Moraine Park Technical College held its fall 2022 Manufacturing Skills Academy completion ceremony on Friday, December 9. A total of six students finished the Welding program.

This program was designed to combat the skilled worker shortage by offering a variety of boot camp sessions. The boot camp sessions are free to participants, teach skills that are unique to a particular pathway, and connect students with area employers. The program also combines a 144-hour paid internship with coursework, including Occupational Math, Print Reading, Team Building, Problem Solving, and program-specific courses.

The students who completed the Welding boot camp are Christian Muchka of Fond du Lac, Joe Nault of North Fond du Lac, Nathan Preciado of Fond du Lac, Kaleb Ransom of Fond du Lac, Emmanuel Saucedo of West Bend and Oliver Sterling of Columbus.

Participating internship sites for this session were Wabash, Bradley Corporation and Sam’s Well Drilling.

This year’s graduation speaker was Christian Muchka of Fond du Lac. Muchka completed his internship at Wabash.

Moraine Park has had over 400 participants in the Welding and CNC boot camp programs since its induction in 2012. The bootcamps are free to participating students, thanks to financial support from community resource partners and the Workforce and Training (WAT) grants.

Registrations for the spring 2023 boot camp program are now being accepted. For more information, visit morainepark.edu/bootcamps.

Patients in the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital will keep a little warmer this winter thanks to Moraine Park students and volunteers.

Last week, the Moraine Park West Bend Student Senate and CNC club sponsored a blanket-making event that produced 30 blankets. The blankets will be dropped off at Children’s Milwaukee after the holidays.

“Senate Secretary, Sara Dzierzewski, was familiar with the hospital’s annual blanket drive,” Andy Dionne, student senate president at the West Bend Campus, said. “Our senate unanimously agreed that an event to make tie-blankets for the children’s hospital would be a simple and fun way to give back to our community. Next semester, our senate plans to have more events involving charities and community service, including the possible renovation of a local park.”

Participating volunteers included members of Student Senate, several CNC students, MPTC employees, and many others.

“It was a lot of fun and so rewarding to see students and employees working alongside each other on something so generous,” Kim Schwamn, director of student development at Moraine Park, said.

Learn more about Moraine Park’s student government at morainepark.edu/experience-mptc/student-life/student-government/.

December 16 is a momentous day for our fall 2022 graduates. For one student in particular, this day has been long-anticipated.

Colleen Hoth-Jaquet, of Horicon, started her journey into healthcare as a lifeguard when she was very young. Even after a knee injury and knowing healthcare requires standing for long periods of time, she still wanted to continue, but that was not the only obstacle she would face.

Growing up, Colleen never thought she was smart enough to pursue nursing, and she did not have the support to even consider the possibility. So, she found success doing other things. She became an art teacher for the Girls and Boy’s Club, worked in aquatics, and worked at a youth camp. Eventually, she came to Moraine Park to pursue the Medical Assistant program and began working as a LPN at Aurora Health in the Urgent Care unit. 

“I love helping people and showing them they have a support system in a place that can be really scary,” Hoth-Jaquet said. “I especially love working with kids and teaching them that being hurt is only temporary.”

In 2020, she returned to Moraine Park to pursue a degree in nursing. After graduation, she hopes to transition to an RN and eventually earn her bachelor’s degree.

“I want to show my kids that wherever they’re at in life, they can always achieve their goals,” Hoth-Jaquet said.

Congratulations to all of our fall 2022 graduates!

Earlier this week, Moraine Park first-year Culinary Arts students hosted their first public event–The Food Truck Challenge.

The students were tasked with creating their own food truck menu. There were five students participating. Moraine Park employees were invited to sample each vendor and leave a tip to vote for their favorite team.

The Culinary students selected their menus two weeks ago and had five hours to prepare their dishes.

The Food Truck Challenge winner was LuAnne Salmon, who made Szechuan chicken with spicy peanut sauce, fried rice, and Thai beef cucumber salad. LuAnne has always had a love for cooking and considered opening her own food truck 10 years ago. The items she made at the Food Truck Challenge were going to be on her menu. Although she never opened her food truck, she has had time to prepare the food to perfection.

The Food Truck Challenge participants and their dishes:

LuAnne Salmon, Asian theme: Szechuan chicken with spicy peanut sauce, fried rice, and Thai beef cucumber salad

Calesha Krenzke, Nigerian theme: Chicken and beef suya with a red cabbage side salad

Preston Schmuho, Spanish theme: Beef empanadas and two salsas

Mia Mihajlovic, Serbian theme: Gibanica (egg-based pastry), Cevaps (beef and pork meatballs), and Ajvar (red bell pepper and eggplant puree sauce)

Alex Kollaszar, comfort foods: Creamy sweet potato soup and panini with salami, hot ham, mozzarella, and a tomato-mayo sauce

For more information about Moraine Park’s Culinary Arts program, visit morainepark.edu/academics/programs/culinary-arts/.

Last week, Moraine Park Technical College (MPTC) nursing students partnered with Oakfield Elementary School to teach K-5 students the importance of hand hygiene and germ control.

The event was coordinated by MPTC Nursing Instructor, Casey Truse, and Oakfield Elementary School Nurse, Mekenzie Bowe. The six participating nursing students from Truse’s class included Nick Santiago of Kenosha, Paige Fraley of Hartford, Kendra Smith of Hartford, Michael Boyd of Manteno, Kali Herrick of Horicon and Kasey Butcher of West Bend.

The students each presented individually to two classrooms. They were given three weeks to prepare their presentations and cater their approach to their assigned grade levels ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade.

“We do a teaching project every semester in this clinical, and they typically present to each other on some type of key learning they attained,” Truse said. “Being able to get out into the community again since the onset of the pandemic is great.”

The presentations went over how to properly wash your hands and what can happen if you let germs linger. Some of the presentations included books and songs about handwashing and experiments using glitter, pepper, and more.

“Hand hygiene and germ control is super important for our students to learn going into flu season,” Oakfield Elementary School Nurse, Mekenzie Bowe, said. “We always try to reinforce the importance of handwashing, but learning it today in such a fun, engaging way is much more impactful for our students.”

MPTC nursing student, Nick Santiago, demonstrated the impact of hand washing by bringing in petri dishes with samples he took from his own hands. The samples showed the amount of bacteria that can grow after washing your hands properly, washing with just cold water, and not washing at all. 

“The germs were nasty,” an Oakfield Elementary fifth grader said about the experience. “Not washing your hands makes way more germs than when you wash your hands with hot water.”

In November, Truse’s nursing students partnered with Oakfield School District to assist with hearing and vision screening. They were asked to come back and work with the students again–this time with a focus on teaching them.

“It is important for students to learn how to adapt clinical care across the lifespan ranging from pediatrics to geriatrics,” Truse said. “We as a nursing program love for students to have interactions and experiences with people of all ages. Our goal is to continue partnering with schools within our communities to create impactful learning experiences for all.”

Oakfield Elementary is Truse’s hometown elementary school, so the partnership between the schools brings her education-to-teaching journey full circle.

“Being back in Oakfield and working with such an amazing district is an honor,” Truse said. “Walking the halls of the schools I once attended, seeing familiar faces that shaped my own childhood education, and guiding our nursing students through such a neat experience was all around incredibly rewarding.”

View more photos at https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAiiKA.

Lights, camera, action!

On Dec. 6, Moraine Park Cosmetology students hosted their Movie Night-themed fashion show to showcase their final projects. Each student styled a model from head to toe including hair, makeup, and an outfit inspired by a movie of their choosing.

Some of the movies used for inspiration included A Cinderella Story, The Great Gatsby, The Kissing Booth, The Princess and the Frog, Hocus Pocus, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde and more.

Preparation for the event included the students agreeing on a fashion show theme; choosing their movies for inspiration; and researching hairstyles, make-up, and wardrobe to replicate.

“We colored Morgan’s hair a couple months back–blonde underneath and black on top, and it immediately reminded me of Cruella de Vil, so I chose the movie 101 Dalmatians,” Anita, Moraine Park Cosmetology student, said. “She doesn’t have a lot of hair, so I struggled with trying to make it poofy, but I ended up loving how everything ties together.”

Congrats to Moraine Park’s Cosmetology students on a stunning fashion show!

Melody Ahlswede

Rachel Balistriere

Kayley Berelc

Chloe Gordon

Danielle Hackbart

Nadia Manz

Alexis Mejaki

Kaitlynn Miller

Anita Obrien

Lilith Schaetzer

Katie Shelby

Faith Simonson

Madison Vogel

Carley Wilson

View more photos at https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAioT6.

Over the Atlantic Ocean and 8,273 miles away, Emma Williamson of Zambia, Africa, attends her Moraine Park Marketing and Social Media Management classes. Between acting in Zambia’s most popular local TV show, working for her family businesses and taking classes at Moraine Park, Williamson excels at the non-traditional student experience.

“I chose to pursue my education at Moraine Park because the College offered a completely online learning program, which is beneficial for me because it allows me to be flexible with my schedule and pursue my acting career while still getting my education,” Williamson said.

Williamson is originally from Louisville, Kentucky. In 2010, she moved to Lusaka, Zambia, with her family to be missionaries, but after their contract was up, they loved it too much to leave. She has lived in Zambia for 12 years with her parents and six siblings.

“The culture in Zambia is very different from the United States, but because I’ve lived here for so long, it is sometimes difficult to remember,” Williamson said. “One difference is that there is a much bigger focus on family relationships. Family obligations and duties take high priority in people’s lives here.”

By completing the Marketing and Social Media Management program, Williamson hopes to learn how to market her family’s businesses. Her father owns a woodworking business called Williamson Craftsmen, where they create hand-crafted furniture and home goods. Her mother runs a business called Megan’s Cakery, where they supply authentic tortilla chips and salsa, and frozen cookie dough and waffles to local stores.

“Unlike some common misconceptions about Africa, there are many developed areas like the capital city, Lusaka, where I live, that have businesses, movie theaters, coffee shops, hotels, malls and all the things you see in the United States,” Williamson said.

Williamson is focused on pursuing her acting career and hopes to learn how to market herself and develop her own personal brand. She is currently an actress on Zambia’s largest television show, Mpali, and is very passionate about creating dynamic social media content on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok @EmmaRoseZambia.

Read more stories like Emma’s in our Fall/Winter 2022 NEXT Magazine.

Moraine Park is much more than a technical college. For many, it is a starting point, second chance, resource, reset or road to redemption.

For Linda Huckaby and her son Mike, their decisions to attend Moraine Park were both different and uniquely life-changing.

After leaving the Air Force, Mike Huckaby struggled to find the direction and ambition to make a much-needed change. In 2015, he returned to school and started in Moraine Park’s HVAC Installation Technician program–a decision that would change the course of his life for good.

“I chose Moraine Park because it was a college with multiple opportunities,” Mike said. “When I visited campus, the staff were very encouraging and enthusiastic about future students. I am always talking about the experience I had at Moraine Park, and often encourage my employer to recruit from the College.”

Mike graduated in 2017 and began working as a technician for Johnson Controls in Milwaukee. Beyond a stable career, Moraine Park also opened Mike up to student clubs, experiences and many new friends. In his last general education course at Moraine Park, Mike met, began dating and fell in love with his classmate, April, who was in the Medical Assistant program. The two were married in 2020 and recently welcomed their first child.

Through Mike’s education, his mother, Linda Huckaby, proudly watched as her son’s life transformed by his decision to attend Moraine Park. Five years later, after the loss of her husband, she knew she could rely on Moraine Park to help her find her next path.

“After my husband died, I was on the floor for a long time,” Linda said. “Eventually, I had to get up and start setting new goals for myself. Time will go by no matter what. It is never too late to go back to school and do whatever you want to do or be whoever you want to be.”

In 2021, Linda enrolled in Moraine Park’s Accounting program because she would be able to work from home after graduation. Linda struggles with degenerative disc and PTSD, which can make traditional work arrangements difficult.

“On my first day of school at Moraine Park, I was a deer in the headlights,” she said. “After class, Steve Pepper, Moraine Park’s student veterans specialist, had to help me jumpstart my car–I was so nervous I had kept it running!”

Since enrolling in Moraine Park, Linda has been awarded multiple scholarships, received counseling, joined the Fond du Lac Area Women’s Fund Development Committee and even got her real estate license in hopes of combining real estate and accounting in a future career.

“I am really happy for my mom that she is getting her life in gear at Moraine Park,” Mike said. “It is never too late to start over, and every step you take to better your life is worth seizing.”

Read more stories like Mike and Linda’s in our Fall/Winter 2022 NEXT Magazine.

Referendum Success

The Board of Canvassers reconvened this week, Nov. 16, and formally confirmed that Moraine Park Technical College’s 2022 referendum passed with 57.4% favored votes. The College was favorable in all ten district counties with 78,549 ‘yes’ votes out of 136,864 votes total–a landslide according to Greg Stensland, Radio Plus news director.

“When I am asked why I think we had such a high favorability, I share a couple things,” President Baerwald said. “The first is that we have a strong message. Our purpose is all about training the workforce of the future, and when you tell constituents we are going to have 14,000 manufacturing job openings and 8,000 healthcare jobs openings in the next 10 years, I think people reflect and realize Moraine Park needs the resourcing.”

The College held a campus celebration to commemorate the official passing of the referendum. President Baerwald spoke about the future of the institution and what people can expect moving forward with the projects.

“Moraine Park has touched so many people over our 110 years of history that there is hardly anybody in this community that has not either experienced Moraine Park personally or knows someone in their circle that is connected to the College,” President Baerwald said. “People are recognizing us, people are congratulating us, and I do not think we are the best-kept secret any longer.”

Moving Forward

Advanced Manufacturing and Trades, Fond du Lac

In spring 2023, the Advanced Manufacturing and Trades center will be the College’s first visible sign of construction in Fond du Lac. This project is expected to break ground in May 2023 and will be completed in two phases–the Automation, Innovation, and Robotics Center (AIR) and the campus B wing—with expected completion in the summer of 2024. Classes beginning in the fall 2024 semester will be the first to use this new section of campus.

Fire Training Facility

Design meetings on the fire training facility will begin towards the end of 2022. The location of the fire training facility is still being determined. Groundbreaking will occur in July 2023, and the project should be completed by the end of the year. Instruction is expected to begin in the Fire Training Facility in the spring 2024 semester.

Manufacturing, Automation and Robotics Lab, West Bend

Design for the Manufacturing, Automation and Robotics Lab in West Bend will kick off in early 2023 with construction starting later in the year. This is slated to be a year-long project, which means the new instructional spaces will be ready for use in the fall 2024 semester.

Health and Human Services Facility, Fond du Lac

The Health and Human Services Facility project will begin in July 2024 and will be completed in two phases. This project will be finished during the summer of 2025, which means the instruction will begin in the new health and human services wing in the fall 2025 semester.

More information about the projects can be found at morainepark.edu/future.