Nick Clarenbach, Waupun High School Special Education At Risk Instructor said, ” Thank you so much for this opportunity. The students learned a lot and really enjoyed the entire experience! They were talking about it all the way home!”
The Dream Big project started last year with Boys and Girls Club of Fond du Lac teens learning more about the over 100 careers available through MPTC. This year, Dream Big expanded throughout the MPTC district to include Boys and Girls Club of the Tri-County Area (Berlin, Green Lake County) and Waupun High School. This is a great community partnership opportunity for Moraine Park students to showcase their degree programs and practice service learning and for teens to get excited about their many career choices!
Left to right: Instructor Larry Clark, Student Dylan Steffes, Bike Friendly West Bend Jeff Puetz, Associate Dean Marcia Arndt, Bike Friendly West Bend Andrew Schumacher, Student Heather Bins, Instructor Jeff Quackenboss
Community wide planning for the Bike Friendly West Bend Bike Rack project began in the 2015-16 school year when representatives from Bike Friendly West Bend, and Moraine Park Technical College came together to create a partnership with a mission of service learning for student success and creating a more bike friendly culture for citizens of Washington County.
As of this May, 2019 Since that time 33 bike racks have been designed and built in partnership with Mercury Marine steel donations, Moraine Park Mechanical Design student designs, Moraine Park Welding and Fabrication student builders, Hartford Finishing painters, and Bike Friendly West Bend volunteers marketing, selling and distributing the bike racks to area businesses. In the final step of the partnership for each bike rack, $200 from the sale of the rack is donated back to the Moraine Park Foundation “FACT” scholarship program for manufacturing degree students. The FACT Initiative provides area manufacturers with direct access to manufacturing program students, expedites the time from degree to workforce, strengthens the appeal of manufacturing-related careers, grows enrollment in manufacturing-related programs and unites manufacturers, educators, and students. To date the Bike Rack Project has donated $4,200 back to the FACT scholarship!
So far, 34 students have gained valuable real life experience from this service learning project. This school year students spent 141 service hours to manufacture 12 more bike racks!
Andrew Schumacher of Bike Friendly West Bend said: “The partnership between Moraine Park Technical College, Bike Friendly West Bend and Mercury Marine is a microcosm of how a localized economy can work and thrive. Moraine Park’s willingness to design and fabricate custom bike racks resulted in Mercury Marine donating raw materials. Mercury Marine’s donation helps support students who gain real world experience, which benefits companies like Mercury Marine. Those students, work through real world problems, making them more valuable to local businesses. Students who choose to work locally after graduation, have helped enhance a much needed bicycle infrastructure, which they may directly benefit from. The enhancement of the bicycle infrastructure helps Bike Friendly West Bend satisfy its mission, which helps create more vibrant communities, attracting residents and visitors, further supporting the local economy. The synergy created is a model for a sustainable, local economy and education system.”
This past weekend in West Bend, Moraine Park participated in
Fiesta Latina hosted by Casa Guadalupe Education Center. Fiesta Latina is an event to experience the
Hispanic culture through music, food, and activities. I was able to represent Diversity Relations
at Fiesta Latina and enjoyed conversing with many community members, as well as
other vendors offering information about community services. I also had the opportunity to meet and talk
with US Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Kevin Rodriguez with US Senator Tammy Baldwin
There were many fun kids’ activities such as face painting, games, balloon animals, piñatas, and our own Cosmetology students doing mini manicures. Many other great activities as well such Latin Zumba, salsa line dancing, and jalapeño eating contest. Maximus even made an appearance! Special shout out to the Cosmetology students, they did a wonderful job!
Maximus playing a game
I along with everyone else were able to taste authentic Hispanic food, which by the way was delicious! From tacos and tamales to horchata and jarritos, everything that I was able to taste was phenomenal. Casa Tequila and the Norbert cooked the delicious food.
Maximus with kids
We were also able to listen to
mariachi music, see a live performance from Ballet Folklórico Sones Mexicanos,
as well as listen to live music from Grupo Masivo Show band and Gigantes de la
Música band.
Experiencing these cultural events
is essential to bridging our communities and preparing for a diverse and
globally connected world.
Answer them all correctly by June 30, 2019 and be entered for a chance to win one of these exciting prizes:
Family 4 Pack of Field Level Tickets to a late July/August Brewer game TBD, donated by Magnum Radio (WMBZ)
2 Brewer game tickets TBD, donated by WBEV/WXRO
2 tickets to Dock Spiders Baseball, donated by KFIZ/WFON
2 Front Row tickets to a late July/August Brewer game date TBD, donated by AFFIRM
Fond du Lac DockSpiders Prize Package, donated by DockSpiders
4 tickets to the Washington County Fair, July 23-28, donated by the Washington County Fair Park & Conference Center Four Summerfest 2019 tickets, provided by WFDL.
Congratulations to Pete Rettler, Dean of Moraine Park’s West Bend campus, who was the recipient of the prestigious 2019 Betty Pearson Community Leadership award at the Leadership West Bend Annual Honor Luncheon.
The Betty A. Pearson
Community Leadership Award is an award presented annually to an alumnus of the
Leadership West Bend program. The Leadership Alumni Association is pleased to
offer this award, named in honor of the program’s founder Betty A. Pearson,
former Executive Director of the West Bend Area Chamber of Commerce.
Betty served the community of West Bend in various capacities and touched the
lives of many through her 15 years of service with the Chamber. The award
recognizes graduates of the Leadership program who have demonstrated community
service and leadership in the West Bend area.
To be eligible for the Betty A. Pearson Community Leadership Award, the individual must be an Alumnus of the Leadership West Bend program. Nominees should have demonstrated service to the West Bend community through a variety of avenues including participation on various boards or committees within the past several years. Nominees should also have demonstrated previous and continued community involvement as well as proven commitment to promoting leadership development within the community.
Pete is known around Moraine Park and West Bend for his generous contributions. One of his most recent community collaborations was his 25 Runs of Gratitude. You can read more about that here.
If you see him around be sure to congratulate him, the award is very well deserved!
Moraine Park Technical College has
announced Rick Parks, President & Chief Executive Officer of Society
Insurance, as the keynote speaker for the 2019 Commencement Ceremony on
Saturday, May 18.
Parks is from the small farming
town of New Washington, Indiana. He earned an academic scholarship to attend
Indiana State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree
in Business Administration, with Cum Laude recognition. Parks is a first-generation college grad, and
his father was a first-generation high school graduate.
He joined Society Insurance as
Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer in 2005, was elected to
Society’s Board of Directors in 2008, and assumed his current role in 2011.
Parks currently serves the
community as a member of the Fond du Lac Noon Rotary Club, a chair for Governor
Evers’ Property Casualty Insurance Advisory Council, a member of the Board of
Directors of the American Property Casualty Insurers of America, and serves on
the Workers Compensation Council for the National Association of Mutual Insurance
Companies.
Moraine Park’s 2019 Commencement
Ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. at the Fond du Lac High School field house.
Nearly 800 graduate candidates will be receiving associate of applied science
degrees and technical diplomas, with approximately 350 graduate candidates
expected to participate in the Commencement Ceremony. Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine
Park president, will preside over the ceremony.
Moraine Park Technical College will host
Tech Knowledge College, a summer camp for students entering grades 6 to 8. This
event gives participants an interactive look at the skills and careers needed
today and in the future. Registration is now open for this annual three-day
camp, held August 6-8, at Moraine Park Technical College’s Fond du Lac campus.
The sessions for this year’s event are Animation Studio; Art & Soul; Auto Repair; Be Your Own Cake Boss; Beyond Band-Aids; Cooking Nutritious & Delicious!; Fix it, Tune it, Ride it!; Get Amp’ed Up About Electricity; Intro To American Sign Language (ASL); Just Breathe; Law and Order; Lego Sumo Robots; Pasta Chef; Salon Techniques; Using Social Media to Sell. These are available on a first come, first served basis, and early registration is encouraged.
The cost of Tech Knowledge College is
$115 and includes a choice of two interactive career sessions, a t-shirt, and a
morning snack and lunch each day. The camp is held from 9 a.m. – 2:45 p.m. Bussing is available from Moraine Park’s
Beaver Dam and West Bend campuses; seats are offered on a first-come, first
served basis.
For session descriptions, availability
and registration information, visit morainepark.edu/tkc.
For questions, contact Amy Meyer- Bremer, Moraine Park recruiter, at (920)
924-3201 or ameyer17@morainepark.edu.
Experiential Learning Coordinator Anne Lemke said, “Our MA student Merinda did a great job with the kids! She taught them about healthcare careers at MPTC and shared her own Nursing Assistant and Medical Assistant journey. They had their pulse ox checked and learned what all the breathing oxygen numbers meant and played a fun game of Medical Assistant Word Search. A big thank you to the Moraine Park Medical Assistant students for providing kids with a chance to learn about medical careers and the many jobs in healthcare available all around us!”
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