Moraine Park Technical College Nursing student, Carrie Kuehn of Beaver Dam, received the College’s first DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students on Friday, Dec. 17, at the Beaver Dam campus Pinning Ceremony.
The award was created to recognize and celebrate nursing students for the above-and-beyond care and compassion shown to patients and their families. The DAISY Foundation hopes that this program will inspire and motivate students to provide the best clinical skills possible and to impact patients and families with human spirit and kindness.
Kuehn was nominated by a fellow Moraine Park Nursing student, Shane Keck.
“Carrie is an inspiration at clinical,” Keck said. “She is such a professional and so quick at clinicals that we all marvel at her competency. She’s also unbelievably kind and picks others up when they’re down and struggling. Carrie is a phenomenal leader and I truly believe she’ll be a shining star of an RN someday soon.”
Kuehn, a fourth-semester student, was chosen through a blind selection process by Moraine Park’s DAISY committee made up of three Moraine Park representatives and one advisory member. Nominations for the award can come from any patient, staff nurse, fellow students, faculty or member of the community that the student has positively impacted.
“I had no idea I would be receiving this award,” Kuehn said. ‘It came as a complete surprise, and I am honored to have even been nominated. I’ve wanted to be a nurse since I was a child, so the recognition means everything to me.”
Edi Gbordzi came to Fond du Lac looking to find a place to call home and an extended family of friends and supporters. In 2001, he immigrated from Ghana, West Africa, to Madison, Wisconsin. There he taught and performed African dance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and throughout the community.
“A goal in coming to the U.S. was to go back to school and become connected in my community,” Gbordzi said. “Teaching the art of African dance allowed me to be surrounded with others who had those same goals. This support group continued to motivate me.”
Gbordzi later relocated to California and welcomed his two children. In 2011, they moved to Fond du Lac to be closer to family. Once Gbordzi got settled in the area, he decided it was time to act upon his goal to pursue higher education. He connected with the Student Success Center at Moraine Park to begin his journey.
I learned that my transcripts from Africa didn’t cover all the areas needed for a GED diploma here in the United States,” he said. “At first, that was frustrating, but the staff were so helpful and great to work with. I ended up learning too much and that prepared me to further my education.”
“My parents owned their own business in Africa for many years,” Gbordzi said. “Their years of hard work inspired me to follow in their footsteps and pursue a business degree.”
Gbordzi is embracing the full college experience and has become a familiar face on the Fond du Lac campus.
“I enjoy being involved,” he said. “I am a member of student senate, diversity club and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Club. I also enjoy volunteering and participating in student life events.”
Gbordzi is a dedicated student and was awarded the Basic Education Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year.
“I’m grateful Moraine Park offered me a place to learn and grow,” Gbordzi said. “My overall goal is to find a good job so I can support my family. It is also important to me to continue learning. Moraine Park is helping to prepare me for both my future career and higher educational opportunities.”
Gbordzi is scheduled to graduate in May 2022 and looks forward to influencing the local communities.
Moraine Park Technical College held its fall 2021 Manufacturing Skills Academy completion ceremony on Friday, December 17. A total of 16 students finished the program, five from Computer Numerical Control (CNC) and 11 from Welding.
This program was designed to combat the skilled worker shortage by offering a variety of boot camp sessions. The boot camp sessions are free to participants, teach skills that are unique to a particular pathway, and connect students with area employers. The program also combines a 144-hour paid internship with coursework, including Occupational Math, Print Reading, Team Building, Problem Solving, and program-specific courses.
Participating internship sites for this session were Mercury Marine, RB Royal Industries, Inc., Mid-States Aluminum Corp., FZE Manufacturing Solutions LLC, Wabash National, Maysteel Industries LLC, The Jor-Mac Company, Apache Stainless Equipment Corp., Hy-Brid Lifts by Custom Equipment LLC, and Wisconsin Stamping & Manufacturing.
Moraine Park has had over 400 participants in the Welding and CNC boot camp programs since its induction in 2012.
The students who completed the CNC boot camp are Connor Philipsky of Fond du Lac, Devin Ferguson of Fond du Lac, Patrick Trieloff of Oshkosh, Tadayuki Ken Yoshino of Ripon, and Youse Chang of Fond du Lac.
The students who completed the Welding boot camp are Jesse Godina of Fond du Lac, Shayne Thornsen of Randolph, Eric Stierna of Oshkosh, Jennifer Gruender of Beaver Dam, Victor Nelson of Fond du Lac, Cody Holter of Beaver Dam, Weston Christensen of Neosho, Jared Landsee of Reeseville, Zachary Prator of Hartford, Joshua Boileau of Oshkosh, and John Dwyer of West Bend.
This year’s graduation speakers were students Zachary Prator, Jared Landsee and Devin Ferguson.
“The Welding boot camp is easily the most rewarding thing I’ve done,” Prator said. “When I started, I was lost and didn’t know where I was headed. The boot camp has shown so many different mindsets and has inspired me to start my own welding business in the future. I’m grateful to all my instructors for teaching me not only the course material, but also meaningful life lessons that made me a better person through this experience.”
Moraine Park’s Skills Academy boot camps are free to participating students, thanks to financial support from community resource partners and the Workforce and Training (WAT) grants.
Registrations for the spring 2022 boot camp program are now being accepted. For more information, visit morainepark.edu/bootcamps.
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.
We encourage students to participate in our community impact awards program where students can track their service-learning or volunteer hours, submit their reflections, and earn a Bronze Award for 25 hours, Silver Award for 50 hours,Gold Award for 100 hours, and President’s Award for 200 hours!
In the 2021 fall semester, despite all the Covid-19 challenges, 15 students earned awards and logged over 1,600 hours of service! Congratulations to our Fall, 2021 award winners!
Presidents Award
For Fall, 2021, three students earned the President’s Award for over 200 hours of service each in their time at MPTC! The three students are Corey Koch – Administrative Professional, Heather Quickle – Nursing, and Julianna Stuht – Paramedic. MPTC President Bonnie Baerwald celebrated with and congratulated each student, stating: “I’m extremely proud of the accomplishments of Julianna, Corey and Heather. Each has their own unique story and came to Moraine Park Technical College to explore and create new career opportunities. In addition to their work and college obligations, their volunteer efforts exemplify the college values of continuous improvement, collaboration, and impactful learning. I can’t wait to see what their futures hold for them!”
President’s Award winner Corey Koch said: “I spent my volunteer internship hours working on the new database/donor tracking system for the FDL Area Women’s Fund. I was excited to learn and plan how a good database could help bolster the Women’s Fund mission and goals. I helped with each Women’s Fund fundraising event, and put all previous and new donors into the database. I also worked on creating a guidebook for the software. I hope this book can be utilized by the next incoming person who will handle software management. I learned more about working independently and on a team. My Women’s Fund experiences were eye-opening and great practice for my future career.”
President’s Award winner Julianna Stuht said: “Volunteering as an AEMT/firefighter for my community gives me the opportunity to meet the citizens that reside in my service area, as well as further my skills as a healthcare provider. I am so excited to continue learning through this volunteer opportunity.”
Gold Award
Completing 100-199 hours of service-learning or volunteering.
Stuht, Julianna – Paramedic
Silver Award
Completing 50-99 hours of service-learning or volunteering.
Riemersma, Allison – Nursing
Beeks, Tonia – Medical Assistant
Manke, Zoe – Medical Assistant
Stuht, Julianna – Paramedic
Bronze Award
Completing 25-49 hours of service-learning or volunteering.
Moraine Park’s West Bend Interactive Media Design (IMD) Club attended the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) in December for students to view and meet artists, attend panels, have fun and learn more about the field.
“Seeing the vendor hall and artists alley was motivational,” Moraine Park IMD student, Brittany Hahn, said. “After leaving the convention, everyone in our club found themselves inspired to get home and get to work on new compositions. As an artist or anyone working within media design, it can sometimes be a struggle to find inspiration or material that piques one’s interest. C2E2 was very refreshing, refilling our hearts and minds with enthusiasm and creativity towards our work.”
The students attended several informational panels surrounding topics such as scriptwriting, portfolio creation, event planning, product promotion, new drawing techniques, programming advice, character designing with clay, career finding, turning hobbies into skills and more.
After attending the convention, Hahn was more motivated than ever to start building her career. When she returned home from C2E2, she took images from a local nail parlor, cleaned them using skills learned in her coursework and sent the images back to the salon. The nail salon immediately asked her to continue doing edits for them.
“This was a great way for me to continue building my portfolio, and something I would not have had the courage to do without attending the convention,” Hahn said. “Had it not been for the IMD Club and Moraine Park, I would not have been able to go. Not only did they cover the cost of the ticket to attend, but also transportation. It was great traveling with like-minded individuals, bonding and having an awesome time at the convention. I am very thankful to have MPTC and the IMD Club, as well as our amazing club overseers and instructors Mr. Ward and Mr. Sibilski.”
Moraine Park’s Interactive Media Design program is a two-year degree program giving students the creative control to produce a variety of unique animations and graphics. Graduates from the program are well-versed in creating animated and live videos, commercials, digital signage and other media for the web. For more information on IMD visit morainepark.edu/academics/programs/interactive-media-design/.
Moraine Park’s Fond du Lac (FDL) Student Senate and participating student clubs collected over 175 gifts for families in need this holiday season through Moraine Park’s new Holiday Helpers program.
The gifts were dropped off by Moraine Park Holiday Helpers on Dec. 16 as part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Fond du Lac County’s Adopt a Family program. The donation supported 30 children and adults in need from the Fond du Lac area.
Big Brothers Big Sisters assists children with social, emotional and character development through one-to-one mentoring relationships with caring adults. The Adopt a Family program allows people in the community to purchase gifts for families who are unable to do so.
“A very special thank you goes out to Moraine Park Technical College for their support of our Adopt a Family program this year,” executive director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Fond du Lac County, Tammy Young, said. “Many of our children in the BBBS of Fond du Lac County program would not have presents under the tree if it weren’t for their generosity.”
After Moraine Park’s Holiday Helpers received the families’ wishlists from Big Brothers Big Sisters, each item was written on the back of an ornament and placed on Student Life boards around Moraine Park’s FDL campus. Students, faculty, staff and the public were encouraged to select an ornament, purchase the item, wrap the gift and return it to the Holiday Helpers to be donated.
“I was blown away by the response and generosity by our students, employees, and clubs with this program,” said Moraine Park student involvement specialist, Lucas Nieman. “All the ornaments were selected within two weeks, and the people I was able to meet and speak to about their reasons for giving gave me an even better perspective on the impact we were making in our community. Being a Holiday Helper wasn’t just about purchasing a gift for someone in need, it was about making a difference in the lives of others.”
Moraine Park’s FDL Student Senate organized the Holiday Helpers effort with ten student clubs including IT Club, Criminal Justice Club, Medical Lab Technicians Club, Cosmetology Club, Culinary Arts Club, Emergency Medical Services Club, Civil Engineering Technology Club, Student Nurses Association Club, Society of Manufacturing Engineering Club and Respiratory Therapy Club.
MPTC is a recipient of a $2,500 grant from the Fond du Lac Area Women’s Fund to help support our Fond du Lac County female students experiencing financial emergencies. MPTC was one of 15 area local nonprofits to receive grant funding.
“I am grateful for the Fond du Lac Area Women’s Fund’s generosity to award MPTC funding to help our Fond du Lac area female students who experience financial hardships. These dollars make an impact and help keep these students enrolled in school during times of need,” said Jackie Morgan, student community, equity and engagement specialist.
A recent Women’s Fund grant recipient wrote:
“I am so honored to be a recipient of your generous donation. I am in my last semester of the nursing program and will be graduating in December, 2021. I am planning on specializing as a lactation nurse. When I received the unexpected bill, I wasn’t sure how I could pay for it without sacrificing study time to work extra shifts. Thank you for lifting this financial burden off and enabling me to keep focused on my studies. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to give back to the student emergency fund and help someone just like you had helped me.”
Moraine Park Technical College Electromechanical Technology students were awarded new robotics technology after placing first at Lab Midwest’s Team Robotics Competition.
Moraine Park students Anthony Biel of West Bend, Timothy Vukosich of Fond du Lac, and Gregory Van Slyke of Hartford participated in the Team Robotics Competition this fall. The students were presented with the award by Lab Midwest and Fanuc, Dec. 9, at Moraine Park’s Fond du Lac campus.
“The recognition is awesome, and I’m glad we were able to win some new equipment for our program,” Biel said. “I placed second at the competition when I was in high school, so I was really excited when I got the chance to compete again and represent Moraine Park.”
The Team Robotics Competition is part of the Wisconsin Manufacturing & Technology Show– the largest manufacturing technology show in the state. The competition allows high school and college students across Wisconsin to test their robotic programming knowledge and compete against other students using Fanuc technology. Each team was given three hours to complete a set of tasks using a Fanuc Fenceless LR Mate 6-axis robot. The students were judged on their ability to complete the objective, the complexity of their programming, teamwork and general robotics knowledge.
“We appreciate the students’ incredible work preparing and participating in the competition,” Mike Dietrich, vice president of K-12 and training at Lab Midwest, said. “We love providing opportunities for the students to show off their skills, and we’re very thankful to Moraine Park for building our future workforce.”
The students were awarded a PLC/HMI Training System from Rockwell and APT Manufacturing to be used by the Moraine Park Electromechanical program.
“The Electromechanical Technology program plans to use the technology to teach programmable logic controller to industrial robot integration,” said MPTC Electromechanical instructor, Craig Habeck.
Moraine Park’s Electromechanical Technology program is a 2-year associate degree program. In class, students learn how to think critically and use technology to solve problems and program, use and maintain electromechanical and automated equipment. For more information visit morainepark.edu/academics/programs/electromechanical-technology/.
Moraine Park Technical College student Jordyn Schmitt, of Rubicon, found a lasting friendship through her volunteer work at Interfaith Caregivers of Washington County.
Schmitt, a first-year student in the College’s Nursing program, is also part of Moraine Park’s Promise program, an opportunity for debt-free tuition. As part of the program requirements, Schmitt volunteers in her community and selected Interfaith as her service site.
Interfaith Caregivers of Washington County is a community-based nonprofit organization that helps seniors in the county remain independent. Volunteers help with tasks such as transportation and grocery shopping or simply serve as a friendly face checking in from time to time.
“I choose to provide transportation services,” Schmitt said. “I enjoy helping in this way. As a nursing student, I know how essential doctor appointments are and how, at times, transportation is a barrier. I’m glad to help where I can.”
It was through her volunteer work that Schmitt met Carole Banse, of West Bend. Banse is unable to transport herself and relies on the support of Interfaith’s services for her vital doctor appointments.
“I don’t know what I would do without this service. It has really saved me,” Banse said. “It helps my family too. It was hard to always ask them to take me early or pick me up, they have jobs and it is just too much.”
Schmitt and Banse have enjoyed each other’s company so much that they make sure they are paired up in Interfaith’s system.
“Interfaith’s system allows the selection of preferred volunteers and members, and I always select Carole right away,” Schmitt said. “We have great conversations and I enjoy hearing about her life and family. We even found out that we are distantly related! I feel blessed to know her and be part of her life.”
The relationship being cultivated between Schmitt and Banse is exactly what Moraine Park’s student impact initiatives hope to achieve. A seemingly small student contribution within the community that creates a lasting impact.
“Jordyn and I have such good conversations when we get together even with the age difference,” Banse said. “She fits in so beautifully and she doesn’t treat me like an old lady. She is always bubbly and perks me up. I am very thankful.”
The pandemic halted Interfaith’s services for a while, but when they restarted in February 2021, Schmitt and Banse were excited to resume their normal routine.
“I would have never guessed that I would make a lifelong friend through this opportunity,” Schmitt said. “My advice to others is to open yourself up, give it a try and never put an age limitation on friendship.”
Schmitt is expected to graduate in May 2023. She hopes to continue volunteering for Interfaith and driving Banse throughout her schooling.
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