We invited a small panel of seven University of Wisconsin Oshkosh faculty members, students and alumni—most of them complete strangers to one another—to muse on and share how they define success. The setting: The UW Oshkosh chancellor’s residence.

The panelists’ backgrounds and their stories were diverse.

A radio-TV-film (RTF) student already directing music videos that promote the institution. A young, entrepreneurial dentist whose biology degree led to a doctorate in dentistry from Marquette University and the opening of her own practice in her hometown. A former campus Head Start program leader and alumna who is living her childhood dream as a Lutheran pastor. A 20-something, local restaurant owner who planted a passion for his family’s native cuisine and culture in the fertile fabric of Oshkosh’s historic downtown. A chancellor, a political science faculty member and a fast-food franchise Titan whose company continues to grow.

We wondered. We asked.

“What does success mean? How do you define it? How do you know when you’ve achieved it in such a success-oriented world?” … And we video-recorded the discussion.

It didn’t take long at all for the ice to break.

No one held back.

What resulted was an unexpected, endearing, poignant and, at times, hilarious two-hour conversation. It ended up being less about locking in definitions and answers and more about trading and sharing personal stories about their many roads to success.

In the stories, there were striking connections. More than one panelist was the first in his or her family to pursue and earn a college degree. Three have histories rooted in restaurants. Not everyone was following his or her field of study. Panelists frequently equated failure with success—more often than they defined “success” by its stereotypes—money, power or status. Each panelist also shared that they are pursuing a degree or a career that still affords him or her the opportunity to enjoy humor, creativity, music and art.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy a few excerpts from their successful, June 20 conversation.…

THE QUESTION: What does success mean? How do you define it? How do you know when you’ve achieved it in such a success-oriented world?

NATHAN STEPANEK, UW Oshkosh RTF student

“For me success is the positive outcome of the goal you have. It’s not necessarily the outcome you were expecting. It’s a positive outcome. For me, when I do videos for the Admissions Office, obviously my goal is to inspire people to come to Oshkosh, but even if I can just get people to think about the college process in the right way, how they should be touring schools and what questions they should be asking, for me, that’s still success because it’s a positive outcome from what I’ve been doing.”

SALLY WILKE ’79, Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church of South Range and First Lutheran Church, Dollar Bay, Mich.

“My two-second bumper sticker for success is ‘getting back up, recovering, learning what you can learn from what didn’t go well and getting back up and going forward again’.… I have a friend for whom that is his definition of success: being certain to have plenty of failures so he would learn things and be successful. There’s a lot to learn. I don’t like how it feels to fail, but I love all of the things that come out of it. Sometimes you walk into a wall and fall down, and so the wall makes you turn a different direction. Again, exciting and good things can happen along the way.”

MARLO AMBAS ’08, Owner, Manila Resto, Oshkosh

“Success for me is being able to provide space for people to enjoy two different things. I’m very passionate about food and music and especially being able to share my culture with the community here. Being a resident and growing up here—my family and myself—we thought that by being able to share our culture, food and tastes in music and way of life, that’s something we wanted to do.”

THE QUESTION: What role has UW Oshkosh, and your experience while a student, played in your personal feelings about and definition of success?

DR. SHAHEDA GOVANI ’06, Govani Dental of Oshkosh

“I feel like Oshkosh was huge for my development. I come from a family where no one on either side went to college—cousins, aunts or uncles. No one really graduated. And my father came here from Uganda as a refugee in the 1970s. So, there was very little educational component growing up. My mom was really supportive. But I decided to go to Oshkosh to work and save money and see how Oshkosh went. I was a little bit nervous. I felt like it was a great place. Doing undergrad there, getting my biology degree, before going on to get my doctorate-level training, I feel like it was a huge blessing. I got research opportunities that, had I gone to a larger school, I would have never gotten. I traveled to Boston one semester with my mentor, Dr. Holton at the time, and I got to present research at a national meeting—things that, as an undergrad who had never even been on an airplane, were really cool experiences… lots of great energy.… Doors opened that wouldn’t have been even allowed to open. I feel like that was a huge blessing.”

CRAIG CULVER ’73, Owner, CEO Culver’s Franchising System Inc.

“I didn’t follow my educational path. Although, it’s an emphasis on botany, and I do love my gardens and things like that that we do have—playing around with native plants. Oshkosh was good to me. I was just proud to get a degree. I was the first one in our family to get a degree as well. I just thought that was a pretty cool thing. I was proud of myself for accomplishing that. It took me five years, however. My family has been in the restaurant business since I was a small child, and I ended up gravitating there even though I didn’t want to go there. Getting away from home, developing people skills I didn’t have before—I did become a better student, I matured—it helped me in all of those ways.…”

TRACY SLAGTER, UW Oshkosh Associate Professor, Political Science

“You envision a role for yourself: ‘I’m going to be a faculty member, and I’ll spend a lot of time in the library and I’ll wear a lot of tweed.…’ This turned out to be completely not that. This turned out to be far better than I ever could have hoped it would be, and I say that very, very honestly. I am very thankful every day that this is where I landed.”

RICHARD WELLS, UW Oshkosh Chancellor

“There are people in our community, whether they are faculty, administrators or students, who, for the most part, respect each other and want to learn from each other. The faculty learn from the students. It’s not just the faculty teaching the students. You learn a lot from students, having never left higher education myself—I’m a first-generation college grad, too —I just never left. That’s a real specialness because it creates a real academic community—because everybody who comes into our community has something unique, knowledge that someone else doesn’t have that you can learn from. It’s not just a professor spilling all the knowledge to students. That dynamic is always here, and I think we really work on that.”

THE QUESTION: Describe a moment where you felt that contentment—“This is it, this is what I was meant to do…”

STEPANEK: “I was going to a movie on campus.… I was heading up to the theater and heading up front and getting all my popcorn and stuff. I was stopped (by a student) and it was like, ‘Hey, one second. I just want to let you know that your video blogs were the reason I came to UW Oshkosh.’ That just struck me. I was like, ‘Wow, to actually know that something that I made affected somebody that much that they would go, ‘This is where I want to be.’ That was just amazing. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that….”

Clockwise from lower left: Chancellor Richard Wells, Nathan Stepanek, Marlo Ambas, Dr. Shaheda Govani, Pastor Sally Wilke, Craig Culver and Tracy Slagter.

AMBAS: “We had our official grand opening on Sept. 8 last year. There are a lot of different things you have to go through in order to get a business operating. Overcoming all those obstacles along the way—being 20-something and going into these banks saying, ‘Hey, I want to open up this restaurant in Oshkosh.’ I kept those letters from those banks that said, ‘No.’”

CULVER: “And you’re not doing business with them either, are you?”

AMBAS: “No….”

CULVER: “I remember.”

AMBAS: “It’s the same persistence—not taking no for an answer. Eventually, we found a bank that believed in our vision. We’re happy that we’re able to make it.… Another thing that’s great about it, or any line of work, is hearing people tell you, ‘Thank you for doing something like this in the community. Thank you for sharing your culture with everybody.’ It gives you that gratification.”

GOVANI: “My favorite thing is when patients bring me things. I had a lady who brought me a cheesecake. I didn’t like my dentist that much. I mean, I liked him, but not that I’d bake him a cheesecake. A woman brought me a handmade, crocheted washcloth. People do really generous things—heartfelt appreciation—that is just so amazing. That means more to me than any amount of money.”

CULVER: “We just did a groundbreaking in Lee’s Summit, Missouri; it’s a St. Louis suburb. I went down. I usually go to these. I get my opportunity to speak. I came back and the mother of the general manager sent us a letter back. She was just touched in such a way—not necessarily about me, but about the whole team—and how proud she was that her son, the general manager, was part of the Culver’s organization. Those are successful moments. But as I said before, it doesn’t stop there. You’ve got to continue to work at it, and work at it, and work at it.”

THE QUESTION: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

SLAGTER: “I’ll say something that my mom continues to say, and it’s with me every day, and it sounds a little ridiculous, but she’d say, ‘You know, Tracy, you’ve got to be a friend to make a friend.’ She says that probably on a weekly basis. It applies to anything.… That’s something that guides how I teach. It guides how I relate with most everybody, how I interact with my own children and what I want to teach them. That is one thing that is core to who I am. ‘You gotta be a friend to make a friend.’”

GOVANI: “…Whenever I was nervous about college or taking out loans, (my mom) would always say, ‘Well, you have nothing to lose, and you’ll always wonder, ‘What if?’ And it’s true. I don’t have a lot of what-ifs because I just do it, and if I fail, whatever. I tried. I don’t have to wonder the what-if.”

STEPANEK: “My dad said this to me when I was real little, so I’m gonna paraphrase this—‘to make sure you listen and observe before you make a decision or a statement.’ With everything in my life, I try to make sure I’m always listening to what other people’s needs are, observing what the situation is, reading the situation before I do anything.… Just in general in life, when you’re talking with somebody, you’ve got to listen and observe to make sure you’re communicating with them the best way you can.”

AMBAS: “I’d say my parents would always tell me that if I start something, I should finish it and do it well. There are always going to be things in life that you don’t always want to do, but you have to do it.”

WILKE: “I did get some advice, early in my seminary career. Pastors cannot afford throwaway lines, and I’ve got a million of them. I will go for the laugh or the witty comeback or the whatever. People need to take time to hear one another and understand one another. Sometimes those quick responses that just roll off my tongue don’t indicate that at all. They indicate that I think I’m being amusing. That’s hurtful often. That’s recent advice that I am really trying to follow.”

WELLS: “The first year (at college) was really, really hard. I almost didn’t make it. I remember going home and talking to my mother and telling her how hard it was. She said, ‘Son, the first year is always the toughest.’ That made me feel better. I was home for the summer, and I got recharged. I went back a second year, and it was still hard. I went home and said the same thing. (My mother) said, ‘Remember, I told you, the first couple years are the toughest.’ So, finally, the third year, I was getting a little better, but it was still pretty tough. I couldn’t wait. It was always this little ritual. ‘How did the year go?’ And she said, ‘Well, you know. The first couple-three years are the toughest.’ I said, ‘Mom, you keep telling me the same thing every year. She said, ‘Then, you’re ready for my final advice.’ I said, ‘What’s that?’ She said, ‘It all works out in the end.’ There’s some truth to that. We worry so much about making it and taking on big challenges. You can worry yourself to death. But you sit back—‘It’ll work out. It’ll work out.’”

Watch the conversation in its entirety.

“Boy, if you can get through college and get through it without much debt, that’s a tremendous head start in the next phase of your life,” Russ Hutchison ’64, said.

Recently, Russ and Jean, of Waukesha, really began to think about what their education—and their subsequent life experiences—meant to them.

After much thought and consideration, they created the Hutchison First in the Family Scholarship, which will—after they are gone—provide financial assistance to first-generation college students pursuing an undergraduate degree in the College of Education and Human Services at UW Oshkosh. The scholarship was developed as part of their estate plans.

“These kinds of decisions evolve slowly over time, they don’t just jump into your head one day,” Hutchison said. “We hope this scholarship allows a student to go to college who probably wouldn’t get there without it. It’s tuition, books and fees.”

Russ and Jean Hutchison in 1964

Both Jean and Russ were first-generation college students. They met at UW Oshkosh, where they both studied mathematics. They both firmly believe their degrees helped move them forward and paved the way for the rest of their lives. Throughout their careers, Jean taught math and English at various levels, and later taught hand weaving—one of her passions, and Russ had several career pursuits, including engineering, law and as a trade association department director.

“The beauty of planned gifts is they allow people to retain their assets during their lifetime,” said Donna O’Brien, development director with the UW Oshkosh Foundation, the campus entity that facilitates donations. “And, it allows them to control the final distribution of the assets they worked so hard to acquire.”

O'Brien

Friends, like the Hutchisons, who establish a living legacy with the UW Oshkosh Foundation are recognized as members of the Rose Legacy Society. Soon, those members will be acknowledged within the new Alumni Welcome and Conference Center on a legacy donor wall.

“It’s such a pleasure working with people to explore how they want to be remembered, and the impact they want their final gift to make,” O’Brien said.

For more information about the UW Oshkosh Foundation, visit uwosh.edu/foundation

After high school, Warnke attended the Oshkosh Technical Institute (now Fox Valley Technical College). He left college one class short of earning an associate degree in marketing when he received his draft notice in 1967. He joined the Navy—putting his education on hold.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to do in life, but I had to take care of my family first,” Warnke said. “I came back from the war, got married and started a family.”

After 37 years at the Leach Company, dabbling in the Laundromat business with his brother and buying properties to rent out, Warnke spent 15 years as a realtor before retiring and attending UW Oshkosh.

“I had a drive in me and said this is what I want to do (get adegree) come hell or high water,” Warnke said. “It’s been tough, but I got through it.”

Setting his sights on earning his bachelor’s degree, Warnke accomplished that goal in May 2013. He earned a bachelor’s in leadership and organizational studies.

“He didn’t get a degree—he earned it,” Debbie Harris, a Lifelong Learning and Community Engagement adviser said.“He could communicate with his younger classmates, he stayed current with technology and he never questioned why he had to take a particular class—he understood it was part of being an educated person.”

Warnke attributes his recent academic success to his drive and commitment to reach this lifelong goal.

“I don’t define success in a monetary form,” Warnke said. “I define success by family, honesty and living a good life, playing by the rules.”

View photos from the May 2013 commencement ceremonies and watch the morning commencement speech.

“The pitches are located in the cracks between those heard when the piano’s keys are pressed,” Martin explained.

Composed for fellow UW Oshkosh music faculty member Jeri-Mae Astolfi’s new CD, Here (and there): Music for Piano and Electronics on the Innova Recordings label, the vivid work recalls “peaceful moments spent lying in the grass, gazing at cloud formations drifting above. “

For this collaboration, Martin created the composition using computer software. His work was funded by a UW Oshkosh Faculty Development Research Grant.

Astolfi, who performed the piece as part of the University’s elegant Musica Viva! fundraising event held in April, said the composition is fascinating to play because of the unique pitches and the challenge of intertwining the live piano with the recorded sounds emanating from speakers.

She must don an ear piece while performing in order to play accurately with the recorded track.

“The result is a totally different sound spectrum for the audience to experience,” Astolfi said.

Since it was composed in 2012, Astolfi has performed “Swirling Sky” throughout the nation, including at the 2012 National Conference of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the 2012 Third Practice Festival and the 2013 National Conference of the Society of Composers.

Hear “Swirling Sky.”

The new way to enjoy Engage gives readers a way to hear and see the conversations within the publication unfold from the screens of their tablets while providing a familiar magazine-like format.

The tablet version also gives readers the ability to tune in to edited and full-version videos that relate to this issue’s cover story and magazine theme of success. Additionally, the tablet version of Engage provides access to additional multimedia experiences with just the click of a finger or swipe of the page.

Shawn Hansen, UW Oshkosh Magazines app developer, said he’s excited about the new app for many reasons.

“First and foremost, it’s green. Plus, you can’t lose it, it’s always up-to-date and it’s available for re-download at any time,” Hansen said.

“Additionally, the content is not limited to physical space. Stories can be more in-depth and can include interactivity,” he said.

UW Oshkosh Magazines will also include the University’s award-winning family of publications, including the College of Business’ Venture and the College of Nursing’s CONtact.

Beginning in fall 2013, however, new first-year students will discover that simply collecting answers to their questions about college, their future and the world isn’t the point at all.

Instead, this first crop of UW Oshkosh students to experience the University’s dramatic and unprecedented general education reform will discover that it’s the quest or search for answers that matters most.

The new, student-centered University Studies Program (USP)—the result of years of dedicated work by UW Oshkosh’s teaching community—combines the ideals of a liberal education with successful national models at similar institutions and data-tested, high-impact teaching and learning practices.

The result: A complete transformation of the general education (Gen Ed) curriculum and, indeed, the entire campus culture that provides students with a more “intentional and integrated course of study,” said UW Oshkosh Provost Lane Earns.

No longer will students trudge through their first two years, checking classes off a well-worn list of requirements before getting down to business in their majors in their junior and senior years.

“We hope to provide our students with a higher-quality educational experience that will better prepare them for the challenges of an increasingly competitive global economy,” Earns said.

UW Oshkosh administrators are optimistic sweeping reform will lead to increased recruitment, improved retention and graduation rates and, perhaps, even reduce the time it takes to get a degree.

“We want to do all we can to help our students succeed,” said Lori Carrell, communication studies professor and USP director. “For nearly a decade, there has been increasing momentum within the teaching community for implementing research-based, high-impact practices.”

With the USP, students will have the opportunity to search for answers through a process of questioning, exploring and connecting.

In small learning communities, students will work with both peer and alumni mentors and engage in active learning in the classroom and meaningful service activities in the greater community. They will be responsible for tracking their own educational progress by maintaining electronic learning or ePortfolios.

“The USP is not just a reform but a true transformational change,” Chancellor Richard H. Wells said. “It’s a huge tribute to our faculty and academic administrators.”

The curriculum, which for decades revolved around a cafeteria-style menu of often disconnected courses, now incorporates higher-level goals known as essential learning outcomes, such as creative thinking, ethical reasoning and civic engagement.

Wells said the changes will have a substantial impact on the entire educational experience, forming a solid foundation as students move on to the courses required in their major and minor degree programs.

With its innovative and best-practice-driven program, UW Oshkosh now finds itself at the forefront of higher education reform, earning praise from national leaders in the industry, such as Debra Humphreys, vice president for policy and public engagement with Washington, D.C.-based Association of American Colleges & Universities.

“Many universities around the country are working to revise general education requirements in light of the changing nature of our society and the global economy, but few have done so as comprehensively and thoughtfully as UW Oshkosh,” Humphreys said. “What is so impressive about what Oshkosh has done is that the curriculum is calibrated to the changing demands of the 21st century and built on the latest research on effective teaching and learning.”

AAC&U recently selected UW Oshkosh as one of five campuses across the country to be profiled in a spring 2013 publication.

“We at AAC&U and others around the country will continue to watch with interest how this program develops because of how thoughtfully it was launched and the leadership team that created it,” Humphreys said.

The USP also will be featured in an upcoming book by Robert Zemsky, Learning Alliance for Higher Education chair and the Institute for Research on Higher Education founding director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Ultimately, the new curriculum will help produce the workplace-ready graduates for which employers across the nation have been clamoring, said Mark Bradley, Wausau attorney and UW System Board of Regents member.

“Leaders of companies from around the country told the AAC&U that they are not necessarily interested in graduates who have specific job skills,” Bradley said. “Rapid changes in technology can quickly make those skills obsolete. Of far greater importance is that graduates have the ability to think critically, work in diverse groups, adapt to changing circumstances and communicate effectively.”

To become such nimble employees, students first must learn to be comfortable with uncertainty and have the ability to ask questions that are not easily answered.

The prudent question is one half of wisdom. —Sir Francis Bacon

The process of questioning itself holds tremendous value, said UWO philosophy professor Laurence Carlin. “It forces one to embrace multiple perspectives, evaluate one’s own beliefs in light of the evidence and appreciate the complexity of the issues we face,” he said.

Great thinkers like Isaac Newton and Immanuel Kant have long pondered life’s big questions from the behavior of objects in the universe to the behavior of human beings in society. “The questions these thinkers asked have furthered our understanding of the world in dramatic ways,” Carlin said.

The new and efficient 41-credit University Studies Program introduces students to the opportunities of University life and the goals of a liberal education structured around three signature questions at the heart of UW Oshkosh’s distinctiveness:

• How do people understand and create a more sustainable world?
• How do people understand and engage in community life?
• How do people understand and bridge cultural differences?

“The idea for building the USP around the Quest concept came out of questions the teaching community asked ourselves: What is most important to us on campus? How can we work together to enhance student learning? Which high-impact practices are feasible? Our collaborative answers led to this creative reform,” Carrell said.

Assistant sociology professor Paul Van Auken, who coordinates the civic learning signature question, said the questions provide students with a greater purpose during their initial coursework. “The new curriculum is steeped in nationally recognized best practices in liberal arts education but tailored to what is important on our campus,” he said.

In their first semester, first-year students take paired Quest I courses—a discipline course linked with a writing or a speaking course that focus on the same signature question.

And these courses—pardon the cliché—are not your grandmother’s or even your mother’s Gen Ed offerings. With intriguing names like The Geography of Coffee and theatre’s The Creative Process, UWO political science professor Tracy Slagter is hoping the first-year curriculum will serve as an invitation to students to “come along on an educational journey.”

“Students come to college because they have a whole lot of questions and they don’t have the answers,” said Slagter, who serves as the USP First-Year Experience director.

In the next semester, freshmen focus on a second signature question in their Quest II paired courses, which begin to incorporate ethical reasoning. UWO professor Norlisha Crawford said her Intro to African American Studies course has a built-in ethical question: In a democracy created on the idea that “all men are created equal,” how could slavery have occurred?

Crawford follows no textbook but rather assigns students real-life artifacts to study, such as essays, court documents, music lyrics and movies.

“This class prepares students for the job market in a multicultural world. They learn that our differences are not that big of a deal, except if they are ignored,” Crawford said. “The USP will help our students shine based on their individual strengths not on falsely constructed differences.”

Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit. —Frank Borman

While they continue to question, students also will expand the breadth of their knowledge by exploring nature, culture and society in a variety of courses. In their final Quest III courses, sophomores take part in a community experience connected to exploring their final signature question.

When that first wave of 900 or so sophomores (imagine the entire population of the Village of Rosendale heading out to volunteer) takes their enthusiasm and talents into the surrounding community, the considerable impact is sure to create positive change.

“Research shows that students who engage in high-impact learning experiences like community service do better in school and feel more connected to other students and faculty,” explained Michael Lueder, USP Community Experience coordinator. Civic responsibility of college-educated citizens is so important to UWO that the teaching community included “civic knowledge and engagement” as one of its essential learning outcomes.

A women’s studies course may partner with Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services or a course focusing on recycling may work with Goodwill Industries International. Such projects provide students with real-life examples and context to participate in classroom discussions.

“The engagement component offers students a sense of what’s happening in their communities,” Lueder said. “The hope is that they will want to get involved further—to dive right in and make a difference.”

Senior political science major Jeci Casperson, of Oshkosh, said she would never have made it to her junior year at UWO if she hadn’t gotten involved outside the classroom. An alternative spring break trip to Washington, D.C., during her freshman year made all the difference.

She signed up for the trip because it was an inexpensive way to travel but returned home from volunteering at homeless shelters and soup kitchens with a new sense of direction. Since then, Casperson, who serves as the Oshkosh Student Association president, has had internships with the American Democracy Project, the Wisconsin State Senate and the U.S. Senate.

“I’ve learned time management and how to communicate with people … that is a constant learning experience for me,” she said.

A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one. —Heraclitus of Ephesus

Finally, students will have the opportunity to integrate their learning in a Connect or advanced writing course, in which they synthesize all three signature questions. Students will use their ePortfolios to track their progress, connect ideas across courses and even demonstrate their learning to employers and graduate schools.

In addition, as juniors or seniors, students will take a capstone class that retraces their progress, reflects on their educational journey and makes connections between their USP courses and those in their major.

Along the entire journey, students will have plenty of opportunity to make human connections as well as academic ones.

“We’re welcoming others in, such as alumni, peers and community leaders, to help with the teaching and learning process,” Wells said.

Peer mentors will be assigned to small groups of 25 students each in the first Quest classes, serving as role models and providing a student perspective on campus life, said Debbie Gray Patton, First-Year Experience assistant director.

“We want to give them a better opportunity to be engaged from the beginning and to feel like they matter here,” she said.

Mollie Merrill, a sophomore nursing major from Oshkosh, serves as the lead student ambassador advocating for the USP on campus. She’ll also work as a peer mentor in fall 2014. “We’ll help freshmen make the adjustment to campus life,” she said. “We’ll explain how the University works in ways that are reassuring and relatable to students.”

Earns is especially inspired by the reaction of UWO graduates to serving as alumni mentors for USP’s civic engagement component, beginning in fall 2014. “I’m absolutely delighted by the alumni response,” he said. “So many have stepped forward already; we want as many involved as possible.”

UWO Alumni Association Board member Scott Barr ’86, of Appleton, is helping to organize the alumni mentors.

“We’ll be available to assist professors in identifying civic engagement opportunities, providing a little horsepower in the community and offering some guidance and perspective to students,” he said.

“Alumni have a vested interest in our University’s success, and it’s vital that we remain active in our communities. UW Oshkosh will be a model across the country, so we want to help our students on this quest as they gain practical skills they can take into the workforce.”

Meanwhile, faculty and staff are especially busy this year as they work collaboratively to have the USP adventure ready for fall 2013. With the help of an implementation team, instructors are creating courses; advisers and admissions counselors are crafting new materials; and classroom renovations to support active learning are in progress.

“It’s incredibly invigorating that nearly every facet of the campus community is focused on this unprecedented opportunity to dramatically enhance student learning,” Carrell said.

Learn more about USP.
Exploring ‘The Prudent Question’

The ARTgarage—located in a 100-year-old former cannery—brings together artists of all types, ages and abilities in a creative community that also serves to revitalize the city’s downtown as part of the Olde Main Redevelopment District.

“It’s a garage,” said Van Sistine, who studied elementary education and art at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in the mid-1960s. “We wanted to keep it rugged and messy and keep that feeling of the funky studio space.”

The ARTgarage began seven years ago when two local art students who were graduating from UW–Green Bay wanted to find a studio where they could continue to make art. Because the community was “thirsting” for such a space, the idea soon expanded to include events and art education programs.

With a strong background in advertising and marketing, Van Sistine worked to establish a board and obtain nonprofit status. She also served as the first non-paid site director. “There were nights I slept here,” she recalled.

Early on, the ARTgarage community had the opportunity to give back to their founder. Just as they were set to open the doors in 2006, Van Sistine found out she had cancer. “The artists said they would cover for me, and we became such a family,” she said.

These days, with two part-time staff members and a 21-member board, Van Sistine no longer runs the day-to-day operations and has more time for her own pursuits. She even took her oil painting supplies along on a recent trip to Mexico, where she got to make a little of her own art while enjoying time with her daughter and grandchildren.

Read more alumni and student profiles.

It reads like a movie script…

… A coach leads his team to an undefeated, regular-season record, a first conference title since the 1970s and storybook playoff run… A record-breaking, nationally recognized hometown quarterback with a rocket-engine arm and an aptitude for escaping the pocket, racks up yards… A campus and community fan base awakens to the talent before them and rides an unprecedented surge of Titan Pride.

From its first kickoff to its last tick of the clock, 2012 was a season for the record books for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Titans football team.

A flawless regular-season record, punctuated by the defeat of the national-champion UW-Whitewater Warhawks (on the team’s Homecoming field, no less), led to a thrilling bid by the Titans for their own national crown.
A week after traveling across the country to defeat No. 3-ranked Linfield College in overtime on that team’s Oregon home field, the Titans football team fell to the University of St. Thomas squad on that team’s home field 28-14 Saturday, Dec. 8. St. Thomas would eventually lose to perennial football powerhouse Mount Union in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Football Championship.

While it ended short of the ultimate goal, the Titans’ journey was incredible.

Cerroni earns national, D3 Coach of the Year candidacy

Pat Cerroni’s focus and determination in leading the Titans to their historic year earned him a place as one of five finalists for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. Around the country, coaches were rated on a series of criteria, including fan voting, wins, team penalties, sportsmanship, academic performance of their athletes and charitable contributions. Quickly, as the Titans climbed the D3 rankings, so did their coach’s ascent toward the award.

In the end, Cerroni’s bid came up short. However, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and D3football.com named him their 2012 NCAA Division III West Region Coach of the Year. He also earned CaptainU’s, the largest youth and college sports network’s, 2012 NCAA Division III Football Coach of the Year title.

Wara posts legendary year

UW Oshkosh quarterback Nate Wara became one of four candidates for the Gagliardi Trophy, the NCAA Division III’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the most outstanding player in the division nationally.

The senior from Oshkosh led UWO to its most successful season in the program’s 118-year history and, despite falling short of the Gagliardi honor, earned Offensive Player of the Year from D3football.com. He additionally received NCAA Division III All-America honors from the AFCA— the first Titan to be recognized since the AFCA All-America program began in 1945, according to UW Oshkosh Athletics.

The Titans averaged 37.5 points per game with Wara behind center. The team effort was enough to earn several Titans All-American D3 honors: Fourteen Titans were selected for four All-America squads, including cornerback Tim Filter (a senior from New Berlin) and running back Cole Myhra (a junior from Menomonee Falls) as second-team honorees. UW Oshkosh Athletics noted tackle Brandon Peter (a senior from Allenton) was picked for the third team and linebacker Taylor Goodman (a senior from South Wayne), center Ben Strehlow (a senior from Brandon) and defensive end Andrew Thompson (a senior from Greendale) earned spots on the fourth team.

Check out more photographs of the UW Oshkosh Titans in action.
To share your Titan Pride, visit UW Oshkosh Athletics.

Making Oshkosh a better place through do-good initiatives runs through Stolley’s veins; she was born, raised and educated in the much-loved community she still calls home.

Now, Stolley is taking dramatic steps to grow, change and make Oshkosh a better place via Growing Oshkosh, which raises awareness and educates citizens about the “benefits of fresh, healthy, all-natural and sustainable food (and food production) by growing—and teaching others how to grow—fish, food, flowers, jobs … and hope.”

Growing Oshkosh initiatives began in August 2012, when Stolley pulled together a board of directors—many of whom have links to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Alumni Jessica King ‘98, Bob Poeschl ’06, and Courtney (Greco) Lasky ‘03, as well as retired senior lecturer and photographer Don Stolley and Mandy Potts with integrated marketing and communications, sit on the nine-member board.

“Growing Oshkosh is really a win-win for the entire community,” Stolley said.

The project started, Stolley admits, as a dream. In many ways, Growing Oshkosh is modeled after Growing Power, an urban farm in Milwaukee, which Stolley completed a Commercial Urban Agriculture program through. Her interest was piqued, and she got busy.

“I’ve been an environmentalist all my life—before I even knew what that meant. But my passion for nature and the environment was from an ecological perspective, an almost spiritual
connection between the land and waters I call home,” Stolley said. “When it came down to deciding what it was I wanted to do with my adult life, it was a no-brainer. I simply wanted to grow food and flowers, but especially for the people and habitats that need it the most in my community.”

With that in mind, her dream transitioned to a reality and Growing Oshkosh was planted in the heart of the Oshkosh community.

“I think it’s really important that people have access to uplift themselves or become more self-sufficient,” Poeschl said. “Growing Oshkosh has the ability to grow and partner with neighborhoods and the community to create the ability for people to be more self-sufficient. There is so much to gain by having an urban garden.”

While the primary role of Growing Oshkosh is to produce sustainable and healthy food, an underlying goal is to use the physical location of the urban farm as a way to bring people together to combat issues like isolation, said Karlene Grabner ’98, executive director of the Women’s Fund of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation.

With that goal, the Women’s Fund awarded a $10,000 grant to Growing Oshkosh, based on the feedback of focus groups.

“Such projects like Growing Oshkosh put forth an objective that will bring people—such as mothers, children and families—together using a common
activity or goal,” Grabner said. “As a community member and UW Oshkosh alumna, it’s great to see support in such a unique community project. Not only is the sustainability of this organization promising for our community, but it also provides a unique opportunity for students and children eager to learn.”

Like roots that grow and spread to make strong plants, Growing Oshkosh is extending out into the community, too.

Raised boxes were put in at UW Oshkosh’s Head Start late last summer to give young students an opportunity to grow and eat their own food. In 2013, a grant from UW Oshkosh’s Creating a Stronger Community Contest, which Growing Oshkosh won, will fund a Hope and Healing Garden at the main urban farm headquarters in downtown Oshkosh.

In the future, Growing Oshkosh has plans to both grow and sustain. Building school gardens and giving community members access to healthy foods to promote healthy eating is a primary focus for 2013, Stolley said.

Growing Oshkosh is an urban farm located in the heart of downtown Oshkosh at the Hooper Community Center. Within the hoop houses–an indoor growing environment -everything from herbs and vegetables to fish and flowers will be grown and raised. Check out the photo gallery from the urban farm. 

• Read about Kat McCard, a UW Oshkosh student who is an intern for Growing Oshkosh.

Jake White doesn’t drink.

And he considers that plenty of reason to throw a party. So far, as he and his business partner projected, hundreds of his University of Wisconsin Oshkosh peers are on the exact same page. That’s proving the entrepreneurial point that drives UW Oshkosh senior White’s and senior marketing major Steven Vanevenhoven‘s mission for Party.0. want to be an alcohol prevention speaker upon graduation and thought it would be easier to show people that you can have fun sober instead of just telling them, White said. Last summer, I approached my business partner, and we started planning right away.

And, as the saying goes, these days, BOOM.

On the first weekend of the 2012 fall semester, White helped stage the first Party.0 sober party off campus. For the record, it’s pronounced “party-point-o” and its slogan is “Bringing it B.A.C.,” as White and Vanevenhoven “wanted to hint that we provide dry parties but in a cool way.” About 80 people came out to enjoy the first evening of free food and drinks, music, dancing and games. By the end of 2012, Party.0 had run its sixth party and averaged about 150 people per event, with 180 representing the apex. New events were scheduled and staged into the New Year.

Party.0 is no student experiment. White and his business partner surveyed more than 100 UWO students and found many had equally strong reservations about drinking. After identifying surefire “customers,” they sought out sponsors.

Presto. Campus-area Papa John’s, Subway and Monster Energy Drink outlets and vendors stepped up and sponsored the events and supplied food and alcohol-free beverages. The Fox Valley DJ Association lent the musical talent. People came. Money was made. The business model–also a demonstration of the kind of harmony students and community neighbors can share while still having a blast–even won $750 as second place in the local Creating a Stronger Community Contest.

We want to provide a place for that 30 percent of students who don’t drink to find each other,” White said. “It’s important to us that people are comfortable in their own skin and that they don’t feel dependent on alcohol to have a great time. We don’t want to tell people what to do or not to do, just provide the opportunity to have fun and see firsthand that you don’t have to drink alcohol to fit in.”

Check out photos from a Party.O party.
Read more alumni and student profiles.