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UW Oshkosh and city of Oshkosh leaders are joined by daycare students of the Children’s Learning and Care Center for the dedication and ribbon-cutting of Lincoln Hall on Sept. 16.

Bundled in fall jackets, emblazoned with smiles, they sat in tiny, wooden classroom chairs in the front lawn of their school, their teachers wielding a small outlay of classroom safety scissors.

This small gathering of front-row childcare pupils quietly sat through official remarks and ceremony and, when their time to shine came, helped cut the ribbon on Lincoln Hall on Sept. 16. It was just one ode to community collaboration during the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Foundation’s 9th Annual Community Breakfast and Report to the Community events.

The students are one end of the lifelong-learner spectrum and population that now calls Lincoln Hall, the former Oshkosh Area School District elementary school, home. They helped dedicate UW Oshkosh’s newest academic building, housing the University’s Children’s Learning and Care Center and the Division of Lifelong Learning and Community Engagement.

“Now, with the move to Lincoln Hall we will be able to provide services to students, staff, and faculty as well as the community,” said UW Oshkosh Interim Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Sharon Kipetz. “We can now accommodate 184 children and will be a year-round facility.  In our new space we will be able to provide summer care to children up to age 10. Our mission has remained consistent.  The UW Oshkosh Children’s Learning and Care Center provides quality child care in Oshkosh… Strong values of learning occur in this building and we know that we are the beginning of the educational process for the next generation.”

UW Oshkosh, its students and the state of Wisconsin invested approximately $4.5 million to renovate the 1960s-era building and tuck its youngest and, in many cases, senior-most learning communities within.

“Lifelong Learning is dedicated to serving the needs of nontraditional learners,” said Karen Heikel, assistant vice chancellor and dean of Lifelong Learning and Community Engagement at UW Oshkosh.

“We accomplish this mission through programs for youth; through online degrees for adult learners; through professional development opportunities; and through Learning in Retirement,” Heikel said in her dedication remarks. “We also strive to provide outstanding student services for the 3,000 adult nontraditional students who attend class on campus and online at UW Oshkosh. All of these activities, programs and services accomplish our mission and The Wisconsin Idea – we both physically and intellectually extend the University to learners of all ages. And now, with the official ribbon cutting of our new building, we have a place to call home. After years of discussions, planning and decision-making, we are so happy to be settled into the beautiful and newly remodeled Lincoln Hall.”

City of Oshkosh Mayor Burk Tower joined University administrators for the Lincoln Hall dedication–just one example of partnership spotlighted by UW Oshkosh and the UW Oshkosh Foundation as approximately 200 to 300 people joined in the event and a Sept. 16, morning breakfast and program at the Alumni Welcome and Conference Center.

Degree-program partnership earns Manufacturing Alliance Collaboration award

NEW Manufacturing Alliance Director Ann Franz is flanked by members of the organization and UW Oshkosh Foundation President Arthur Rathjen and Interim Chancellor Petra Roter at the Community Breakfast.

The Northeast Wisconsin (NEW) Manufacturing Alliance earned the “Collaboration in Action Award” for the instrumental role its member businesses played in helping craft the now-launched Engineering Technology program – a trio of electrical, mechanical and environmental engineering technology degrees created in partnership with the 13 partner-institutions and colleges of the Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance (NEW ERA).

The programs make the Bachelor of Science in electrical, mechanical and environmental engineering technology more easily accessible to students living in the New North region while addressing regional manufacturers’ demands for new infusions of well-prepared engineering graduates. Students entering the new Leadership in Engineering Technology program and pursuing any of its three degrees will be able to begin their academic studies at any one of 13 NEW ERA institutions and colleges. They finish the program and earning their degrees at either UW-Green Bay or UW Oshkosh.

“These new majors are some of the most exciting and fundamentally different programs that UW Oshkosh has undertaken in most recent years. It would not have been possible without the support of the Manufacturing Alliance and its member organizations,” said UW Oshkosh Foundation President and Executive Director of Advancement Arthur Rathjen.

Manufacturing CEOs and managers worked alongside faculty to help design the nationally distinct and responsive academic program after survey work identified a demand for more hands-on, engineering technologists in the regional economy.

NEW Manufacturing Alliance Director Ann Franz accepted the award on behalf of the organization, but welcomed several of its board leaders to the Alumni Welcome and Conference Center stage for a well-deserved round of applause.

Alumnus, TV producer Boettcher shares keys to his success

Boettcher delivers his keynote speech.

The Community Breakfast featured keynote speaker and UW Oshkosh alumnus Steve Boettcher, ’82.

Boettcher, a graduate of the University’s Radio-TV-Film program, has produced and directed PBS’s national series Pioneers of Television, now in its fourth season. His other television projects include productions for History Channel, Discovery Channel, BBC, CBS and NBC.

Most recently, he and his partners swiftly assembled a PBS documentary on the life of Robin Williams, the comedian who tragically died in early August. Boettcher and his team have interviewed dozens of TV celebrities for their Pioneers series, including Bill Cosby, Anthony Edwards (“E.R.”), Bob Newhart and a slew of other breakthrough artists from American TV history.

“I feel like I’ve collected people my entire career and collected their stories,” Boettcher said, sharing a few reflections on his personal success and that of his TV production company during the Community Breakfast.

A lifelong Wisconsinite, Boettcher said he remains proud to serve as an advocate for the state and UW Oshkosh, once going out of his way to let some high-powered producers on the coasts know he hailed from the Midwest, or, as he put it “L.A.” — “Lower Appleton.”

Perhaps his affinity for his home state and alma mater’s hometown jas been no better demonstrated than in his 2014 premier film The Frozen Chosen, a documentary on the otherworldly culture of sturgeon spearing on Lake Winnebago. The film was screened at UW Oshkosh earlier this year.

“What I’ve learned is our dreams and our philosophy dictate what our lives are like,” Boettcher shared during his keynote speech. “What we have at this moment in life is what we’ve attracted by the person that we’ve become.”

Boettcher also shared his own story of collaboration and innovation. He recalled his and his future business partner’s effort to, while students, secure a vacant Arts and Communication Building vacant office for their production of a former UW Oshkosh TV news program. They managed to get a custodian to not only get them access to the room but also keys.

The experience was formative: today, Boettcher is a five-time, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker.

“Success is defined by significance, significance to people around you–your coworkers your family, your loved ones,” he said. “… Your library, your notes, your pictures–let it inspire the next generation; it’s proof that we are serious students of life. What a treasure.”

 

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