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 2020 spring semester, 24 students earned awards and logged over 1,000 hours of service!

Congratulations to our Spring, 2020 award winners!

Bronze Award Winners

Completing 25-49 hours of service learning or volunteering.

• Ashley Ade, Medical Assistant
• Breanna Alioto, Medical Assistant
• Erica Boehnlein, Medical Assistant
• Alexis Darkow, Medical Assistant
• Kendra DeJager, Medical Assistant
• Molly Donais, Medical Assistant
• Taylor Erlauer, Medical Assistant
• Kayleigh Gorman, Medical Assistant
• Cortland Henning, Culinary Arts*
• Ashlee Keller, Medical Assistant
• Cheyenne Kohrt, Medical Assistant
• Cathryn Kuslits, Medical Assistant*
• Abby Muenchow, Medical Assistant
• Megan Neu, Medical Assistant
• Nora Nuhiji, Medical Assistant
• Caitlin Pieper, Medical Assistant
• Gina Roll, Medical Assistant
• Samantha Schubring, Medical Assistant    
• Jordan Sterns, Medical Assistant
• Bethany Thome, Graphics*
• Meghan Thompson, Medical Assistant
• Emma Zimmerman, Medical Office 

Silver Award Winners

Completing 50-99 hours of service learning or volunteering.

• Meghan Griswold, Marketing & Social Media*
• Cortland Henning, Culinary Arts*
• Ashlee Keller, Medical Assistant
• Jordan Sterns, Medical Assistant

Gold Award Winner

Completing 100-199 hours of service learning or volunteering.

• Cortland Henning, Culinary Arts*

President’s Award Winner

Completing 200+ hours of service learning or volunteering.

• Brett Hebert, Criminal Justice*

*Promise Scholar students

Cortland Henning of Fond du Lac has been selected to be a part of the 2020-21 Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellows cohort.

Campus Compact, a Boston-based non-profit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education, has announced the 262 students from across the U.S. who will make up this year’s cohort. The Newman Civic Fellowship is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional, and civic growth for students who have demonstrated a capacity for leadership and an investment in solving public problems. The fellowship provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston, access to exclusive scholarships, and post-graduate opportunities.

Henning, a first-year generation college student, took advantage of Moraine Park’s Promise program to achieve his career goals. He graduated from Fond du Lac High School in spring, 2019 and enrolled in the College’s culinary program this past fall.

“I always wanted to go to college but never knew if it was a possibility for me,” Cortland said. “My family isn’t able to help contribute to my tuition, and I knew that my part-time job wasn’t enough to live on and pay for school.”

Henning is also actively involved at the College. He is an active part of the Student Senate, where he serves as the community manager, and he volunteers at many of the student life events. Also, as part of the Promise program, Cortland is required to volunteer in the community for a minimum of eight hours. To date, he has volunteered over 80 hours of his time at the Fond du Lac High School, where he helps coach the color guard team. Cortland has won a Bronze and Silver Student Community Impact Award for the 2019-20 academic year!

Moraine Park President Bonnie Baerwald said, ” From the first time we met, it was clear to me that Cortland is a goal-driven, passionate, and engaged young man.  He is ambitious and an outstanding ambassador for MPTC and higher education.  Cortland is always willing to lend a hand no matter the task or the commitment.  He has excellent time management skills which allows him to balance work and school while maintaining high academic honors.  With over 80 hours of community service already accrued this school year, Cortland is the model of citizenship that the rest of us hope to emulate in our own lives.  I am proud to be his mentor and look forward to the community and college impact he will demonstrate during his academic journey.”

In total, there were 12 students selected from Wisconsin to participate in the 2020-21 Newman Civic Fellows cohort, and Henning represents one of four technical college students in the group.

“I truly believe education inspires us to be better, and it increases overall societal values,” he said. “Moraine Park has opened so many doors for me, and I look forward to continuing to grow with this new opportunity.”

For more information on the Newman Civic Fellowship, visit compact.org/newman-civic-fellowship.

For more information on Moraine Park, visit morainepark.edu.

With the statewide school closings, Moraine Park Technical College Culinary Arts Department found itself with pounds of fruits, vegetables and cheeses that would not be used as planned. However, this also presented an opportunity to reach out to the community.

Associate Dean of Trades, Steve Horvath, organized Culinary Arts staff to clear out the coolers. Together they were able to package the abundant and healthful product for distribution through the Fondy Food Pantry and the Broken Bread program at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Fond du Lac.

Both organizations were very grateful for the donations and Culinary Arts is grateful that the food programs saved the food from being a total loss.

This donation, is just one way that Moraine Park is working to help during the COVID-19 outbreak. The College also donated over 37,000 items to local healthcare facilities.

Stay up to date on Moraine Park’s COVID-19 updates, at morainepark.edu/coronavirus.

Park Terrace is the campus restaurant serving meals created, cooked and served by Moraine Park Culinary Arts students. Dishes are prepared in the Culinary Arts kitchens with the freshest ingredients available and offered by a designated student manager for the day. The students take turns overseeing and running different aspects of the restaurant to get a complete on-the-job culinary experience.

For this semester only, all luncheons will be buffet style and priced between $8-$13, depending on the week (dessert and beverage for an additional charge). See below for a list of dates and cuisines. Fair Trade teas and coffees, as well as an extensive soft drink selection, will be available. Regular menu service will continue next semester.

Disney Themed                 March 26^th

Sicilian                                April 2^nd

Thai                                     April 9^th

Nordic                                 April 16^th

Music Themed                  April 30^th

Bavarian                             May 7^th

The restaurant, located on the Moraine Park Fond du Lac campus, will be open on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and reservations are strongly encouraged to help manage this student-guided learning environment.

Use the Online Reservation System
Email jsimmers@morainepark.edu
Leave a message on the restaurant’s voicemail system at (920) 924-6500.

Master Card and Visa accepted.

For more information on Moraine Park Technical College’s Park Terrace restaurant, please visit morainepark.edu/parkterrace.

In celebration of Fair trade Month and Global Climate Change Week, a community wide Empowering the Conversation event will be held in the Moraine Park Technical Fair Trade College Fond du Lac Campus Commons on October 29. A Global Market will be open starting at 11 am throughout the day and evening. At 5:00 pm displays by area environmental groups and sales by Fair Trade businesses as well as Fair Trade refreshments prepared by the MPTC culinary arts students will begin.

At 6:00 pm, Miranda Paul will be the featured speaker with ” “Think Globally, Act Locally: Two Stories, Two Heroes, Many Ways to Help,”
Miranda has been a teacher in Gambia as well as the owner of a Fair Trade store in Green Bay. Her presentation will focus on two of her books, “One Plastic Bag” and “I am Farmer.”   One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia tells the inspiring story of five women who creatively dealt with their village’s plastic trash problem. Despite limited resources and ridicule, Isatou and her friends persevered for more than a decade, eventually realizing economic empowerment through their recycled plastic purse project. 

I am Farmer, written in collaboration with Baptiste Paul, is the true story of how environmentalist Farmer Tantoh is transforming the landscape in his home country of Cameroon. When Tantoh Nforba was a child, his fellow students mocked him for his interest in gardening. Today he’s an environmental hero, and bringing clean water and bountiful gardens to the central African nation of Cameroon.

Several of Miranda’s books will be available for sale and autographs.  Displays and the Fair Trade sale will be open until 8:00 pm.

From September 12 – 23, 2019, Moraine Park hosted 14 students and 2 instructors from the Peter Behrens Schule in Darmstadt, Germany.

This was a wonderful cultural opportunity for German and Wisconsin students, staff and volunteers to learn and have fun together! German students were hosted by MPTC families or stayed at the VUE Campus apartments. The students and instructors experienced a whirlwind of WI culture including Lambeau Field Tour, Lake Winnebago Tour, Just Fare Market, Harley Museum, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Bucks, WI Badgers, farmers markets, WI Dells, Trek Bike races, Culvers, Friday fish fries, WI supper clubs and more! Students also attended MPTC classes related to their fields of study at both Fond du Lac and West Bend Campuses.

A big thank you to our Culinary Instructor James Simmers for hosting this awesome opportunity, and all of our volunteers, Rachel Tease, Eric Ludwig, Heidi Sternig, Kevin Rodriquez, David Mulder, Kevin Niedfeldt, Jill Stiemsma, Bobbi Fields, Tina Cordell, Lisa Dougherty, Jim Daniels, Melissa Schmidt and Chris Frederick; and also to Tinesha Smith at the VUE for helping make this a tremendous experience for all!

Moraine Park instructor, Tom Endejan, is busy preparing for the Wisconsin State Fair- known, in part, for their famous cream puffs!

For the last three years, Tom has helped in the Cream Puff Pavilion, utilizing his baking skills to help thousands enjoy this sweet treat.

“The famous recipe was developed by the Wisconsin Baker’s Association. I converted their recipe so that we could use it more effectively and test it when needed,” said Tom.

While he is an active part of the WI State Fair cream puff production, he is quick to clarify the fact that this isn’t a one-person operation.

“I am supervising the early shift that mixes the cream puffs. There are a lot of people involved, and I am just one of many helpers,” he said. “We mixed and baked 7000-8,000 puffs yesterday (July 29). It doesn’t sink in until you are here just how many people it takes to get the puffs made.”

We are proud of Tom for his accomplishments and being a part of this huge Wisconsin event.

morainepark.edu

https://wistatefair.com/fair/

I’ve been working in Culinary Arts at MPTC since 2014 as an Instructional Aide. In my position I order food and supplies for the students and the department, in general. From the very beginning I have been considering our ‘single use’ containers; so many were going out the door as we sold our Culinary Creations or when Community Classes took their food home!

I kept thinking:

• Are the containers safe to microwave? We know people are going home and reheating the food in that plastic container.
• Are the containers being disposed of properly?  We actually had complaints that our labeled containers were blowing around someone’s yard! 
• Are the containers reusable, compostable, recyclable?

Since 2006, MPTC has been composting food scraps; first in the MPTC Garden and currently, an area chicken farmer picks up the scraps to feed his brood.

In 2015 MPTC earned the designation (and distinction) of becoming the first Fair Trade Technical College in America thanks, in large part, to the work and determination of Anne Lemke, MPTC Experiential Learning Coordinator.

I was inspired to work toward a Diversity Certificate by Anne’s commitment and all of the Fair Trade Principles, in particular the 10^th Fair Trade Principle of Respecting the Environment, incorporating our disposable containers.

All of these thoughts churned in my brain so finally I made the move! I said to the instructors, “We’re going to make a change in our packaging.” I started ordering paper (recyclable and compostable) take-out containers instead of the plastic, hinged containers.  I ordered paper bags to carry items home versus the plastic “Thank You” bags that are not compostable. I verified that the plastic containers that we use are microwave oven safe.

Along the way I’ve realized a willingness by staff and the public to get on board with the changes. In addition, there’s been a cost savings to the department. We have seen a 15% drop in the money spent on these items. The money saved goes toward needed supplies for our students and instructors and all because of the Fair Trade Principle of Respecting the Environment!

This past March Anne attended a Fair Trade Conference in Chicago and shared her favorite quote from the Conference. It’s important to share and the quote imparts how I feel about the changes in the Culinary Department: “…at the heart of Fair Trade is the dignity of all people. How are we living our values? How are we showing up? …Be curious. Find out. Do something.”

I hope that we all consider, share, and show up when it comes to choices as they affect our environment. We don’t have to start a movement but we can all take and learn little bits of information to participate in respecting each other and our world.

Please take a look at the websites that provide area recycling programs and Fair Trade information.

World Fair Trade Organization
One Plastic Bag, Earth Day Facts
Fond du Lac Extension Area Recycling
Waste Management Recycling Services

Come to our displays at each campus cafeteria between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Beaver Dam – April 8, West Bend – April 15 and Fond du Lac – April 22nd – EARTH DAY! Be Inspired!

morainepark.edu

Tim Thomas has been sharing his culinary magic with students at Moraine Park’s Hartford Regional Center for over 12-years.

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