Did you know that October 23, 2019 was National “Imagine a Day Without Water” day?

With all these special days throughout the year we tend to lose track of all those important days. I personally like “pi day.” Some restaurants on “pi day,” which is March 14^th (3.14 or π), will give you a free piece of pie with an entree. That is pretty neat if you like pie, and I do fall into that group.

However, when we think about a day without water, there is really nothing fun about that at all. Having spent many days in that situation, I can state honestly that it is truly not fun. The longest time was after a typhoon that hit the island of Guam. We were prepared in that we had stored water, nonperishable food, and had water stored in two tubs. The 15 days seemed like an eternity, but imagine those experiencing these issues several times a month or more. Not all from storms, but from failed aged equipment, water shortages, dry wells, poor water quality, and other issues.

For many of us, we do not think about water until the faucet no longer has running water, but water is a key to healthy living, hygiene, proper waste water disposal in populated areas, and so much more.

At Moraine Park Technical College, our Water Quality Technology program, which is a two-year associates degree, covers some of these exact issues. It covers water supply, from the ground and surface. Courses include advanced subjects in water and wastewater, hydraulics, chemistry and management.

If you have interest in working in a field that is highly rewarding, has numerous employment opportunities here and abroad, and can also involves working in areas that need assistance with the supply of safe drinking water, then take a look at our program. Graduates and those holding degrees in this important area of expertise have obtained positions working for municipalities, States, Territories, the US Government, private companies, engineering firms, water parks, breweries, packaging plants, mills, consultants, non-profits, and many other positions in industry and water related areas.

The sky is the limit, the opportunity is here to be a part of something important. Imagine, a day without water. Maybe you can be a part of ending that type of real experience reflection for many people-here locally, or overseas.

Learn more about the water quality technology associate degree program here.

An apprenticeship – what is that? Terri Kollmann, the Applied Technology/Trades Administrative Assistant answers this question quite often for students. It’s not a Boot Camp, and it’s not an Internship. To put it simply – You Work While You Learn.

An apprenticeship is an opportunity to grow in a well-paying, in-demand career. You can attend school while working a full-time job. Both Moraine Park and the company will work to train you on the full scope of your trade.

Caleb Rahn, Josh Frederick, and Tyler Guell are second-year Electrical apprentices.

Caleb works for DeTroye Electric in Oostburg, WI. “I started my apprenticeship right out of high school.”

Josh, an apprentice for Dave Jones, Inc. in Monona, WI, switched careers after 39 years.
“I like that I’m getting paid to learn,” he said.

Tyler is an apprentice for Endries Solar & Electric, LLC. in Sheboygan, WI.
“I was a heavy equipment operator,” he said. “The best decision I ever made was switching careers after 41 years.”

Whether you’re right out of high school or changing careers, with an apprenticeship, you start with a job and build a career!

Do you think an apprenticeship might be right for you or someone you know? Do you have any questions?

Feel free to contact Terri at: tkollmann@morainepark.edu

I hope you enjoyed the July 4th activities around the State, and still have plans to enjoy the outdoors as we enter the second half of summer. For those attending our certification courses and others that have recently passed their State certification exams, congratulations. Enjoy your successes. Thank you for the emails, as your success is why we offer these important courses.

We all have heard and talked about present and projected openings in the career field. Shortages of employees are being felt here and in other States. Many times’ we are in competition with other entities that need educated employees to fill varying positions, including operations staff. We look toward consistent staffing and hope to promote strong programs that enable successful succession planning.

Here at Moraine Park Technical College, we have been training students in water and wastewater for years. With ever changing updated curriculum, great input from our programs advisory committee, and related experiences in the field, our Water Quality Technology program remains a strong valuable tool for students and potential employers. For participants in the short water certification courses, their successes with related State exams, continues to promote those efforts as well.

If you or your utility, community or organization, are considering succession planning, then please look to Moraine Park Technical College to be a part of that effort. The wheel, so to speak, has been invented and it has been quite successful, so please look to a strong, proven education, as a part of your succession plans.

Courses for the Water Quality Technology program which leads to an accredited Associated Degree, start in August. Enrollment in the online courses are now underway. For more information, visit
www.morainepark.edu/programs/water+quality+technology/. Certification courses that prepare participants for the seven state water certification sub-grades, also start in late August. Registration is also open for those courses. View the schedule for the upcoming year here. Moraine Park credits are also transferable to 4-year schools, many of which offer online programs as well.

Finally, if you are in need of employees, please consider Moraine Park students and graduates, and consider using Wisconsin TechConnect as a posting site for each opportunity. Wisconsin TechConnect reaches out to all students throughout the Wisconsin Technical College System that are in programs related to the position offered. If you have an opening, always feel free to send it my way, and I will forward to students and graduates. I can also get you in touch with the MPTC Wisconsin TechConnect representative, who will assist you in your efforts.

Please consider our program and courses in your succession planning, as a strong education is truly the building blocks to entity and employee success.

Moraine Park apprentice, John Dondlinger, employed by Eagle Construction Co., Inc. in Wisconsin Rapids, was named as the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) 2019 Apprentice of the Year at the ABC annual graduation banquet in Wisconsin Dells.

The Apprentice of the Year award goes to an apprentice who is in good standing, is at least half-way through the apprenticeship program, demonstrates a high degree of professionalism, and is highly regarded by other apprentices, instructors, and employers. Dondlinger is known for his quiet presence in the classroom and is regarded as a lead-by-example student who is willing to jump in and help others understand how to complete a task correctly.

Moraine Park Alumni, Jacob Moody, served as the event keynote speaker. Moody, a 2018 graduate from the carpentry apprenticeship, is a journeyman carpenter for Kraemer Brothers in Plain. He joined the Kraemer Brothers team in 2007 as a laborer, and today he holds two apprenticeship completion cards in the state of Wisconsin for construction craft laborer and carpentry. Moody also took first place in carpentry at the ABC of Wisconsin Skills Competition in 2018 and went on to win first place at ABC’s National Craft Championships.

In his speech, Moody recalled his journey through apprenticeship and thanked those who helped him along the way, particularly Moraine Park instructor Gary Roehrig and Darrell Kraemer of Kraemer Brothers. He highlighted his experiences competing at the National Craft Championships and encouraged the soon-to-be-graduates to stay involved in ABC.

“These apprentices are now journeymen in their trade who will add each and every one of their abilities to our workforce,” Moody said. “There are going to be many more opportunities for all of you. Just remember don’t be afraid, don’t put boundaries around you, never stop learning, and enjoy your lives while you’re at it.”

Moraine Park is also celebrating its solid partnership with ABC. 2019 marks the fourth consecutive year that a Moraine Park student has been selected as the Apprentice of the Year and also the third consecutive year that the keynote speaker is an alumnus from the College.

morainepark.edu

A total of 14 Moraine Park apprentices will benefit from the Tools of the Trade scholarship offered by Ascendium Education Group scholarship (formerly Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation & Affiliates).

Currently, both the construction and industrial trade industries have a high demand for skilled workers. An apprenticeship offers up to five years of real-world work experience while attending school, and businesses gain access to skilled workers with legitimate on-the-job experience. However, financial pressure can make it hard to complete an apprenticeship, and students are often juggling the demands of school, work, and family. Additionally, apprentices incur substantial costs beyond tuition, such as purchasing tools, clothing, and other supplies. The Tools of the Trade scholarship provides funding to help cover those expenses.

“Many students struggle to meet the financial obligations of their school commitments on top of their personal obligations,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president said. “We serve many first-generation, low-income students. This generous gift will certainly ease the burden and help them purchase the tools of their trade. My sincere appreciation to Ascendium Education Group for their interest in helping our apprentices succeed!”

The Moraine Park apprentices who received the 2019 Tools of the Trade scholarship are, Brock Ayers of West Bend, Austin Baumann of Rubicon, Nicholas Beine of Campbellsport, Aaron Brewer of Slinger, Jeremiah Cantrall of Fredonia, Jared Deming of Jackson, Joshua Frederick of Horicon, Kate Kilp of Milwaukee, Ethan Moldenhauer of West Bend, Daniel Reineke of Oostburg, Robert Riedijk of Milwaukee, Ripley Sartain of Port Washington, Taylor Schauer of Plymouth, and Erick Schmidt of Waupun.

Each student receives a total of $1,500 for the 2019-20 school year. A total of $298,500 in scholarships were awarded to 199 construction and industrial trades apprentices from 15 Wisconsin Technical College System institutions.

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

Moraine Park Technical College carpentry student, Chad St. John, recently participated in the 32^nd annual National Craft Championships (NCC) during the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) 2019 convention in Long Beach, Calif.

The NCC event allows for skilled trainees and apprentices from across the country compete for top honors by demonstrating their superior skills, training, and safe work practices. It features a field of 168 craft professionals competing for top honors in 14 competitions representing 12 crafts, from electrical and plumbing to carpentry and welding, as well as a team competition with journey-level competitors from four different crafts working to complete a joint project. The competition included a two-hour written exam and a day-long, hands-on practical performance test.

St. John, a carpentry apprentice for Northcentral Construction Corporation, took the bronze award in the competition’s residential-commercial carpentry division. St. John had advanced to the NCC after receiving the top score in carpentry during ABC of Wisconsin’s Skills Competition on Jan. 25 in West Bend.

For more information on Moraine Park programs, like carpentry, visit morainepark.edu.

Moraine Park’s Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Carpentry Apprentice classes have been busy this year! Recently they completed a project for the West Bend VFW, by constructing a new brat stand.

“The Brat Stand project came about when Norbert Carter, a Korean War veteran and Flag Day Committee member of the West Bend Veterans of Foreign Wars, made contact with me about the possibility of the Carpentry classes assisting in the construction of a new stand to replace their existing building,” Gary Roehrig, MPTC carpentry instructor said. “From that initial contact, it was determined the building would be a project the classes could construct. A plan was developed, and construction began in December.”

The electrical work was installed and completed by one of the electrical apprentice classes at the West Bend campus. Drexel Building Supply of Campbellsport and Atlas Roofing donated materials for the building.

Construction was completed the week of March 25. The VFW club members painted the structure in Moraine Park’s carpentry lab, and the building was moved the week of April 1 to its permanent location at the intersection of Highway 33 and 15th Avenue in West Bend.

“Class projects similar to this have been a part of the curriculum for the carpentry apprentice classes throughout the years,” Gary said. “They provide an opportunity to use skills being taught in class and putting them into immediate practice in the class laboratory activities. It also allows the classes to engage in community service activities that should be an essential component of any life-long career.”

Other carpentry apprentice class projects include:

• The construction of new closet storage cabinets in the Carpentry lab at the West Bend campus.
• Third and fourth-year carpentry apprentices constructed cabinets for the new Gas Technicians class at the Beaver Dam campus. These cabinets were installed in two of the eight buildings that were constructed last year. (Construction of those eight buildings was the in-class project for the 2017-2018 school year.)

For more information, visit morainepark.edu.

On Friday, February 22^nd, 2019 on a beautiful late-winter day, 9 ABC Carpentry Apprentices, under the guidance of their instructor, Gary Roehrig, installed custom-made, heavy-duty cabinets into two of the houses in the Gas Utility Construction Training Neighborhood on the Beaver Dam campus. The carpenter apprentices built the cabinets in the woodshop on the West Bend campus, where they attend school, as part of their Advanced Cabinetmaking course. This course was developed and is being taught by Mr. Roehrig, a long-time instructor for the apprenticeship at Moraine Park.

The partnership between the apprenticeship program and the Gas Utility Construction program began unwittingly two years ago when, as part of their formal instruction, the carpenter apprentices built six 8×12 foot ‘sheds’ to gain practice designing and building small wooden structures. The original intent of this effort was to sell the sheds to local business or homeowners for use as brat-fry stands or for personal use. During the same time, planning was well underway to create the new gas program on the Beaver Dam campus, when the idea arose to use the 6 sheds—now called ‘houses’—to form a training neighborhood that gas program students could use for their own training.

The idea took hold, and even expanded to include two additional houses that were configured to be able to store tools and small equipment, thus making a training neighborhood of 8 houses. In late April, 2018, the 8 houses were transported from the West Bend woodshop and placed on concrete pads at the Beaver Dam campus, in time for the new program to start in June. Business and industry partners who contributed to the gas program capital campaign had plaques attached to the sides of the houses in recognition of their generosity.

As this phase of the partnership was reaching its’ end, a collaborative idea between Steve Horvath, Associate Dean of Trades, and Gary Roehrig came up, which was to have this year’s carpenter apprentices build the cabinets for the 2 extra houses. The intent in installing the heavy-duty cabinets is that in the future, the gas program students and instructor will be able to store supplies and small equipment out ‘in the field’, where it will be handy to access, rather than have to go back into the main lab for what is needed. For their part, the carpenter apprentices gained valuable skills in designing and building top-quality cabinets from scratch.

When the task was completed in the early afternoon of Feb. 22^nd, Associate Dean Horvath thanked the carpentry apprentices and their instructor, telling them they had accomplished a task that is much appreciated and one which will have a long-lasting positive impact on another program in the college.

Moraine Park Technical College’s first Gas Utility Technician class celebrated their program completion on Thursday, March 14.

In 2017, the College announced their plans to construct an Energy Education Center (EEC) at the Beaver Dam campus, as an answer to industry demands for skilled gas utility technicians. Supporters for the project include Alliant Energy, KS Energy Services, Madison Gas and Electric, Michels Corporation, We Energies, and Wisconsin Public Service. The EEC opened in June 2018, and the first Gas Utility Technician group began their training.

“Students in this program receive top-notch instruction,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president said. “They work through real gas utility scenarios in the Training Neighborhood, have access to the latest technology, and undergo thorough training to get them ready for the field.”

The 2019 class includes Alden Broome of Beaver Dam; Joseph Erdmann of Watertown; Samuel Gantner of Fond du Lac; Cody Gebhard of Brandon; Dylan Gilmore of Jackson; Connor Gray of Cottage Grove; Caleb Madrid of Watertown; Kaleb Mancheski of Deerfield; Ashton Mislivecek of Hillsboro; Zachary Muckerheide of West Bend; Ean Ries of Lomira; Jonah Rohde of Fond du Lac; Gavin Schultz of Waupun; Justin Schultz of Elkhart Lake; Jordan Snyder of Watertown. The graduates will receive their Gas Utility Technician technical diploma at Moraine Park’s annual commencement ceremony on May 18.

“I couldn’t be happier with the work that these students have put in over the past nine months,” Steve Logan, gas utility instructor at Moraine Park said. “In addition to learning the skills needed to be successful in a natural gas / underground construction career, they have learned an even greater lesson – that on the job and at home safety must always be their number one priority.”

Applications are now being accepted for the next group, set to begin in June 2019. The nine-month program is uniquely designed to train students and prepare them to fill industry needs for the following summer. Gas Utility Technicians are currently in high demand, with many positions ready to be filled. Graduates can expect to earn a median salary of $56,675.

Individuals interested in the Gas Utility Technician program can reach out to Sherry Hackbarth, an academic advisor at Moraine Park, at (920) 887-4425 or shackbarth@morainepark.edu.

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