Amy Harmsen’s Fall, 2019 Business Practicum students made a generous impact on their local and global communities, while learning all the ins and outs of creating and managing a small business! 10 students in Amy’s fall class partnered with our local Just Fare Market and created their own Fair Trade Pop Up Shop with beautiful Mayan Hands friendship bracelets, mini chocolates from Equal Exchange, and hot cocoa and milk chocolate bars from Divine Chocolate.

Students sold Fair Trade products throughout the semester and were very proud to use their profits to give donations of $179.07 each to the FDL County Sheriff’s Shop with a Cop program and the FDL Humane Society. Sales of the Fair Trade products also benefited farmers and artisans in Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Ghana! 3 students, Heather Fousek, Taran Smith and Valerie Stafford, also earned full scholarships to attend the National Fair Trade Colleges Conference in Pasadena, CA in March. Congratulations!

Moraine Park Technical College was named the first Fair Trade technical college in the U.S in May 2015! Fair trade supports farmers and artisans in developing countries. These producers lack economic opportunity and often face steep hurdles in finding markets and customers for their goods. Fair Trade is about making a tremendous impact on artisan and farmer communities while offering great products to the public all around the world.

Nursing students in Instructor Michele Mengert’s Mental Health and Community Concepts course recently completed their community advocacy projects as part of our Fall, 2019 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 to learn more about parenting, fostering, opioid addiction, poverty, developmental disabilities, 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 strengths and weaknesses in their own communities. Project presentations were held on December 20.

Congratulations on all of this great work on important community issues!

Throughout the month of November, 2019, Auto Instructor Jim Daniels and students from the MPTC Automotive Technology Programs, hosted teens in grades 5-12 and staff from the Boys and Girls Club of Fond du Lac and the Boys and Girls Club of the Tri-County Area and Waupun High School for fun interactive Dream Big events.

The Dream Big project started in 2017 with Boys and Girls Club of Fond du Lac teens learning more about the over 100 careers available through MPTC.  Now Dream Big has expanded throughout the MPTC district (Fond du Lac, Dodge, Washington and Green Lake Counties.)  This is a great community partnership opportunity for Moraine Park students to showcase their careers and make a true community impact  and for area teens to get excited about career choices!

Fond du Lac Boys and Girls Club Teen Services Director Dillon Wiese said, “We are so excited for these Dream Big opportunities! At Boys and Girls Clubs we work hard to prepare teens with life skills to get ready for the world of work.  At Dream Big Auto teens learned about batteries, engines, changing tires and more! They also learned about how important their high school classes of math, science and english are for their future careers. Our partnership with MPTC is a great way for teens to explore their interests, learn about careers, get ready for college and know they really can achieve their dreams! Thank you MPTC!”

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

On November 6, 2019, instructors and students from the MPTC Criminal Justice Program, hosted teens in grades 5-12 and staff from the Boys and Girls Club of Fond du Lac for a fun interactive Dream Big event.

The Dream Big project started in 2017 with Boys and Girls Club of Fond du Lac teens learning more about the over 100 careers available through MPTC.  Now Dream Big has expanded throughout the MPTC district (Fond du Lac, Dodge, Washington and Green Lake Counties.)  This is a great community partnership opportunity for Moraine Park students to showcase their careers and make a true community impact and for area teens to get excited about career choices!

Fond du Lac Boys and Girls Club Teen Services Director Dillon Wiese said, “We are so excited for these Dream Big opportunities! At Boys and Girls Clubs we work hard to prepare teens with life skills to get ready for the world of work.  At Dream Big Criminal Justice our students experienced finger printing, hand cuffing, jail cell searches, and what professional skills it takes to work in a criminal justice career. Our partnership with MPTC is a great way for teens to explore their interests, learn about careers, get ready for college and know they really can achieve their dreams! Thank you MPTC!”

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. 

In 2018, MPTC started a community impact awards program where students can track their service 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 of service learning or volunteering. In the 2019 fall semester, 17 students earned awards and logged over 800 hours of service!

Congratulations to the fall 2019 award winners!

Bronze Award Winners

Completing 25-49 hours of service learning.

• Brielle Aylesworth, Medical Assistant
• Merinda Chamberlin, Medical Assistant
• Kylie Cody, Medical Assistant
• Ashley Despres, Medical Assistant
• Stephanie Dobek, Medical Assistant
• Brittany Enderle, Medical Office
• Erika Kaatz, Medical Assistant
• Amy Kaminski, Medical Assistant
• Sarah Lemmenes, Medical Assistant
• Heather Pieper, Medical Assistant
• Rhonda Roehl, Medical Assistant
• Olivia Sharp, Medical Assistant
• Kayla Wagner, Medical Assistant
• Rebecca Wenninger, Medical Assistant
• Haley Ilkenhans, Medical Assistant
• Tania Torres, Graphic Communications
• Meghan Griswold, Marketing and Social Media     

From late March to mid May, Amy Harmsen’s Meeting and Event Planning students spent 36 hours of service learning working on the annual Portfolio Showcase Event featuring MPTC Web Developer and Graphics students. The Showcase was held on May 15 at Fond du Lac Campus. Event Management students were responsible for ordering food, creating a room layout, coordinating technology, communicating with marketing for event promotion, connecting with participants on power needs, set up, monitoring, and take down of the event. In addition, the students helped promote the first annual High School Art Contest and upcoming Fond du Lac area Graphic and Interactive Arts Festival.

The Event Management course is required for an Administrative Professional Associate Degree and focuses on coordinating and planning successful business events. Students develop skills in scheduling, preparing, organizing, managing and participating and engage in all aspects of the event management process including goal setting and objectives, establishing event themes, planning event logistics, financial management, promotion and event evaluation.

Congratulations on a successful Portfolio Showcase learning and sharing event !

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Nursing students in Instructor Michele Mengert’s Mental Health and Community Concepts course recently completed their community advocacy projects as part of our Spring, 2019 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 17 students spent over 80 hours researching and collaborating with community partners to learn more about planned parenthood, poverty, women & infants, suicide, domestic violence, opioid abuse, water quality, 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 strengths and weaknesses in their own communities. Project presentations were held on May 17.

Congratulations on all of this great work on important community issues!

Moraine Park Technical College has presented Serenity Hospice with its 2019 Community Partnership Award. This award recognizes a community non-profit or business partner organization who has gone above and beyond in their role of working with Moraine Park students in service learning opportunities.

Serenity Hospice is committed to providing the highest quality of care with a multidisciplinary team, serving patients and their families through every stage of end of life care. Moraine Park Medical Assistant students are important members of the hospice team! Volunteers are specially trained to provide support to the patient and family such as socialization, visitation, and helping with administrative tasks such as scanning, filing, alphabetizing, faxing, data entry, scheduling and collating. In 2019, MPTC student service learning volunteers spent over 240 hours at Serenity Hospice!

Ashley Wissinger, Volunteer & Bereavement Coordinator for Serenity Hospice said, “Thank you so much for this award!  We’ve had a lot of wonderful student volunteers from Moraine Park. The award is lovely and is proudly displayed. It was so great to meet your team and put faces with names!  It is truly an honor to work with the Moraine Park students.  We appreciate everything you and your team do to ensure your students are successful.”

Moraine Park Technical College works to bring quality education to the students, which in turn will benefit the communities where they live and work. Students who participate are required to log their volunteer hours, which count towards earning a Service-Learning Award.  Opportunities such as this allow students to make community connections prior to graduation and work through real-life scenarios. The partnership created by Moraine Park Technical College and Serenity Hospice will continue to benefit both of our organizations, the student volunteers, and the patients and families that are being served.

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

On April 23, MPTC President Bonnie Baerwald and Student Community Impact Coordinator Anne Lemke, were very excited to receive the Partner In Excellence Award from the Boys & Girls Club of the Tri-County Area

Center Director Mindy Collado said, “Thank you so much for attending our Great Futures Celebration and for all of your hard work with the Dream Big Initiative!”

Teen Futures Coordinator Carrie Govek said, “We are so delighted with the opportunities Dream Big has offered the teens in our Career Launch program and we look forward to continuing this partnership.”

Club CEO Jason Presto said, “Dream Big is so amazing! We are very thankful for the way MPTC is introducing our members to opportunities they may be interested in or may have never even known was an option for them. This school year they learned about careers in Medical Assistant, Criminal Justice, Health and Wellness, Welding, and Automotive!