTC Paralegal and Criminal Justice students are volunteers for our onsite legal event, with ongoing service-learning and paid internships available thru Legal Action of WI.
“What a great experiential learning opportunity for our students choosing careers in the legal or criminal justice fields,” Anne Lemke, Student Community Impact Coordinator said. “Hands-on, real-world experience, plus a way to impact your community is the best way to learn!”
To reach Legal Action of WI, contact Claire at cms@legalaction.org or 920-393-9352.
Did you know Moraine Park is a Fair Trade College? Actually we are the very first Fair Trade technical college in the U.S. Way to go MPTC! We are now celebrating 6 years as a Fair Trade College!
October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate Fair Trade Month on all 3 MPTC campuses with Fair Trade Pop Up Shops.
Monday, October 25 West Bend Campus Cafeteria 10:30 am-1:30 pm Featuring In the Meantime Gifts
Tuesday, October 26 Beaver Dam Campus Cafeteria 10:30 am – 1:30 pm Featuring In the Meantime Gifts
Fair trade supports farmers and artisans in developing countries who are socially and economically marginalized. These producers lack economic opportunity and often face steep hurdles in finding markets and customers for their goods. Fair Trade is about making a tremendous impact on artisan and farmer communities while offering great products to the public all around the world. Fair Trade certification promises quality products, fair pay for producers, environmentally sustainable practices, safe and empowering working conditions, no child labor, no human trafficking and more.
Fairly traded clothing, coffee, food, furniture, home decor, housewares, jewelry, tea, toys, personal accessories, and many other products are available from Fair Trade Organizations. At all three MPTC campuses, our bookstores carry Divine Chocolate and Good Paper greeting cards. Our cafeterias offer Farmer Brothers Fair Trade Coffee and Honest Tea!
We hope to see you at the Fair Trade Pop Up, learning more about improving lives together!
It couldn’t come at a more urgent time, given the dramatic surge in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Greater awareness and collective action are critical to stop and prevent the abuse that is killing someone EVERY FIVE DAYS IN WISCONSIN, according to the most recent Domestic Homicide Report released last week by the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence. EVERY. FIVE. DAYS.
That’s why we all need to join in with the No More chapters around the world in launching the Join the Chorus campaign during October. Everyone — leaders, communities, bystanders — must lend their voice to say No More!
Fond du Lac Says No More is in the third year of community wide efforts, led by the FDL Area Women’s Fund to take a united stand as a community: NO MORE silence. NO MORE silent bystanders. NO MORE violence. TOGETHER WE CAN END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & SEXUAL ASSAULT.
Brianna Moore, Medical Assistant student, setting up a Domestic Violence Awareness Month display for her service-learning project at Moraine Park’s FDL Campus
Moraine Park Technical College Diversity Relations is sponsoring the exhibition: A Walk-Through Reality: Giving a Voice to the Voiceless. It is a multisensory, self-guided exhibition of some of the most difficult and complex issues we face today.
The exhibition will be held at the UW-Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Campus at 400 University Drive, Fond du Lac on October 15, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and October 16, 9 a.m.-noon. The community is welcome and encouraged to attend.
On Wednesday, August 25, six MPTC Cosmetology students and their Instructor Eileen Bouchard, travelled to the Washington County West Bend Boys and Girls Club Back to School Event. MPTC Students gave 22 kids a back to school haircut, helping them all feel extra beautiful and confident for heading off to elementary or middle school this fall.
“What a great hands-on service learning experience for our students,” said MPTC Instructor Eileen Bouchard. “This event helped our students connect with parents and kids of many ethnicities, ages and haircut styles; plus learn about the mission of the Boys and Girls Club and the back-to-school needs of over 200 families in our community.”
Max Roy, Director of Operations for Boys and Girls Club of Washington County, said, “It was great to meet you all in person today. I am so glad we got connected on your student Cosmetology volunteers as another community partner Back to School resource for our kids! Thank you so much for all the haircuts today and we look forward to continuing working with MPTC.”
Cosmetology Student Alex Fenn
Cosmetology Student Kayla Walgenbach
Cosmetology Student Kayla Walgenbach
Cosmetology Student Cassidy VanBuren
Cosmetology Student Sydney Scharschmidt
Cosmetology Student Abby Denhartigh
Instructor Eileen Bouchard and Cosmetology Student Alex Fenn
Congratulations Nursing Students on your Student Community Impact Awards! From left to right, Heather Quickle, Nicole Reding, Sarah Ruplinger, Kelly Robinson, Kaytlyn Schultz
Nursing students in Instructor Michele Mengert’s Mental Health and Community Concepts course recently completed their community advocacy projects as part of our Spring, 2021 service learning opportunities. Michele said, “our Nursing students are learning community health oriented nursing. We are targeting prevention strategies. Today’s Nurses need to be able to advocate for under represented populations and know about community resources that are available to help their patients.”
This semester 20 students spent over 100 hours researching and collaborating with community partners in Fond du Lac, West Bend, and Beaver Dam to learn more about parenting, fostering, opioid addiction, human trafficking, poverty, developmental disabilities, domestic violence, sexual assault, and more. Students formulated detailed plans to address how a nurse can help a community identify and address these issues, providing education, awareness, advocacy and resources. Students gathered data to help determine strengths and weaknesses in their own communities. Project presentations were held in May.
Congratulations on all of this great work on important mental health issues in our MPTC community!
Pictured from left to right: Chastity Bolden-ASTOP, Michelle Boodry-ASTOP, Sydney Barrueta-ASTOP, Ben McKenzie-MPTC Associate Dean, Rhianna Zuleger-ASTOP, Barb Jascor – MPTC Dean, Nicole Krause-ASTOP Executive Director, Bonnie Baerwald-MPTC President, Terri Alexander-ASTOP, Sarah West-ASTOP, Anne Lemke-MPTC Community Impact Coordinator, Jessica Bielmeier-ASTOP, Bobbi Fields-MPTC Associate Dean.
Moraine Park Technical College has presented ASTOP with its 2021 Community Partnership Award. This award recognizes a community partner organization who has gone above and beyond in their role of working with Moraine Park students in student community impact opportunities.
ASTOP is a sexual assault service provider offering treatment, outreach, prevention, and advocacy. ASTOP emphasizes hope and connection to self and others, serving Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Waushara counties. In 2021, despite Covid restrictions, MPTC volunteers served over 300 hours at ASTOP and 3,500 hours overall!
ASTOP Executive Director Nicole Krause said, ““We are so grateful to have been chosen for this award. To say this is an honor is an understatement. Partnerships like this happen when different organizations work together. We cannot thank everyone involved enough! Volunteers are an integral part of our agency and the services ASTOP provides to the communities we help. We really appreciate the time the students have dedicated to our clients.”
Some student words of reflection include:
This is a very fulfilling position knowing you can help empower or even make someone smile when they are hurting inside.
I learned that ASTOP is a very rewarding service provided in Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Waushara counties. ASTOP stands for Assist Survivors Treatment Outreach and Prevention. They have extensive training for staff to support survivors and the affected family members. They try and educate as much as possible through preventative education programs. about sexual abuse rape and or incest. ASTOP offers a crisis line that is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week 52 weeks a year. Another thing that is offered through ASTOP is cost-free counseling. This helps lighten the burden of cost when one is seeking help.
The best thing I learned about what ASTOP offers was about the Art therapy. I know someone that benefited from that a great deal and was just accepted from high school with a full scholarship to an art school. She is doing amazing things and that gives me something to strive to be. Someone to change a human being’s life.
ASTOP also offers Medical Advocacy which helps victims of sexual assault and helps them through the legal system. Having this option to help people deal with whatever situation they have really helps. I am glad they have this as a option to help anyone through their life situation. Just knowing that someone or anyone is there to help is always a great option. I learned so much that I myself could be trained as a medical advocate or volunteer on the crisis line.
As we wrapped up the crisis phone call, the victim gave me the satisfaction of what I wanted to hear, “I can’t thank you enough. You’ve really made me feel empowered.” That is all I wanted to do in this position. I just wanted people to walk away after talking to me and think ‘That was a pleasant phone call’ or ‘That conversation made my day.’ This is a very fulfilling position knowing you can help empower or even make someone smile when they are hurting inside.
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