Meet our 2018-19 Newman Civic Fellow!

Moraine Park is very proud to announce our 2018-19 Newman Civic Fellow, Queenie Weesen!

Queenie says, “Becoming a Nurse, I want to give elderly and hospice patients, quality care, kindness and compassion. I teach my children, education and helping your community is essential for success. As a child, I sometimes escaped to the roof of my grandma’s house, watching the airport planes flying overheard and told myself, ‘One day I will fly! In America you can fly!’”

Frank

Frank Newman co-founded Campus Compact with the presidents of Stanford University, Brown University, and Georgetown University (1985) to foster students’ involvement in public service and as democratic change-agents. Campus Compact has since grown to represent more than 1100 college and university presidents committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education.

The Newman Civic Fellowship is a fellowship program for community-committed students at Campus Compact member institutions. Fellows are selected each spring for the following academic year.

The Fellowship is intended to honor the leadership legacy of Frank Newman by recognizing community-committed students who:

  • Engage in collaborative action with others from campus or from surrounding communities in order to create long-term social change
  • Take action in addressing issues of inequality and political polarization
  • Demonstrate the motivation and potential for effective long-term civic engagement

Our new Newman Civic Fellow, Queenie Weesen, is a first year nursing student in the associate degree program at Moraine Park Technical College. Queenie is passionately invested in her family, her community and pursuing her nursing career. She grew up in the Philippines and immigrated to the U.S. at age 19. As the oldest of five children, losing her father at age two, Queenie helped raise her four younger brothers and sisters while helping her mother care for her elderly grandma and great grandma. This challenging adolescent experience inspired Queenie to set the goal of moving to the U.S. and becoming a nurse.

When she arrived in America and moved to Wisconsin, Queenie became a Certified Nursing Assistant, working at a county nursing home, caring for elderly residents. She continued working as a CNA throughout raising her own three children, and sending her earnings back home to the Philippines to send her siblings to college. Now, as her siblings are set with college degrees and excellent jobs, and her own children are growing up, Queenie is pursuing her nursing degree. She strives to be an excellent role model for her children, stressing education as essential for success. Apart from dedicating her energy to family and academic excellence, Queenie creates change and builds community through her leadership in the 180+ member AKBAYAN-FANEW – Filipino American Association of Northeast Wisconsin, where she has served several terms as an officer over the past seven years, leading association activities and fundraising events showing and growing Filipino pride, in their traditions and community networking across Northeast Wisconsin.

At Moraine Park, Queenie serves on the Student Senate at the West Bend Campus, as well as serving as the senate secretary for the Districtwide Student Senate, working on senate and student club budgets, recruitment activities, student campus challenges, and fundraising events. She also serves as a board member on the West Bend chapter of the EAA – Experimental Aircraft Association, inspiring Young Eagles and leading community fundraisers for scholarships to give more kids the opportunity to learn about and experience the wonders of flying. Queenie herself is a student pilot and hoping to accrue enough hours to soon earn her private pilot’s license.

Moraine Park Technical College is a member of Wisconsin Campus CompactWisconsin Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents and chancellors who are committed to strengthening civic engagement and service-learning partnerships between Wisconsin’s postsecondary institutions and the communities they serve.

Written by Anne Lemke
Student Community Impact Coordinator