It’s time to start submitting nominations for the 2019 Founders Awards! The Awards & Recognition Committee wants to encourage departments, units, offices and other working communities to consider which of their colleagues they would like to see honored at next year’s Fall Convocation. The nomination form for the 2019 Founders Awards is available electronically. The Awards & Recognition Committee encourages anyone from the UW-Green Bay community (faculty, staff, students and community members) to submit a nomination(s) prior to the March 8, 2019 deadline. The website includes descriptions of award criteria and a list of previous awards. If you have any questions or need assistance completing your nomination(s), please feel free to contact Mike McIntire, Chair of the Awards & Recognition Committee, or any Committee member: Toni Damkoehler, Laura Riddle, Sawa Senzaki, Rosa Serrano, Nathan Kraftcheck, Anna Merry, Ruth Pearson, and Monika Pynaker. Awards & Recognition Committee members are not eligible for nomination.
Deadline to nominate for Founders Awards is March 6
Anyone from the UW-Green Bay community can nominate a faculty member, instructor, lecturer or staff member for the 2017 Founders Association Awards, to be honored at the 2017 Fall Convocation. A list of awards, criteria and previous award winners can be found here. The deadline to submit your nomination(s) is March 6. The nomination form can be completed electronically. If you have any questions or need assistance completing your nomination(s), please contact Kristy Aoki, Chair of the Awards and Recognition Committee.
Passing of Len Seidl, UW-Green Bay’s real-estate champion
On graduation day in May 2008, UW-Green Bay presented the Chancellor’s Award — for exemplary service to the University — to Len Seidl, the well-known local real estate executive who in the late 1960s was instrumental in securing the bayshore site that would become the University’s campus. Seidl, who always professed pride in helping broker the deals that made the site possible, died Dec. 13 in Naples, Fla., at the age of 95. A visitation will be held at St. Mary Church, Luxemburg, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. this Saturday (Dec. 19 — graduation day, again) followed by the service at 11 a.m. A full obituary is printed at https://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=3528893&fh_id=13643
Slideshow: Founders Association funds scholarships for students
UW-Green Bay students who are recipients of scholarships funded by the generosity of the Founders Association posed for a photo Friday afternoon, Nov. 8, at a donor/student reception at the Weidner Center. Celebrating 40 years this year, the Founders Association is the vehicle for annual giving by community members, past and present UW-Green Bay employees, University alumni, parents and various friends of the institution. Their financial contributions support not only scholarships but academic enhancements, special initiatives and student recruitment and retention. This year, 47 students are receiving Founders Association scholarships totaling more than $50,000. Friday’s reception included a brief program. Speakers were Jeanne Stangel, assistant chancellor; Rob Cera, Founders president; and students Paige Bani, freshman, Dana Schmidt, senior, and Jared Spude, the student representative to the Founders Association Board of Directors.
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– Photos by Eric Miller, photographer, Office of Marketing and University Communication
Kate Meeuwsen: Considers UW-Green Bay part of her family
She remembers seeing Chancellor Edward Weidner in the audience for her junior vocal recital.
“It was an incredibly exciting time on campus,” recalls Kate Meeuwsen, Class of ’76. “To have the chancellor and professors know your name, greet you in the halls and show up at your recital… it was cool to be here.”
The curriculum was flexible, the campus modern, the close-knit community supportive. Academic dean Donald Larmouth and music faculty members Trini Chavez, Bob Bauer and Arthur Cohrs were mentors.
Meeuwsen graduated and taught elementary school, but her family’s affinity for UW-Green Bay would grow.
Kate and her husband, Mike, raised daughters Emily, Gretchen and Ellen on Phoenix basketball. The family made a habit of Broadway and student productions at the Weidner Center. The girls attended summer camps, worked as lifeguards and enjoyed special events.
It was no surprise, then, when Emily — who as a girl memorized player stats while sister Gretchen searched for Skittles — earned a master’s in athletic training, she returned to her team. She’s a trainer for Phoenix Athletics and a Human Biology instructor. Her wedding was at Mary Ann Cofrin Hall’s courtyard.
Family ties span three generations. Kate’s late father, Bruce Haskin, had helped persuade Ed Weidner to let retirees “audit” University classes for free, space permitting. It was a forerunner to the LIR seminars that Bruce and his wife, Carol, would later teach and attend.
Today, Kate taps University expertise as she advocates for community causes. She praises Prof. Ellen Rosewall for marketing help in promoting the Adolescent Parenting Coalition. She credits Profs. Scott Ashmann, Jennifer Lanter and Provost Julia Wallace for impressive work on the Wildlife Sanctuary’s Nature 4K partnership with UWGB and the Green Bay Schools.
In turn, the University turns to the Meeuwsens. Mike was central to fundraising for the Kress Events Center. Kate served on the Founders Association board before joining the Foundation and Council of Trustees.
“The University has been such an important part of our lives,” she says. “We’re honored to be able to contribute where we can.”
Slideshow: Scholarship recipients meet Founders Association donors
The second annual Founders Association Scholarship Reception, held Oct. 19 at the Weidner Center, was a chance for members of the Founders Association Board of Directors — community supporters of the University — to meet the student beneficiaries of their philanthropy.
The Association funds about 50 merit- and need-based scholarships averaging about $1,000 each for new and continuing students. The money is generated by that year’s private donations to the Founders Association annual giving campaign.
Student speakers Christine Bekyir (a senior majoring in Democracy and Justice Studies) and Dominic Schuh (a junior in Accounting and Business Administration) addressed the gathering and expressed appreciation on behalf of the students. A number of parents of scholarship recipients attended the event, as well, and they, too, expressed gratitude informally to the Founders and University officials. Rob Cera, Founders president, spoke on behalf of the Association. He congratulated students on their success and also reminded the audience of the importance of “paying it forward.”
See also the video “Scholarship matters… Scholarships matter at UW-Green Bay.”
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Snapshots: Founders Association directors briefed on scholarship needs
About two dozen members of the Board of Directors of the UW-Green Bay Founders Association talked University business — and heard a report on the University’s need to increase the number of privately funded student scholarships — at a recent board meeting on campus.
Highlighting the business portion of the meeting in the University Union’s 1965 Room were:
- Greetings by Association President Scott Wochos, who among other things, noted recent successes associated with the organization’s “Bridge to the Community” repositioning;
- Acknowledgment of new member Pat Larsen, a recent honor for founding member Bob Southard, and the transition of student representative Jeanna Zuelke off the board with her May graduation and successful job hunt;
- An update from Chancellor Thomas Harden on UW-Green Bay’s record spring commencement, the much-anticipated “reveal” of the Weidner Center’s new mainstage season, and efforts to lure a Medical College of Wisconsin campus to the Green Bay area; and
- A Powerpoint-illustrated report by Assistant Chancellor Bev Carmichael on the “Scholarship Matters… Scholarships Matter” initiative. Fewer than 5 percent of current UW-Green Bay students receive privately funded scholarship assistance through the school, despite the fact that two-thirds of the institution’s 6,600 students demonstrate financial need and nearly all of those rely to a great extent on student loans.
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Nominations sought for 2011 Founders Awards
Already distributed campuswide, but repeated here for the record:
The nomination form for the 2011 Founders Association Awards is available electronically at www.uwgb.edu/sofas/forms/award.asp. The Awards & Recognition Committee encourages anyone from the UW-Green Bay community (faculty, staff, students, and community members) to submit nominations prior to mid-March. The website includes descriptions of award criteria and a list of previous honorees, click here.
Questions? Contact Kimberly Baker, chairperson of the Awards & Recognition Committee, or any other Committee member (Emily Rogers, Heidi Sherman, Donna Van Straten, Debbie Furlong, Anthony La Luzerne, Katia Levintova or Victoria Goff.)
Convocation '10: Snapshots from day of awards, introductions
UW-Green Bay formally kicked off the 2010-11 academic year with its annual Faculty/Staff Convocation held Tuesday morning, Aug. 24, at the University Union. Continue reading “Convocation '10: Snapshots from day of awards, introductions”
Record day, 40th anniversary for May 2010 commencement
Chancellor Thomas K. Harden will preside at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s 2010 spring commencement ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 15, in the Kress Events Center on campus.
A near-capacity crowd of about 5,000 is expected for the ticket-only event. The 825 or so students eligible to graduate represent a UW-Green Bay record. About 675 of those students have pre-registered to participate in the formal cap-and-gown ceremony.
The event marks 40 years since the first UW-Green Bay commencement, when 78 pioneering graduates received diplomas on June 1, 1970. The total number of UW-Green Bay alumni will surpass 27,000 with this spring’s ceremony.
Ceremony highlights:
- Commencement speaker — Steven A. Taylor, a 1979 Business Administration graduate, will deliver the commencement address. Taylor is based in De Pere as a financial representative for the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. His contributions to campus and community are significant. He volunteers as a career mentor for current UW-Green Bay students, supports the Phoenix Fund and intercollegiate athletics, and serves on the boards of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, Inc., Golden House, Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College Educational Foundation, Inc., and the National Railroad Museum.
- Outstanding senior and student speaker —Nicholas J. Vlies of Green Bay is May 2010 recipient of the Outstanding Student Award as selected by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Alumni Association. He has also been chosen to speak on behalf of 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 — and a minor in Environmental Science.
- Chancellor’s Award recipient — Paul Kendle of Green Bay will receive the award, UW-Green Bay’s highest community honor, in recognition of his sustained commitment to advancing the University and the region it serves. Kendle is market president for Wells Fargo Bank’s locations in Northeast Wisconsin. He is a past chairman of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, a former president of the Green Bay Rotary Club and countywide campaign chair for the United Way. At UW-Green Bay, Kendle has been a strong advocate for public higher education, an adviser to institutional administration, and a leader in generating additional scholarship dollars for students.
Fields of study with the largest number of graduating seniors this May include business administration, education, human biology, human development, interdisciplinary studies and psychology.
The graduating class of roughly 825 students also includes 43 listed as eligible to receive UW-Green Bay graduate degrees. Seventeen will receive their Master’s in Applied Leadership for Teaching and Learning; fifteen will receive master’s degree in Social Work; six in Environmental Science and Policy; and five will receive Master’s of Management degrees.
UW-Green Bay celebrate the diversity of its student body at commencement, with flags representing the nations of origin designated by this semester’s graduates displayed as part of the opening processional. Along with residents of the United States, this May’s class includes citizens of France, Mexico, Nepal, the Russian Federation, and the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Also displayed will be the flags of sovereign American Indian nations: Lac du Flambeau Chippewa, Lakota Sioux, Menominee, Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican.
The bearer of the ceremonial mace will be economics Prof. Ismail Shariff, who as a founding faculty member in 1967 is the institution’s senior faculty member in terms of service. Student vocalists on the program are Kimberly Eickert, who will accompany the UW-Green Bay band directed by Prof. Kevin Collins on “The Star-Spangled Banner”; and Tessa Wegenke, who will sing the Alma Mater. Both Eickert and Wegenke are graduating seniors.