Phuture Phoenix feted for foresight

Representatives of a campus-and-community precollege program that encourages Green Bay area young people to make a long-term commitment to education were honored Oct. 15 in Madison.

The Wisconsin PK-16 Leadership Council named UW-Green Bay’s Phuture Phoenix a Program of Distinction award winner for 2008. The Council is made up of leaders of Wisconsin’s government, state agencies, education sectors, professional associations, business and industry.

Posing at the meeting were, from left, Rolf Wegenke, president, Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; Phuture Phoenix Director Kim Desotell; Associate Director Stephanie Cataldo Pabich; co-founder Cyndie Shepard; Daniel Clancy, president, Wisconsin Technical College System; Elizabeth Burmaster, state superintendant of public instruction, and Kevin Reilly, president, University of Wisconsin System.

One of the council’s goals is to recognize best practices across the state. Members said they were impressed by the efforts of UW-Green Bay tutors working in schools that have high poverty rates to turn students’ aspirations toward continuing education beyond high school.

As part of the award, Phuture Phoenix will receive $1,000 that will go toward continuing efforts to help at-risk children. UW-Green Bay college students serve as role models for children as young as fifth grade and continue contact with them through the middle and high school years, motivating them to continue on to a university, college or technical college.