This Saturday, September 11, students from Moraine Park’s Culinary Arts program will participate in downtown Fond du Lac’s 14^th annual Fondue Fest! 

Throughout the week, 10 students in MPTC’s Culinary Arts program have been hard at work preparing 2,600 icebox cookies and over 300 loaves of bread to be served with about 3,000 portions of fresh fondue. The cheese fondue is made with 90lbs of mozzarella cheese mix, donated by Grande Cheese, and mixed with cheddar and other cheeses. The chocolate fondue is a ganache made with chocolate, cream and butter. In total, the students will clock in over 150 hours of volunteer work for the event. 

“Being a part of Fondue Fest allows students to interact with the community and gives them a taste for working in a fast-paced environment,” Tom Endejan, MPTC Culinary Arts Instructor, said. “The students learn a lot and have to face unique challenges that they aren’t exposed to in the classroom.” 

Fondue Fest is Fond du Lac’s largest downtown event with an attendance of more than 20,000 people annually. The fest features live music, unique vendors and delicious food. 

Moraine Park’s Culinary Arts Club has been participating in Fondue Fest for 10 years. Proceeds from the Fondue sales go directly towards the culinary club and are utilized for continued learning at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago in May 2022. At the conference students are able to learn about different cuisines, visit various ethnic areas in Chicago and learn about new practices in the industry. 

“I’m excited to get this extra experience outside of the classroom,” said Grace Westphal, Culinary Arts student. “The production takes a bit of time, but it’s worth it to help get us to the conference in Chicago at the end of the school year.” 

Fondue Fest is Saturday, September 11, from 9-5 p.m. in downtown Fond du Lac. Show up to support MPTC students, eat fondue and have fun! 

MPTC Culinary Student Volunteers: 

Grace Westphal – Luxemburg, WI 

Aiden Cole – Fond du Lac, WI 

Andrew Hoepfner – Fond du Lac, WI 

Destiny Smith – West Bend, WI 

Dan Hartsougl – Fond du Lac, WI 

Jonah Riley – Fond du Lac, WI 

Damon “Matt” Matthews – Waupun, WI 

Brendan Schraufnagel – Lomira, WI 

Brianna Eberhardt – Adell, WI  

Jordan Lambert – Green Bay, WI 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. To acknowledge this solemn day, there will be a brief ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial located outside the Fond du Lac campus commons on Friday, Sept 10th, 11:45-12:15 p.m.

Students, staff, faculty and the public are welcome and encouraged to attend if available.

“One of the worst days in America’s history saw some of the bravest acts in Americans’ history. We’ll always honor the heroes of 9/11. And here at this hallowed place, we pledge that we will never forget their sacrifice.” 

—President George W. Bush at the Pentagon

The Moraine Park Technical College Economic and Workforce Development Department welcomed Kelli Karpinski as a new Business Representative. In her role, Kelli partners with area manufacturers to identify individual and regional workforce development needs. Working collaboratively, her goal is to create performance-minded business solutions through short- and long-term strategies to close skills gaps – all to help area firms remain competitive and profitable.

Before joining MPTC, Kelli spent more than six years as a senior consultant at Oshkosh marketing firm Blue Door Consulting. She also has an economic development background through a previous role at the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce and served as an adjunct instructor at Fox Valley Technical College, teaching introductory business and marketing courses.

Kelli earned a Bachelor’s degree from UW Eau Claire and an MBA from UW Oshkosh.

Kelli enjoys giving back to her community and has spent the past eight years on the Oshkosh Women’s Fund Board, currently serving as immediate past president. She and her husband like to kayak, tackle home DIY projects, listen to live music, travel, ride their Harley-Davidson and hang out with their Australian labradoodle.

“Being a part of the EWD team brings together my passion for education and training with my background in building business relationships. I’m excited to see the results of our work—the advancement of the area workforce and the positive impact that will have on our businesses.”

Welcome to the team, Kelli!

Moraine Park Technical College has released the Spring and Summer 2021 Dean’s lists.

To qualify for this distinction, a student must be enrolled in at least six undergraduate-level course credits, earn a minimum grade point average of 3.5, not have a failing or incomplete grade for the semester, and be in good academic standing.

Congratulations to all our Dean’s list students- this is a huge accomplishment!

Nursing students in Instructor Michele Mengert’s Mental Health and Community Concepts course recently completed their community advocacy projects as part of our Spring, 2021 service learning opportunities. Michele said, “our Nursing students are learning community health oriented nursing. We are targeting prevention strategies. Today’s Nurses need to be able to advocate for under represented populations and know about community resources that are available to help their patients.”

This semester 20 students spent over 100 hours researching and collaborating with community partners in Fond du Lac, West Bend, and Beaver Dam to learn more about parenting, fostering, opioid addiction, human trafficking, poverty, developmental disabilities, domestic violence, sexual assault, and more. Students formulated detailed plans to address how a nurse can 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 in May.

Congratulations on all of this great work on important mental health issues in our MPTC community!

Moraine Park Technical College leadership recognizes the need for people to have a safe space to walk for exercise, which is why all MPTC campuses are reinstating the walking program, now called Wolfpack Walkers.

The WolfPack Walkers program allows the public to walk in and around MPTC campuses. The program will begin with the reopening of campus on August 23.

At this time, face coverings will be required while inside our buildings at Moraine Park, regardless of vaccination status. Visit our COVID-19 webpage for more information at morainepark.edu/coronavirus.

“It’s important that our community has the opportunity to utilize our campus spaces,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president, said. “The Wolfpack Walkers program is a great way to be part of the College. However, when entering our facilities, it is important that personal safety, as well as the safety of others, stay at the forefront; stay home if you are ill, practice good personal hygiene and distance yourself from others when possible.”

Interested walkers are required to fill out an Acceptance of Risk and Responsibility Agreement/Release of Liability form. Forms should be obtained at the campus you will be walking:

Fond du Lac: Security Desk Near the C1 entrance

Beaver Dam: Student Services Desk near the K1 entrance

West Bend: Receptionist Desk near the T2 entrance

After filling out the form, you will be issued an ID tag that must be worn when on campus. The campus is open for walking from:

7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday

7 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday

8 a.m.-12 p.m. Saturdays (when open)

More information and guidelines will be provided on the required forms.

Happy walking, Wolfpack!

Moraine Park Technical College has presented ASTOP with its 2021 Community Partnership Award. This award recognizes a community partner organization who has gone above and beyond in their role of working with Moraine Park students in student community impact opportunities.

ASTOP is a sexual assault service provider offering treatment, outreach, prevention, and advocacy. ASTOP emphasizes hope and connection to self and others, serving Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Waushara counties. In 2021, despite Covid restrictions, MPTC volunteers served over 300 hours at ASTOP and 3,500 hours overall!

ASTOP Executive Director Nicole Krause said, ““We are so grateful to have been chosen for this award. To say this is an honor is an understatement. Partnerships like this happen when different organizations work together. We cannot thank everyone involved enough! Volunteers are an integral part of our agency and the services ASTOP provides to the communities we help. We really appreciate the time the students have dedicated to our clients.”

Some student words of reflection include:

This is a very fulfilling position knowing you can help empower or even make someone smile when they are hurting inside.

I learned that ASTOP is a very rewarding service provided in Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Waushara counties. ASTOP stands for Assist Survivors Treatment Outreach and Prevention. They have extensive training for staff to support survivors and the affected family members. They try and educate as much as possible through preventative education programs. about sexual abuse rape and or incest. ASTOP offers a crisis line that is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week 52 weeks a year. Another thing that is offered through ASTOP is cost-free counseling. This helps lighten the burden of cost when one is seeking help.

The best thing I learned about what ASTOP offers was about the Art therapy. I know someone that benefited from that a great deal and was just accepted from high school with a full scholarship to an art school. She is doing amazing things and that gives me something to strive to be. Someone to change a human being’s life.

ASTOP also offers Medical Advocacy which helps victims of sexual assault and helps them through the legal system. Having this option to help people deal with whatever situation they have really helps. I am glad they have this as a option to help anyone through their life situation. Just knowing that someone or anyone is there to help is always a great option. I learned so much that I myself could be trained as a medical advocate or volunteer on the crisis line.

As we wrapped up the crisis phone call, the victim gave me the satisfaction of what I wanted to hear, “I can’t thank you enough. You’ve really made me feel empowered.” That is all I wanted to do in this position. I just wanted people to walk away after talking to me and think ‘That was a pleasant phone call’ or ‘That conversation made my day.’ This is a very fulfilling position knowing you can help empower or even make someone smile when they are hurting inside.

Moraine Park Technical College encourages service learning experiences for students. The Marketing and Social Media Management program students attending the Advertising and Social Media Campaigns spring 2021 course were able to gain this experience working with local nonprofit partner organizations. Students attended this course entirely online and were divided into two groups. The 2 groups worked closely together acting as an advertising agency for the entire semester.

The newly created student agency sought out area nonprofit organizations, communicated with them to determine current and future needs, and developed an advertising/social media campaign plan for each organization. The two organizations selected were Kohler Credit Union, Kohler, WI and The Gathering Source, Juneau, WI.

“Students in both groups worked extremely well together all semester. They problem-solved and created ways to communicate and collaborate entirely online using Zoom, OneDrive, Canvas Group Chat, Canva and Google Docs, ” said Sarah Ninmer, Marketing and Social Media Management Instructor.

The students wrote reflections at the end of the semester documenting their experiences. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and students truly appreciated the “real world, hands on” education and connections they made with the nonprofit organizations. Below are a few student quotes:

“I have worked within a team this entire semester for my Advertising and Social Media course at Moraine Park Technical College. We’ve completed several assignments such as a ‘Situational Analysis’ and a ‘Creative Plan’. After completing all of these tasks, we have officially created a comprehensive marketing guide for Kohler Credit Union in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Our team, “Connect Together” worked very hard to analyze, evaluate, design, and so much more for the company. We learned how to communicate effectively, work together, create documents, give professional feedback, etc. We have learned so much!”

Olivia Anderson, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Graduate

“This was essentially exactly what my future job could be, it taught me how hard it is to look at everything from every single angle to try and find the best way to do something. It also made me feel amazing to help this wonderful cause be even better and reach more people. I feel that we worked together amazingly to help The Gathering Source expand and open to new opportunities. I feel this project has helped everyone involved greatly. I learned a ton about helping businesses, how to work with a team and collaborate actively with others for more than just a paper. These are amazing skills to learn in order to work more effectively and positively in the future.”

Emily Poellinger, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Student

“Other than working on creating an advertising plan for a non-profit organization, during this semester I learned how to work in a team and compromise to come together with one campaign plan. It was interesting learning how to work in a group and coordinate a schedule that worked among all my team members. It was great experience to work with a team and learn how compromise all of our team member’s opinions into one joint plan that worked for our client. I think this semester was a great way to learn how to work as a team and gain skills for future career opportunities.”

Peyton Wolter, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Student

“Working on this social media marketing plan for Kohler Credit Union was a great chance to get some really good experience starting a plan from the beginning to end and also knowing what it is like to work on a project like this in a group. Since all of us are online we had to communicate through a group chat on Canvas but we really did not have any problems with that. There were a lot of different aspects of this assignment and even though we were in a group I was able to do a little bit of everything.”

Jake Antonioni, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Graduate

For more info on service learning opportunities at MPTC

Moraine Park Technical College has earned the eighth spot on the Military Times Best for Vets college rankings as a Midwest, 2-year College. This honor recognizes colleges across the country for their commitment to educating and providing opportunities to America’s veterans.

Moraine Park has made this list for more than six years and serves as one of two technical colleges in Wisconsin to earn a place on this list. The Military Times surveys colleges and universities annually, and more than 350 schools participated in the latest Military Times Best for Vets: Colleges survey, which seeks details about the school’s costs, programs, policies, and services that impact military-connected students. Federal data from the U.S. Departments of Education, Veterans Affairs and Defense, were also considered.

“The College is committed to making sure every veteran who steps onto our campuses are provided everything they need to be successful,” Steve Pepper, student veteran specialist said. “I truly believe having someone our veteran students can turn to who can speak their language or understand some of their frustrations is important to their college experience and overall success.”

Moraine Park offers many programs that qualify under Veteran Administration (VA) benefits, with flexible scheduling options. The College is continuously working to maintain a culture that supports the challenges that veterans may encounter.

“This nationwide recognition confirms the proactive work Moraine Park has been doing,” Lt. Col. Scott Lieburn, U.S. Air Force, and dean of students at Moraine Park said. “As both a veteran and current active-duty service member, I am thankful to be part of a team of staff at the college that truly cares about creating and preserving a supportive campus culture for our student veterans.”

The College also ranked 31 among all public colleges and universities in the Midwest and 38 among all colleges and universities in the Midwest.

The “Military Times Best” ranking is published in the Military Times magazine and is available to subscribers, as well as online at MilitaryTimes.com and other affiliated websites.