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.
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.
“Moraine Park has been wonderful,” she said. “My teachers are helpful, and this experience has helped to put me on the path towards my dream career.”
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.
At the end of 2018 fall semester, 17 Medical Assistant and/or Medical Office students earned service learning awards. Twelve students earned Bronze Awards for completing at least 25 hours of service and five students earned Bronze and Silver Awards for completing at least 50 hours of service. Congratulations!
Anne Lemke, Experiential Learning Coordinator, was excited to present awards to some of the students present at the Medical Assistant/Medical Office Careers event at Fond du Lac Campus on December 4, 2018. Program Director Sarah Chojnacki and Practicum Instructor Eric Ziebell said, “We are so proud of our students! Seeing the community impact they make together is just tremendous! The reflection and learning that comes from these service experiences is so valuable! Students can take their learning experience and awards to showcase on their resume, in interviews, and out into the workplace!”
Together these 17 students helped over 25 community partners and served over 770 hours! Great work!!
Bronze Award Winners: Megan Andrews Victoria Barron Tonja Bates Kelly Duley Crystal Firkus Selena Heiman Felicia Hemmila Chellsie Holst Nancy Osorio Rachel Rongstad Ashley Schroeder Jackie Smith Lyn Vogt April Weisinger Brooke Wentland Arielle Wiedmer Andrea Wilcox
Silver Award Winners: Kelly Duley Crystal Firkus Felicia Hemmila Nancy Osorio Brooke Wentland
Pictured above, left to right. Front row, Jackie Glynn , Kelly Duley, and Brooke Wentland. Back row, Nancy Osorio, Rachel Rongstad, Lyn Vogt, Tonja Bates, Andrea Wilcox, and Megan Andrews.
Moraine Park Technical College will be hosting a site review February 5 -7, 2019 for its continuing accreditation for the Nursing Associates degree program by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).
The public is invited to meet the site visit team and share their comments about the program. The open forum meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 6, 2019, from 4:00 to 4:30 p.m.at any of Moraine Park’s three main campuses, Beaver Dam, room K-201; Fond du Lac, room E-141; West Bend, room L-137.
Written comments are also welcome and should be received by January 31, 2019.
Tri-County Boys and Girls Club Teen Futures Coordinator, Carrie Govek said, “This was a wonderful experience for our teens! Besides finding out more on health and wellness careers, they learned about healthy drinks and how much sugar is in many of the drinks they love, like sports drinks and soda. They even got to have a fun Tic Tac Toe relay race! Our Club is really stressing healthy lifestyles with exercise and healthy eating, so this was a perfect learning opportunity! After the teen event was finished, the elementary kids even got to sample the delicious fruit infused water the students brought to share. Thank you MPTC!” Danielle and Debbie both told the teens about personal, family and friends health related journeys that inspired them to pursue a career in health and wellness and how the associate degree at MPTC is the perfect fit, where they are learning how to coach and teach healthy lifestyles and earning certifications all along the way to graduate with a career that has many job opportunities!
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 held a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course at Slinger High School this fall. This opportunity allowed for high school students to obtain both a certificate and college credit.
Nancy Osorio-Diaz, a medical assistant student from Juneau, has volunteered at the Boys & Girls Club in Fond du Lac playing medical terminology games with children, at community events taking blood pressure, and her personal favorite, at the Dodge County Women, Infants, & Children (WIC) clinic in Juneau. She is bilingual and able to provide Spanish-speaking skills, which makes her a huge asset!
To say that Rosy Samou, of Ripon, has had a winding journey to get to Moraine Park Technical College would be an understatement. Rosy is a native of Cameroon, Africa, and in the last five years has moved internationally twice, traveled nearly 10,000 miles, learned English, gave birth to her third child, earned her CNA, enrolled in the nursing program, and is now petitioning to be a Registered Nurse (RN).
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