UW-Parkside Semester Highlights

UW-Parkside Semester Highlights

LIVING OUR CORE VALUES

One fall semester event, the opening of the Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts and Humanities, enhanced all four Universityof Wisconsin-Parkside Hallmarks.  Through the generosity of Kathleen Picken who named the new building for her stepmother and UW-Parkside advocate Rita Tallent Picken, this magnificent new learning, performance, and exhibition space promotes academic excellence and student success in its state-of-the-art classrooms, studios, and theatre facilities. With more than 300 events scheduled during our 2012 Year of the Arts celebration, UW-Parkside offers diverse educational, informational, and entertainment programs for southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois.             

Academic Excellence

Earlier this year, UW-Parkside signed an agreement with the College of St. Scholastica which allows our graduates to pursue master's degrees in athletic training through St. Scholastica's campus in Duluth, Minnesota. In addition, an agreement between UW-Parkside and the two-year University of Wisconsin Waukesha campus allows students with family and work obligations there to gain a four-year degree through the University of Wisconsin-Parkside without leaving Waukesha.

During fall semester, School of Business and Technology Dean Dr. Fred Ebeid and Chancellor Debbie Ford visited three universities in China, and finalize student exchange agreements. These efforts will help globalize the education of UW-Parkside business and technology students.  

Growing interest among UW-Parkside students in Asian history, culture, and economics led to the creation of the university'sfirst-ever Asian Studies minorduring fall semester.

Management Information Systems Professor Dr. Suresh Chalasani received a $10,000 WiSys Technology Foundation Grant to fund the "Wireless Technologies for Monitoring Chronic Diseases" project. The goal of the project is to develop technologies that enable cost-effective and continuous monitoring of chronic diseases through the use of a hand-held wireless monitoring device. In addition to the technical merit, quality of the research design, and likelihood of successful completion, a major criterion for selection of Professor Chalasani's project was the potential positive impact of the project on Wisconsin's economy.

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Lindsay Zanno was part of team of scientists which released its findings on its discovery of Talos sampsoni, a new raptor dinosaur. Dr. Zanno was part of a team that discovered and researched the 75-million-year-old dinosaur whose remains were found at the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.

Student Success

Business students, led by business professors Dr. Peter Knight and Jim McPhaul, continued their success at major national sales competitions. During spring semester, a team of students collected four major awards including three of the first-place honors in the graduate division at the prestigious National Collegiate Sales Competition in Atlanta. During fall semester, a UW-Parkside sales team traveled to Eau Claire as a warm-up events for next year's Atlanta competition, while another team headed east for the Russ Berrie Institute National Sales Competition in New York City.

A trio of UW-Parkside graduates and their supervisor (another UW-Parkside grad) were involved in water quality testing in Racine during summer 2011 that could lead to cleaner water in Lake Michigan. Improving water quality and protecting bather health were the goals of testing by the Racine Health Department Laboratory led by Dr. Julie Kinzelman ('84, Medical Technology/Biological Sciences). Her study team included UW-Parkside graduates Adrian Koski, Stephan Kurdas, and Monica Schmidt. The Racine lab is a partner in a multifaceted Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant. Koski and Kurdas are current in grad school at UW Milwaukee while Schmidt is interning at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, FL.

In the past year, UW-Parkside student athletes excelled both in competition and in the classroom. The women's soccer team was the defend Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) champion in 2011 and was led by conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year Shannon Becker. Heidi Ertl was GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in Women's Track and Field. The women's basketball team made its first-ever NCAA Tournament "Sweet 16" appearance and it was the GLVC's top academic squad. Men's basketball player Jordan Mach was conference Freshman of the Year while 68 of our athletes earned All-GLVC Academic Team honors.

Diversity & Inclusiveness

High school students from Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee took an important step toward their dream of being doctors when they completed the ten-day Doctors of Our Community (DOC) residential program in summer 2011 at UW-Parkside. Founded by Emerita Professor Dr. Anna Maria Williams and administered by Mary Day, Autumn Marzette-Bell, and Bettie Poole of the university's Precollege Programs, DOC introduces high school students who are in their junior and senior years to careers in health care and as medical practitioners. Students conducted hands-on medical experiments and took field trips to medical facilities and medical schools in the region, and participated in clinical observations.      

UW-Parkside continues to be the most diverse campus in the University of Wisconsin System. During fall semester, of 2011, 23 percent of those who enrolled were Students of Color.

Community Engagement

The university welcomed Procubed LLC to campus during fall semester. The start-up mechanical engineering firm, which received a WiSCAP grant through UW-Parkside earlier this year, moved onto temporary space at the Ralph Jaeschke Solutions for Economic Growth (SEG) Center with plans to build a better wheelchair drive system. Those plans include valuable first-hand experience for UW-Parkside students. A trio of student teams, led by Marketing Professor Peter Knight, is working with Procubed on engineering, business management, and the successful marketing of this better form of conveyance. Bringing the product successfully to market could mean jobs for the students involved and for others in the region.

Extraordinary and exemplary community service once again placed UW-Parkside on the President's 2010 Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The award recognizes the university's commitment to community engagement. "Community engagement is one of the four hallmarks of UW-Parkside and to have our commitment recognized at the national level is a wonderful honor," said Chancellor Debbie Ford. UW-Parkside joined UW-Madison as the only two System campuses selected.

Community involvement began early for incoming UW-Parkside students. Fall semester 2011 started with the Ranger Day of Service on the day before classes started Tuesday, Sept. 6. More than 100 first-year students, two dozen Ranger Welcome Leaders, and several resident advisors fanned out across southeastern Wisconsin that day and came back to campus energized about community engagement. Work venues included the Racine YMCA where 15 students spent the day painting, Petrifying Springs Park with 50 students cleaned trails, the Racine Zoo during Taste of Racine festivities, and others in the community. Later in the semester, Make a Difference Day attracted more than 160 UW-Parkside students.

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ABOUT THIS STORY:

Story Status: Archived
Publish date: 1/13/2012

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