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The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Foundation will hold its 10th-annual Community Breakfast and report to the community to celebrate collaborations that help advance UW Oshkosh Sept. 18.

This year’s event—held the morning of UW Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt’s installation ceremony—will feature Ray Cross, UW System president, as the keynote speaker.

The breakfast event also will  include a report to the community by UW Oshkosh Foundation President Arthur H. Rathjen and a welcome by Leavitt.

This year’s Collaboration in Action award, which is given annually to an individual or organization in Wisconsin that advances the mission of the University, will go to Alta Resources, a leading provider of custumer management business process outsourcing. In April 2014, Alta Resources agreed to help support UW Oshkosh’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the next 10 years. The center has been named the  Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI).

Additionally, Alta Resources provides mentorship and networking opportunities to students at UW Oshkosh through a variety of entrepreneurial-focused initiatives and programs.

“It’s unbelievable how the leaders at Alta Resources go out of their way to help and support us and our students,” said Colleen Merrill, executive director of the Alta Resources CEI at UW Oshkosh. “Without Alta Resources, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

Less than three years ago, UW Oshkosh had just one entrepreneurship class. Today, with the support of Alta Resources (and others), UW Oshksoh is home to an award-winning entrepreneurship center and club, business plan contests, startup accelerator and incubator programs, mentor networks and collaborative office space.

“The entire team at Alta is so humble. They have projects all over the globe, yet their culture of collaboration is all about helping others out, and UW Oshkosh’s students have really benefited from that,” Merrill said.

Each year, Rathjen said, the UW Oshkosh Foundation gets the opportunity to “salute a collaborative effort,” something important to success at UW Oshkosh.

“It takes partnership, collaboration and cooperation to advance a business, an institution, a region,” Rathjen said. “If we are going to continuously move forward and grow, collaboration and cooperation are the only way.”

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