Green Bay senior earns Outstanding Student Award
Nicholas J. Vlies of Green Bay is the May 2010 recipient of the Outstanding Student Award as selected by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Alumni Association.
Vlies will receive the honor — presented to one individual from this spring’s graduating class of about 825 — at a student awards ceremony on campus Friday night (May 14). He also will be acknowledged during commencement the following day (Saturday, May 15) at the Kress Events Center. Vlies has been chosen the student speaker for the graduating class.
Vlies graduates with summa cum laude (highest) honors, a near-perfect grade point average and distinction in the major. He has three majors: Public Administration, Environmental Policy and Planning, and Political Science. He minored in Environmental Science.
A graduate of Green Bay Preble High School, Vlies has been active in a variety of University activities and in governance, having won election as current vice president of the UW-Green Bay Student Government Association. He has been involved at both the campus and UW System levels in sustainability and environmental affairs. He was instrumental in securing support for the University to initiate the U-Pass agreement promoting city bus ridership, and in winning student-referendum approval of a new Environmental Sustainability Fund to further green practices at UW-Green Bay. As a representative of student government and the student body, Vlies testified before the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee regarding the impact of the state budget on UW System schools and students.
As part of an academic internship for Brown County Emergency Management, Vlies helped organize a full-scale disaster exercise at the Green Bay airport last summer, recruiting more than 150 volunteers and coordinating their participation. He also compiled a digital resource database for easy access in the event of emergency.
He intends to enroll in law school this fall at UW-Madison and pursue studies in environmental law.
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