Moraine Park introduced a new Financial and Insurance Services Specialist associate degree program this fall 2022 semester. The program is a unique opportunity at Moraine Park that focuses on both finance and insurance.
“This program is a great starting point for students who want to explore careers in the fields of insurance or finance. The program is designed to help learners continue their education beyond their Associate degree,” Deb Clarke, Moraine Park associate dean of business and IT, said.
The program prepares students to obtain industry-recognized credentials required within the financial and insurance industries, including the Series 6, Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS), and insurance. Students will also gain an understanding of regulatory standards related to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), lending practices, client relationship management, marketing and brand management with cutting-edge technology, and insurance lines.
“We wanted to provide our graduates a broad knowledge base to efficiently and collaboratively work across specialized teams,” Bobbi Fields, Moraine Park dean of applied technology and trades, said. “Locally, there are numerous jobs available across our entire district, with anticipated growth of at least 9 percent over the next 10 years, but this is only a snapshot of opportunities available. Our graduates may also wish to pursue the many remote and virtual options available to graduates of the program.”
Graduates of this program will be prepared to help clients navigate the complex and evolving worlds of finance and insurance. They may find employment as a certified financial planner, customer service representative, financial advisor, insurance sales agent, loan processor, personal banker, and more.
Jeffrey Kern is driving over 1,200 miles from State College, PA, to walk the stage at Moraine Park’s Commencement Ceremony this Saturday.
Kern, originally from Hurley, WI, is graduating from Moraine Park’s online Small Business Entrepreneurship Program. He is also enrolled in MPTC’s online Business Analyst program and is set to finish in May 2023.
“There was a significant amount of global insecurity at the start of 2020,” Kern said. “This uncertainty fueled personal anxiety and depression, but it also provided a reason to further my education.”
In 2017, Kern launched a fitness application called BOSS Running. Unfortunately, he did not find as much success as he had hoped. He was able to financially rebuild from 2018-2020 working in other jobs, but his mind always remained on his app.
“BOSS Running was always on my mind,” Kern said. “I wanted to know what I did wrong and how I could prevent making similar mistakes in the future. Knowing this, I began researching schools that offered degrees in Entrepreneurship.”
He found Moraine Park through researching various universities and programs.
“Moraine Park Technical College offered was the best option from the schools I researched,” he said. “MPTC had positive online reviews, the highest graduation rate, a simple application process, and offered an online program in Entrepreneurship with specific prescribed classes with minimal electives.”
Kern started a new job at Travelers Insurance as a Software Engineer earlier this year. In June, he will make the move to Hartford, CT, to start his next chapter and work with his colleagues in person.
“Despite the challenges thrown at me, I’ve never lost sight of who I am as a person or what makes me unique,” Kern said. “Not only that, I’m thriving. I lost 35 lbs of weight during the pandemic, but I have gained the ability to be assertive and to argue for what is right and kind. Walking the stage signifies the start of a new chapter in my life, one where past trauma can no longer hold me back.”
Check out Moraine Park Technical College’s Virtual Assistant program. This is a one-year technical diploma program. The program is online and allows you to complete coursework at your convenience and in the comfort of your own home.
Learn skills in …
Customer service
Accounting
Business communication
Meeting and event planning
And more!
Read what graduates have to say …
“This program gave me an overview of the business administration field. I was able to learn about Project Management, Business Media Management, Principles of Accounting, Data Management, and much more. The different skills I learned from the classes are helping me receive interviews at reputable companies.
“I learned what the differences were between being your own boss or working for a company. If you work for yourself, you can have a lot of flexibility with hours and what kind of work you do, but when it comes to tax time, you will need to treat that a bit differently because you will be your own boss. Also, how ethics relates to being your own boss, you have to prove that you are responsible and professional because you may end up working for someone who is going to give you very personal and financial information.”
“I had several business-related classes that helped me learn many office related tasks as a Virtual Assistant. The document formatting classes helped prepare me to write grammatically correct documents. It is an important skill to have because proofreading reports is a daily task for this type of career. The class Customer Service Essentials has taught me the basics of building and maintaining customer relationships through different scenarios.”
This program is a pathway to the two-year associate degree, Administrative Coordinator program. That means when you complete the Virtual Assistant program you will already have earned 33 credits (the first year) of the the Administrative Coordinator program.
Whether you decide that you want to hang out, go for walks, snuggle, or get involved in doing canine sports, Black Dog Training is a pet training service for you. Black Dog Training provides home based obedience activities and more. Cindy concentrates on teaching your dog and the owner basic behaviors or can involve group training with others for competition. Owner, Cindy Hanish began this training as her own dog, Chester motivated her to want to help others.
Cindy Hanish attended the five week Start Your Own Business series through Moraine Park Technical College in the Fall of 2021. Her goal was to open her business by January of 2022. Instructor Jeff Stueber worked with Cindy to provide simple ideas to generate business and sales. Since then, Cindy has developed many programs to suit the needs of the canines and their owners.
It doesn’t matter what age or breed your dog is, Cindy will help you teach your dog how to behave appropriately at home or on-the-go, while at the same time, building a positive and happy relationship together.
For more information, visit Cindy’s website at www.blackdogtrainingllc.com
For more information on the Five Week Business Series, visit https://catalog.morainepark.edu/programs/small-business-entrepreneurship/
Edi Gbordzi came to Fond du Lac looking to find a place to call home and an extended family of friends and supporters. In 2001, he immigrated from Ghana, West Africa, to Madison, Wisconsin. There he taught and performed African dance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and throughout the community.
“A goal in coming to the U.S. was to go back to school and become connected in my community,” Gbordzi said. “Teaching the art of African dance allowed me to be surrounded with others who had those same goals. This support group continued to motivate me.”
Gbordzi later relocated to California and welcomed his two children. In 2011, they moved to Fond du Lac to be closer to family. Once Gbordzi got settled in the area, he decided it was time to act upon his goal to pursue higher education. He connected with the Student Success Center at Moraine Park to begin his journey.
I learned that my transcripts from Africa didn’t cover all the areas needed for a GED diploma here in the United States,” he said. “At first, that was frustrating, but the staff were so helpful and great to work with. I ended up learning too much and that prepared me to further my education.”
“My parents owned their own business in Africa for many years,” Gbordzi said. “Their years of hard work inspired me to follow in their footsteps and pursue a business degree.”
Gbordzi is embracing the full college experience and has become a familiar face on the Fond du Lac campus.
“I enjoy being involved,” he said. “I am a member of student senate, diversity club and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Club. I also enjoy volunteering and participating in student life events.”
Gbordzi is a dedicated student and was awarded the Basic Education Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year.
“I’m grateful Moraine Park offered me a place to learn and grow,” Gbordzi said. “My overall goal is to find a good job so I can support my family. It is also important to me to continue learning. Moraine Park is helping to prepare me for both my future career and higher educational opportunities.”
Gbordzi is scheduled to graduate in May 2022 and looks forward to influencing the local communities.
“Moraine Park’s ranking reflects our faculty, staff and management’s dedication to helping students master the skills necessary to reach their education and employment goals,” Joan Falter, Moraine Park Accounting Instructor, said. “The accounting team works with our advisory team to ensure that our program meets current needs. Online students have shared surprise in their ability to interact one-on-one with the accounting faculty.”
The ranking is based on unbiased government reports that analyze admission, retention, graduate rates, diplomas awarded, programs offered, graduate salaries, loan default rates and the percentage of students receiving financial aid.
“This ranking in addition to the fact that we don’t charge higher out-of-state tuition will continue to build our out-of-state student body,” Falter said.
Moraine Park’s Online Accounting program was an early adopter of online learning and has been quick to increase synchronous online options.
“Consistency among modalities and instructors ensures a cohesive learning experience throughout the program,” Julie Dilling, Moraine Park Accounting Instructor, said. “This minimizes students’ cognitive load because they know what to expect as far as cadence and requirements in each of the program courses.”
Moraine Park provides many resources for students to aid in their successful learning outcomes such as academic advising, counseling, disability services, student life, employment services, tutoring and more, which are all available to online students.
“In the future, we expect to build on past success,” Falter said. “We will continue implementing new modalities such as synchronous online classes in order to provide online learners with a remote ‘face-to-face’ option.”
Moraine Park Technical College encourages service learning experiences for students. The Marketing and Social Media Management program students attending the Advertising and Social Media Campaigns spring 2021 course were able to gain this experience working with local nonprofit partner organizations. Students attended this course entirely online and were divided into two groups. The 2 groups worked closely together acting as an advertising agency for the entire semester.
The newly created student agency sought out area nonprofit organizations, communicated with them to determine current and future needs, and developed an advertising/social media campaign plan for each organization. The two organizations selected were Kohler Credit Union, Kohler, WI and The Gathering Source, Juneau, WI.
“Students in both groups worked extremely well together all semester. They problem-solved and created ways to communicate and collaborate entirely online using Zoom, OneDrive, Canvas Group Chat, Canva and Google Docs, ” said Sarah Ninmer, Marketing and Social Media Management Instructor.
The students wrote reflections at the end of the semester documenting their experiences. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and students truly appreciated the “real world, hands on” education and connections they made with the nonprofit organizations. Below are a few student quotes:
“I have worked within a team this entire semester for my Advertising and Social Media course at Moraine Park Technical College. We’ve completed several assignments such as a ‘Situational Analysis’ and a ‘Creative Plan’. After completing all of these tasks, we have officially created a comprehensive marketing guide for Kohler Credit Union in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Our team, “Connect Together” worked very hard to analyze, evaluate, design, and so much more for the company. We learned how to communicate effectively, work together, create documents, give professional feedback, etc. We have learned so much!”
Olivia Anderson, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Graduate
“This was essentially exactly what my future job could be, it taught me how hard it is to look at everything from every single angle to try and find the best way to do something. It also made me feel amazing to help this wonderful cause be even better and reach more people. I feel that we worked together amazingly to help The Gathering Source expand and open to new opportunities. I feel this project has helped everyone involved greatly. I learned a ton about helping businesses, how to work with a team and collaborate actively with others for more than just a paper. These are amazing skills to learn in order to work more effectively and positively in the future.”
Emily Poellinger, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Student
“Other than working on creating an advertising plan for a non-profit organization, during this semester I learned how to work in a team and compromise to come together with one campaign plan. It was interesting learning how to work in a group and coordinate a schedule that worked among all my team members. It was great experience to work with a team and learn how compromise all of our team member’s opinions into one joint plan that worked for our client. I think this semester was a great way to learn how to work as a team and gain skills for future career opportunities.”
Peyton Wolter, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Student
“Working on this social media marketing plan for Kohler Credit Union was a great chance to get some really good experience starting a plan from the beginning to end and also knowing what it is like to work on a project like this in a group. Since all of us are online we had to communicate through a group chat on Canvas but we really did not have any problems with that. There were a lot of different aspects of this assignment and even though we were in a group I was able to do a little bit of everything.”
Jake Antonioni, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Graduate
For more info on service learning opportunities at MPTC
Congratulations Fond du Lac Medical Assistant Students! From Left to right, Kayelee Kufalk, Kayla Rieder, Amber Christenson, Hannah Miller, Allexis Wegner, Savannah Clarke, Hailey Rist, Hannah Stoll.
Moraine Park Technical College is committed to community engagement and student success. The College supports these commitments through the opportunity for students to participate in student community impact and apply their classroom knowledge to an applicable, real world environment.
MPTC encourages students to participate in our community impact awards program where students can track their service learning or volunteer hours, submit their reflections, and earn a Bronze Award for 25 hours, Silver Award for 50 hours,Gold Award for 100 hours, or Presidents Award for 200 hours!
In the 2021 spring semester, despite all the Covid-19 challenges, 53 students earned awards and logged over 2,600 hours of service!
Congratulations to our Spring, 2021 award winners!
Bronze Awards
Completing 25-49 hours of service learning or volunteering.
Anderson, Keanu – Leadership Development
Balzer, Morgan – Medical Assistant
Bartoli, Candice – Nursing
Bauman, Haley – Medical Assistant
Berger, Abigail – Medical Assistant
Christenson, Amber – Medical Assistant
Collins-George, Halle – Marketing and Social Media
Dobbert, Michaella – Medical Assistant
Drabek, Renee – Marketing and Social Media
Gleixner, Hanna – Medical Assistant
Goes, Elisa – Nursing
Goss, Kalie – Medical Assistant
Haase, Melissa – Medical Assistant
Hanefeld, Sara – Medical Assistant
Hansen, Chad – Leadership Development
Kabat, Mollie – Leadership Development
Kliamentsyeva, Anastasiya – Marketing and Social Media
Kollmorgan, Amanda – Leadership Development
Kowalski, Haley – Medical Assistant
Kluball, Rachel – Nursing
Koch, Corey – Administrative Professional
Kreuziger, Alyssa – Medical Assistant
Kufalk, Kayelee – Medical Assistant
McGrath, Megan – Medical Office
Medeiros Simas, Gabriella – Medical Assistant
Miller, Hannah – Medical Assistant
Miller, Penny – Medical Assistant
Pierret, Sean – Leadership Development
Poellinger, Emily – Marketing and Social Media
Quickle, Heather – Nursing
Reding, Nicole – Nursing
Reynolds, Douglas – Medical Assistant
Rieder, Kayla – Medical Assistant
Riemersma, Allison – Nursing
Rist, Hailey – Medical Assistant
Robinson, Kelly – Nursing
Rosenberg, Kileen – Leadership Development
Ruplinger, Sarah – Nursing
Schneider, Stefanie – Medical Assistant
Schoebel, Victoria – Medical Assistant
Schultz, Kaytlyn – Nursing
Serchuk, Marissa – Medical Assistant
Stewart, Krista – Medical Assistant
Stoll, Hannah – Medical Assistant
Taylor, Tiffany – Medical Assistant
Toombs, Nikki – Leadership Development
Uttech, Venessa – Medical Assistant
Vick, Ashley – Medical Assistant
Wasley, Kelsey – Medical Assistant
West, Laine – Leadership Development
Zabolski, Renee – Medical Office
Congratulations Beaver Dam Medical Assistant Students! Haley Bauman, Abigail Berger, Kalie Goss, Melissa Haase, Sara Hanefeld, Alyssa Kreuziger, Penny Miller, Victoria Schoebel, Marissa Serchuk, Tiffany Taylor, Venessa Uttech, Ashley Vick and Instructor Brianna Matheson.
Congratulations Anastasiya Kliamentsyeva on your Bronze Student Community Impact Award!Congratulations West Bend Medical Assistant Students! Krista Stewart, Morgan Balzer, Hanna Gleixner, Kelsey Wasley, Douglas Reynolds, Gabi Medeiros Simas, Hailey Kowalski, Stefanie Schneider, Kayla Dobbert and Instructor Erika Herriges
Silver Awards
Completing 50-99 hours of service learning or volunteering.
Drabek, Renee – Marketing and Social Media
Gleixner, Hanna – Medical Assistant
Kabat, Mollie – Leadership Development
Kluball, Rachel – Nursing
Koch, Corey – Administrative Professional
Quickle, Heather – Nursing
Reynolds, Douglas – Medical Assistant
Taylor, Tiffany – Medical Assistant
Toombs, Nikki – Leadership Development
West, Laine – Leadership Development
Congratulations Nursing Students! From left to right: Heather Quickle, Nicole Reding, Sarah Ruplinger, Kelly Robinson, Kaytlyn Schultz. Way to go Heather Quickle on your Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards!
Gold Awards
Completing 100-199 hours of service learning or volunteering.
Koch, Corey – Administrative Professional
Quickle, Heather – Nursing
Toombs, Nikki – Leadership Development
Congratulations Corey Koch on your Bronze, Silver and Gold Student Community Impact Awards!
President’s Award
completing 200+ hours of service learning or volunteering.
Henning, Cortland – Culinary Arts
Congratulations Cortland Henning, 2021 Student Community Impact President’s Award! Left to right, MPTC President Bonnie Baerwald, Cortland Henning, Anne Lemke Student Community Impact Coordinator
Moraine Park Technical College student, Jared Ott of Fond du Lac, placed first in the NEW Ideas Pitch Challenge, a collaborative regional pitch event, on April 29.
The NEW Ideas Pitch Challenge is an opportunity for area technical college students to display their entrepreneurial skills. Students interested in participating were required to apply by March 26. The entries were evaluated on content, delivery, visual aids, creativity, and overall persuasion. From there, the top entries advanced to the challenge event on April 29. This year’s event was held virtually.
The students selected to represent Moraine Park at the NEW Ideas Pitch Challenge were Ott and Abby McGeehen of Berlin. Jared is a high school senior from the Fond du Lac STEM Academy who is currently enrolled as a business student through the Start College Now program. Abby is a current student, enrolled in the Business Management and Small Business/Entrepreneurship programs. Moraine Park instructor Jeff Stueber worked with the students and provided coaching.
“This event is a valuable learning opportunity for our students,” Bobbi Fields, associate dean of business and IT at Moraine Park said. “I am grateful for the many individuals at the College who helped ensure this was a successful event. Jared and Abby did an excellent job representing the college. We are proud of their efforts and wish them the best in their entrepreneurial endeavors.”
Ott’s winning pitch was his specially designed fishing hooks that help secure live bate. Ott’s fishing hooks are already secured by a U.S. patent.
The other participating colleges were Fox Valley Technical College, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and Lakeshore Technical College.
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