We are just days away from our 2021 Commencement Ceremony!
Family, friends and supporters of our graduate candidates are invited to watch the virtual ceremony at morainepark.edu/commencement.
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. The livestream will begin around 9:50 a.m.
As a reminder- guest will not be permitted into the event space.
Congratulations graduates- and welcome to the Moraine Park Alumni family!
Moraine Park Technical College has received a Gold Well Workplace Award from the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA), with local affiliate Wellness Council of Wisconsin (WCWI). This award recognizes an organization for its commitment to the health and well-being of its employees.
“Well Workplace Award winners have systematically and deliberately created an environment for employees to work in that is going to help them thrive and flourish as humans. These organizations have taken a whole systems approach by investing in the humanity of their people”, Sara Martin, WELCOA Interim CEO said.
Moraine Park first earned the Well Workplace distinction in 2015 through the Well City Fond du Lac initiative. This subsequent award is a three-year distinction and ranks the College among America’s healthiest companies.
“We are committed to the overall health and wellbeing of our employees; mental, physical, emotional, financial, and environmental,” Lori Schrage, benefits coordinator at Moraine Park, said. “Overall health is far greater than just physical health. The College is continuously looking at ways to grow and adapt to meet our employee’s needs.”
Moraine Park was notified of their award in April, and the current recognition plaques that are on display at each campus will be updated to represent the current award.
The Well Workplace Awards initiative is driven by a rigorous set of criteria outlined in WELCOA’s seven benchmarks to a results-oriented Well Workplace. Since its inception in 1991, over 1,000 organizations, ranging from educational institutions to non-profit and profit sectors, have received the Well Workplace Award.
To learn more about Moraine Park’s employee benefits, visit morainepark.edu/jobs.
Moraine Park Technical College has announced Becky Glewen, City of Beaver Dam Mayor, as the keynote speaker for the 2021 Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 22.
Glewen has served as mayor for the City of Beaver Dam since April of 2017 and as Dodge County Supervisor for 4 years. She also held the position of Beaver Dam alderperson for Ward 8 in 2016 for one year.
Before entering public service she was a manager for Green Valley Enterprises, Director for a multi-school district federal grant, Program Director/Community Outreach Manager for the Beaver Dam School District, and Field Site Coordinator for the University of WI-Madison, for an epidemiologic study.
Mayor Glewen received her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Bemidji State University.
She is actively involved in numerous civic and non-profit organizations, including serving on the Board of Directors for Church Health Services, the Beaver Dam Area Community Foundation board of directors, as an advisor for the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, the Beaver Dam Business Networking Group, the PEO (Philanthropic Educational Organization), and Grace Presbyterian Church as Elder and Deacon. She has also led the ImpACT Coalition (alcohol/drug abuse prevention group) and is a Leadership Beaver Dam alumni.
Mayor Glewen has led various volunteer groups such as the Beaver Dam Community Meal Coalition, school supply collections for students in need, Thanksgiving day meal distribution, and the 175th Picnic in the Park Celebration. She was also a Positively Hoops basketball coach for six years.
During her time in public service, Mayor Glewen has focused her efforts on addressing the eminent major shifts in the workforce shortage and how the city’s initiatives attract and recruit new individuals to Beaver Dam and the Dodge County region. She has successfully researched and obtained numerous grants and private investment for funding of community revitalization projects, enhanced recreational activities and energy conservation projects.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Moraine Park’s 2021 Commencement Ceremony event is open only to graduates but will be live-streamed at morainepark.edu/commencement. Nearly 800 graduate candidates will be receiving Associate of Applied Science degrees and technical diplomas, with over 350 graduate candidates expected to participate in the Commencement Ceremony. Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president, will preside over the ceremony.
Graduating students from Moraine Park Technical College’s Graphic Communications, Interactive Media Design, IT – Software Developer, and Web Development & Design and Mobile Applications Developer programs will be showcasing their talents at the College’s Portfolio Showcase on Wednesday, May 12, at 6 p.m. The event will be completely online.
The Portfolio Showcase is an annual event that highlights the work these students have completed in their respective programs while at Moraine Park. The event allows them to share their projects with prospective employers, the local community and Moraine Park students and staff.
For more information on Portfolio Night event, visit morainepark.edu/portfolio-showcase.
Moraine Park Technical College has announced plans for a limited access in-person commencement ceremony—thanks to the support of their community partner, the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Fond du Lac.
Typically, the College collaborates with its longtime community partner, Fond du Lac High School, to host the annual ceremony. However, with increased restrictions at the K-12 level, the College needed to explore alternative venues. The College considered options including both a virtual and an outdoor ceremony in hopes to make a celebration possible.
“Last year presented many difficult scenarios outside of our control,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president, said. “While this year has had its fair share of challenges, we at least had time to consider options and prepare. It was a goal of ours to make a safe in-person event a possibility. We understand the extreme pressure our local K-12 school districts are under to maintain their operations and knew utilizing Fond du Lac High School would not be an option this year. However, we look forward to continuing our partnership with Fond du Lac High School in the future.”
The College explored holding an outdoor ceremony at the College’s Fond du Lac campus. However, limited resources and heightened overall risk eliminated that possibility.
“Commencement is a large undertaking on a normal year and working through scenarios to relocate it outside was challenging,” Baerwald said. “We had weather, access, equipment, security, and safety to consider, among other things. Our goal is to hold a safe ceremony for our graduates and an outdoor event simply presented too many risks.”
The College considered holding a virtual ceremony, like many other Colleges in the state, until the Radisson Hotel and Conference center stepped forward with an option to use their facility.
“The Radisson offers a large open space, and by utilizing their facility, we can hold an in-person ceremony that otherwise would likely not be possible,” Baerwald said. “There are restrictions to ensure overall safety—face coverings and temperature checks are required for entry and ceremony attendance will be limited to graduates only. Due to capacity and social distancing restrictions, we are unable to accommodate guests.”
Baerwald added that the College follows the current recommendations of city, state and county public health officials making a capacity restriction needed regardless of venue.
“Our students have proven to be resilient and flexible during a time of so many unknowns and difficult scenarios,” Baerwald said. “While we know this event will look different, we also know in-person ceremonies in our state are still few and far between. I am proud of the work being done to ensure an in-person celebration for our soon-to-be graduates and am grateful to the Radisson for helping us make this possible.”
Only graduates and Moraine Park employees executing the event will be permitted to attend. The College is expecting 350 graduates to participate in the ceremony. With current capacity restrictions, the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center can accommodate a maximum of 500 guests, and Baerwald has a goal to stay well under the maximum capacity.
While family, friends and supporters are not able to participate in person, the event will be available via live stream. Ceremony details will continue to be shared with graduates as they unfold and will be made public on the College’s webpage.
For more information on the 2021 commencement ceremony, visit morainepark.edu/commencement.
Moraine Park Technical College has reallocated a portion of its Non-Traditional Occupations (NTO) grant to be used to benefit high school classrooms and encourage students to explore non-traditional career options. Non-traditional occupations are defined as careers that currently employ 25% or less of one gender.
Previously, these grant dollars were used to help recruit college-aged students into programs that qualified as NTO. This change will allow high school teachers to partner with Moraine Park to promote NTO and encourage more students to explore these career opportunities in a high school dual credit class.
“The goal with this change is to showcase these career options to students earlier,” Sally Ruback, enrollment communication and student recruitment manager at Moraine Park, said. “By directing these grant dollars to our district high schools, we can partner with teachers to promote both dual credit classes and NTO. This will be done through classroom presentations in areas such as math, English, science, and business.”
Students who participate in dual credit classes also have the opportunity of earning college credit. High schools within Moraine Park’s district are eligible to participate in this grant program. Currently, partnerships are being formed to help influence the NTO exploration of skilled trade, health care, and early childhood occupations.
“Many of the programs that qualify as NTO also have a high demand for skilled workers in the field,” Ruback said. “Our goal is to help fill those gaps in our local industries, and we can help do this by partnering with our high schools to expose students to these careers. There is also a significant benefit to students who choose to take college credit classes in high school. This opportunity helps to develop life skills to be more self-sufficient and well-rounded adults.”
Currently, the College has 12 classes from nine area schools that will receive funding for NTO dual credit classes next fall. Each class will receive $1,000.
“The grant money will go directly into the teacher’s classes to enhance the learning environment,” Ruback said. “This program provides reimbursement toward the purchase of materials, supplies, textbooks, software applications, or equipment for the dual credit class. Our NTO partnerships will directly benefit the students in our district, which is extremely exciting.”
Moraine Park’s district schools that are interested in exploring dual credit options should connect with the K-12 Department at k12@morainepark.edu.
For more information on dual credit, visit morainepark.edu/k-12.
Moraine Park Technical College will continue offering face-to-face classes for the fall 2021 semester.
Like in the current spring semester, most Moraine Park classes will be offered in the classroom; this fall, more than 90 percent of classes will be offered in person on one of the three Moraine Park campuses. Business and industry-related outreach and adult education instruction continues in face-to-face formats.
“The pandemic has really intensified our commitment to our students and forced us to reevaluate their changing needs,” Jim Eden, vice president of academics at Moraine Park, said. “Early on, we heard our students tell us they excelled the most in a face-to-face classroom setting—and so we worked as hard as we could to make that a safe reality. We also know virtual learning is here to stay and must continue to offer the flexibility of virtual options to help accommodate the busy and ever-changing schedules of our students. “
“Meeting our students where they are at has always been important to Moraine Park, and we are continuously working make sure we are serving them as best as we can,” Eden added.
Moraine Park closed its doors and transitioned to virtual learning last spring and summer—but resumed many face-to-face classes on campus in at the beginning of the fall 2020 semester.
Throughout the 2020-2021 academic year, Moraine Park officials monitored COVID-19-related connections and illnesses through a public dashboard. Throughout the pandemic, Moraine Park’s monitoring has showed very few cases and no significant impact to operations across the three campuses.
Many precautions were taken, including mandatory face coverings, classroom spaces set for appropriate distancing, limited student events, and stricter sanitary procedures. Additionally, the College implemented a door-handle protocol to address nightly cleaning in employee offices and common spaces. These precautions will likely continue into the 2021-22 academic year.
“Our ability to hold classes on campus and the low number of cases at the College are a direct reflection of the commitment of both our students and employee,” Eden said. “We’ve had to make some difficult decisions to ensure overall safety. However, despite these changes, students and employees have stepped up, kept moving forward, and ultimately helped make our College a safe place to learn.”
Eden said he’s hopeful student activities and a full campus reopening can occur by fall. Moraine Park’s leadership and COVID-19 teams continue to meet to assess local and state trends and information to help inform decisions.
Registration for summer semester begins April 5 and students are encouraged to enroll. Fall registration will open to returning program students on April 13, new program students on April 20, and non-program students on May 4.
For more information, visit morainepark.edu/register.
Hello Soon-to-be-Grads!
Believe it or not, we are about 3 months away from the end of our semester and our annual commencement ceremony.
As expected, the College has had to implement changes and make hard decisions to allow for an in-person event to be executed safely.
As previously announced, we are planning for a limited-access in-person 2021 Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 22, at 10 a.m. While we are thrilled to make plans for an in-person celebration, the event will undoubtedly look different.
Important details to note:
Please know the final details will ultimately depend on the status of COVID-19 and the recommendations from our local and state public health departments as commencement day nears. We will plan to connect with graduation applicants by early April with additional details and decisions.
In the meantime, reach out to Heather Clark at hclark4@morainepark.edu with any questions regarding the 2021 commencement ceremony.
Moraine Park Technical College has made the difficult decision to postpone Tech Knowledge College (TKC) until 2022. The COVID-19 situation is still very fluid, and the safety and well being of our entire communities remain a top priority.
We appreciate the continued community support around this great summer camp opportunity, and stay tuned for information on TKC 2022.
Sign up for our newsletter at morainepark.edu/tkc to receive information on TKC.
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