Moraine Park Technical College nursing program celebrated the pinning of 51 students at their spring ceremony on May 17. This symbolic event represents the beginning of a nursing career. As well, it serves as an end to the Moraine Park journey and a celebration of the opportunities that lay ahead.

Additionally, the College is also celebrating a historic year by graduating 12 males from the program for the first time ever.

“We are seeing more non-traditional students in fields that have historically been either male or female dominated,” Bonnie Baerwald, president of Moraine Park Technical College said. “The increase of males in the nursing field shows that success in the industry is a result of educated skills, not gender, and brings the opportunity for a diverse work atmosphere within our healthcare systems.”

The students who received their nursing pins at the spring 2019 ceremony are Alyssa Ahlstrom of Westfield; Rosie Alsum of Brandon; Lindsay Birschbach of Fond du Lac; Erica Breitenstein of West Bend; Megan Calbaum of Princeton; Nicole Claerbout of West Bend; Danielle Cleland of Fond du Lac; Jamie Droppers of West Bend; Amanda Dylak of Beaver Dam; April Eck of Potosi; Briar Eck of Potosi; Nikki Eiring of Fond du Lac; Melissa Endries of Pipe; Katherine Erickson of Cedarburg; Carissa Ewald of Ripon; Ben Falter of West Bend; Cassie Florine of Hartford; Hunter Godfroy of Oakfield; Holly Hoagland of West Bend; Emma Holland of Waupun; Kelly Jacobs of Fond du Lac; Andrew Keel of Beaver Dam; Aubrey Kerr of West Bend; Maggie Kollmann of Fond du Lac; Caroline Krebs of West Bend; Jamie Nicholas of Waupun; Jared Obendorfer of West Bend; Jennifer Plummer of Sun Prairie; Jonathan Ratzel of Fredonia; Parker Resop of Horicon; Katie Retzlaff of North Lake; Jennifer Roeseler of Fond du Lac; Katrina  Salva of Watertown; Frederick Schellgell of Oshkosh; Amanda Schmidt of Beaver Dam; Julie Schumacher of Fond du Lac; Catherine Seibel of Fond du Lac; Kaitlyn Shallow of Watertown; Katelyn Sharp of Ripon; Natasha Sokoloff of New Holstein; Riley Stegemeyer of Slinger; Jonathan Szczesny of Horicon; Courtney Tennies of Kewaskum;  Alexi Turnage of Fond du Lac; Chelsea Turner of Fond du Lac; Mikayla Van Ooyen of Kewaskum; Christian Walding of Milwaukee; Aubrey Weidemann of Columbus; Kaitlyn Woo of West Bend; Shelby Wulff of Waupun; Tanya Zangl of Fond du Lac.

The students accepted their nursing diplomas at the College’s annual commencement ceremony on May 18. They will continue studying through the early part of the summer in preparation for their National Council Licensure Examination to earn their Registered Nursing License. In 2018, Moraine Park’s nursing pass rates were an impressive 99 percent, and currently, the program ranks in the top 10 for nursing programs in Wisconsin.

For more information on Moraine Park’s nursing program, visit morainepark.edu/nursing.

Congrats to Moraine Park’s nursing program on a HUGE accomplishment.

The College’s 2018 National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) Nursing pass scores raised from 96% to 99%!

What this means?

That 99% of Moraine Park Nursing students pass their NCLEX exam!

For comparison, the national pass rate average is 85%.

Congrats to the students and faculty for working hard to provide top-notch nurses ready to provide quality care in the field!

morainepark.edu/nursing

Interviewing and accepting positions in local health care facilities prior to graduation. $2500-$3000 sign on bonuses. Say What???? Imagine all this being possible in 1 year!

The career opportunities of the Medical Assistant are trending in our area and they are looking for YOU! There are currently 130+ openings for Medical Assistants through our local health care facilities including Froedtert, Aurora, Agnesian, UW Health, and Beaver Dam Community Hospital.

What is a Medical Assistant, you ask? A medical assistant is an integral part of the health care team that supports the work of physicians and other health care providers in the clinic setting. They are able to support both the administrative and clinical aspects of the health care facility.

What do our Medical Assistants learn? Our students are taught administrative tasks such as scheduling, coding, and billing. They also get to perform hands on skills such as obtaining vital signs, assisting with procedures, drawing blood, giving injections, performing EKGs, and running various laboratory tests performed in the physician’s office.

At the West Bend Campus we are proud to offer a cohort model to provide an accelerated learning opportunity. Within a years’ time our students will complete their education and obtain a technical diploma as a medical assistant.

Want to learn more? We are offering an orientation to our program on the West Bend Campus on 5/16 from 9-1130am. If you want IN on this amazing opportunity please contact Moraine Park Advisor Marisa Arneson or Program Instructor Erika Herriges. We look forward to helping your achieve your goals!

Erika Herriges RN, BSN MA/MO Cohort Instructor West Bend Campus

eherriges@morainepark.edu

Marisa Arneson, MPTC Academic Advisor West Bend Campus

marneson@morainepark.edu

On April 10, 2019 Tri-County Boys and Girls Club kids in grades 5-11 were excited to meet and learn with Moraine Park Medical Assistant student Merinda Chamberlin!

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!”

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 is expanding throughout the MPTC district to include Boys and Girls Club of the Tri-County Area (Berlin, Green Lake County) and Boys and Girls Club of Washington County (West Bend).  This is a great community partnership opportunity for Moraine Park students to showcase their careers and practice service learning  and for Boys and Girls Club members to get excited about career choices!

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

Moraine Park student, Renee Vnuk-Uhrman of Campbellsport, has been selected to be a part of the 2019-20 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 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, access to exclusive scholarships, and post-graduate opportunities.

Vnuk-Uhrman, a first-year medical laboratory technician student, took advantage of dual credit opportunities in high school and became a certified phlebotomist after graduating. She is also part of the College’s Promise program, volunteers at her local community hospital and Campbellsport High School, and maintains top academic scores.

“Renee is a strong role model of the Moraine Park core abilities,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president said. “Her dedication to family, school, and community speaks to her strong work ethic, solid integrity, and desire to make a difference. She is very deserving of this recognition, and we look forward to watching her grow in her field.”

In total, there were nine students selected from Wisconsin to participate in the Newman Civic Fellows cohort, and Vnuk-Uhrman represents one of two technical college students in the group. She was recognized at the Wisconsin Campus Compact Conference on Thursday, March 21.

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

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

This year, the Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) Club decided to tie blankets and donate them to the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital. This activity was done before the winter break to spread some holiday cheer to those in need. A total of 13 blankets were completed by eleven MLT students, and a couple of helpers (their children). We had a great time completing the project while watching a holiday show. To celebrate our success, we ended the night with pizza!

As the adviser for the Medical Laboratory Technician club, I encourage anyone who is interested in pursuing a healthcare career with excellent employment opportunities to contact me to learn more about laboratory medicine and the role we have in helping physicians to diagnose, treat, and monitor the health status of their patients.

For more information, you can email me at lbau@morainepark.edu or call (920) 924-3314.

Moraine Park will be holding a certified nursing assistant (CNA) course March 11- April 29 at Kewauskum high school. This opportunity is open to the public, ages 16+.

In just over a month you can earn three college credits, a certificate, and jump start your career in healthcare!

Spots are filling fast in this high demand course! Register today by calling 1-800-472-4554.

To view the course schedule, click here.

For more information on the nursing assistant program, visit morainepark.edu/nursing-assistant.

Nursing students in Instructor Michele Mengert’s Mental Health and Community Concepts course recently completed their community advocacy projects as part of our fall, 2018 service learning opportunities. Michele said, “students are purposefully working to learn community oriented nursing. We want to target prevention as a priority. Nurses need to understand how to advocate for specific populations of people and have knowledge of the resource programs in your community that you can partner with to help your patients.”

This semester 20 students spent over 100 hours researching and collaborating with community partners on projects such as drug free communities, family resource centers, Alzheimer’s, poverty, mental health, breast cancer, obesity, domestic violence, sexual assault, and more. Students formulated detailed advocacy plans to address how a nurse could help a community identify and address these issues, providing education, awareness, advocacy and resources. Students gathered data to help determine strength and weaknesses in their own communities. Project presentations were held on December 21. Congratulations on all of this great work on important community issues!

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

Many of us can identify life-changing moments as a result of being in the right place at the right time. For Danairis (Deedee) Melendez, that is exactly how her Moraine Park journey began.

Deedee is a mother of six children and originally came to Wisconsin from Puerto Rico. Her family settled in Milwaukee, and she found employment at a local Optometrist office. To the outside world she led a normal life, but behind closed doors, she was in a vicious cycle of abuse, both mentally and physically. It is apparent that Deedee has a strength that is rare to come by. However, she said that even her strong, independent personality was no match to her abuser.

“I never thought that I would be a victim of abuse,” Deedee said. “I knew my family deserved more. So, I packed up and fled the situation.”

She relocated her family to the West Bend area and welcomed this as an opportunity to have a fresh start.

Deedee started working at Advanced Focus Eyecare in West Bend. On a typical workday, she was helping a woman find glasses when they began to talk about career goals. Deedee mentioned her desire to become a nurse, and her customer just happened to be Kathy Vandemark, a counselor at Moraine Park Technical College in West Bend.

“We hit it off, I liked her immediately,” Deedee said. “Kathy helped walk me through the enrollment process, and ultimately helped me get into my program.”

Deedee not only wants to be a nurse, but she also has aspirations to be a neonatal nurse.

“My oldest son was born at 23-weeks,” she said. “He had a one-percent survival rate, and he just turned 17!”

Her experience in the neonatal unit as a parent is what motivates her to want to serve the parents and babies in need of care.

Both Deedee and Kathy were in the right place at the right time. The result? Deedee will petition to begin her nursing clinical this March and is expected to graduate in December of 2020.

She is also writing a book documenting her journey as a victim of abuse. Her goal is to help others in similar situations find the help that they need to redefine their life.

We look forward to following Deedee’s journey and wish her the best of luck as she continues to pursue her degree.

**A fun side note**

Deedee’s daughter Jayanie age 12, sat in on our interview. I couldn’t help but strike up a conversation with her also. Jayanie is quite possibly the most polite 12-year old I’ve ever spoken with, and she also aspires to be in health care. Her goal is to be a heart surgeon, and her eyes sparkled a bit when she talked about her dream career. I look forward to interviewing Jayanie in the future as a Moraine Park health sciences student.