Pictured above: President Bonnie Baerwald and Student Community Impact Coordinator Anne Lemke present Mina Vang-Xiong with her President’s Award.

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 Spring, 2022 semester, 29 students earned awards and logged over 1,600 hours of service!  Congratulations to our Spring, 2022 award winners!

Presidents Award

Two graduating students earned the President’s Award for over 200 hours of service each in their time at MPTC!  The students are Alaska Burroughs – Marketing and Social Media; and Mina Vang-Xiong – IT Technical Support and Network Specialist. MPTC President Bonnie Baerwald celebrated with and congratulated each student, stating: “I’m extremely proud of the accomplishments of Mina and Alaska. 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 the future holds for them!”

Gold Award

Completing 100-199 hours of service-learning or volunteering.

Burroughs, Alaska – Marketing and Social Media

Dziuba, Austin – Marketing and Social Media

Vang-Xiong, Mina – IT Technical Support and Network Specialist

Silver Award

Completing 50-99 hours of service-learning or volunteering.

Burroughs, Alaska – Marketing and Social Media

Dziuba, Austin – Marketing and Social Media

Hackett, Richard – Leadership Development

Rogers, Dorothy – Paralegal

Smith, Brooke – Medical Assistant

Vang-Xiong, Mina – IT Technical Support and Network Specialist

Bronze Award

Completing 25-49 hours of service-learning or volunteering.

Bille, Ellen – Medical Assistant

Brantmeier, Samantha – Medical Assistant

Burroughs, Alaska – Marketing and Social Media

Carbajal, Yaneli – Medical Assistant

Corona, Ruby – Medical Assistant

Davis, Jada – Medical Assistant

Detert, Jozee – Medical Assistant

Devries, Kelly, Medical Assistant

Dziuba, Austin – Marketing and Social Media

Goldbach, Courtney – Medical Assistant

Hackett, Richard – Leadership Development

Jetzer, Jennifer – Medical Assistant

Krause, Michael – Leadership Development

Lear, Jamie – Medical Assistant

May, Chantel – Medical Assistant

Neitzel, Amanda – Medical Assistant

Nieman, Emily – Medical Assistant

Nieman, Olivia – Medical Assistant

Olson, Kara – Leadership Development

Peplinski, Samantha – Medical Assistant

Race, Miranda – Medical Assistant

Roecker, Kayla – Medical Assistant

Schick, Hailey – Medical Assistant

Smith, Brooke – Medical Assistant

Swedowski, Stephanie – Medical Assistant

Ward, Sydney – Medical Assistant

Wendt, Madelynn – Medical Assistant

Amanda Kollmorgan, a Leadership and Organizational Development student, is getting fired up! As a part of her capstone course, Amanda is conducting a service learning project. Service learning takes the learning experience outside of the classroom, connects students to community, and provides a mutually benefit to the student and community through the service. Amanda is applying skills and knowledge acquired through the completion of her program in a project with the Village of St. Cloud Fire Department. She is partnering with local heroes to provide a COVID friendly online auction to help meet department needs.

When asked why she chose a community project, she reflected on her feelings about the community and why giving back was important to her. “I am not from the Fond du Lac area and come from a very small family. When I married my husband, I married into a large Fond du Lac and Holyland family. When I started a job in St Cloud, everyone immediately made me feel like family. The community out there is so warm and friendly. It just really feels like home, even though it’s not. That’s why I chose to support the Fire Department. They are volunteer based and rely completely on the community to run, so what better way to give back to all of those folks who became part of my family than do a fundraiser”.

Amanda is set to finish the associate degree program this semester and reflected on her experience at MPTC. “I truly love how involved in the community it is, the number of resources there are, the ability and support of the staff available, and the quality of teachers. This is my third time attending college, and I regret not having been able to start my journey here. In fact, I love this school so much I signed up for a second degree starting in the fall!”.

Amanda plans to leverage the knowledge, insight, and tools gained from her experience in the program to achieve her short and long-term career goals which include owning her own bakery. She shared that she now has”…a better understanding of how to manage people plus be aware of the laws and regulations that pertain to them. I feel better apt to provide trainings as well as plan and manage projects. For the bakery, I am aware of what will take to plan my project proposal, as well the laws governing recruiting, hiring, and employing personnel”.

The Moraine Park Community extends their appreciation to Amanda to all of her service to community!

Promoting growth and self-improvement is at the core of Moraine Park’s mission. International student Barbara Turner immediately identified this and set her sights on being a Moraine Park student.

Barbara, a current resident of Beaver Dam, came to the College from Israel. She first toured Moraine Park in the summer of 2015, when she was visiting Wisconsin to explore educational options.

“Obtaining a quality education is one of my top priorities,” Barbara said. “My parents are both highly educated and instilled in me the value of having a degree.”

She is no stranger to hard work. In Israel, she served in the army for two years and then worked in the quality control field. She was exploring local academic resources when she found the opportunity to study internationally.

“Moraine Park was an easy choice for me,” Barbara said. “There are multiple programs to choose from, the location is convenient, and the pricing is extremely reasonable.”

Since arriving in 2016, she hasn’t stopped exploring her opportunities and takes each experience as an invitation to grow and improve. She has benefited from the support of the Student Success Center and Moraine Park counselor, Karla Donahue, who has helped with her transition to life in the United States and at Moraine Park.

Barbara has also made quite an impact on her classmates and instructors at the College.

“It has been fun to watch her advance,” Mary Vogl-Rausher, an instructor at Moraine Park said. “There have been significant challenges she has had to overcome, but she always has a smile on her face. Her warm personality draws others to her.”

For these reasons and more, Barbara was selected as the 2019-20 Moraine Park District Student Ambassador. In this role, she will actively serve as a member of student government, advocate for Moraine Park and the Wisconsin Technical College System as a whole, assist with College activities and events, and represent the student body within the community.

“It is an extreme honor,” Barbara said. “I look forward to making more connections and networking with my community and peers.”

For more information, visit morainepark.edu.

Aurelio Rosas celebrates his May, 2017 graduation with family.

Aurelio Rosas knew it was time for a change and found great value in Moraine Park Technical College’s Medical Assistant program. “I enrolled in Moraine Park Technical College’s medical programs because I could obtain an affordable and valuable education in a short amount of time. Also, the hands-on learning and the one-to-one interaction with my instructors at Moraine Park was very important and appealing to me. You get to know the instructor and the instructor gets to know you rather than a four-year college where you are with 40-plus students, which can make it difficult to get the instructor’s attention or help.”

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There were pitfalls, and struggles. Late bills. Four sons to feed. Mounting pressure. And tears, for sure, for Arletta Allen.

And now? Tears of a much different kind. Check this out:

“This was an amazing opportunity and to be recognized in such a beautiful way brings me to tears! I absolutely love Moraine Park and this experience. For all  who support me in the climb,  along with my goals and dreams, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you!”

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