Friday, December 7, 2012

Service-Learning: Sassu Enterprises

MPTC Service-Learning: Business Instructor Julie Dilling's Students Make Community Connection

While service-learning opportunities at Moraine Park are increasing in number, this link provides an example as to why this type of curriculum has value. Kudos to Ms. Julie Dilling and the time, effort, dedication, and service she modeled for her students. This fundraiser for and promotion of Sassu Enterprises was a success for all involved parties. Thank you, Julie!

Additional displays of the event are on the second floor of the A building at the Fond du Lac campus.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Service-learning at Moraine Park

Moraine Park is dedicated to opportunities that encourage students to actively engage with community organizations while completing their degree. In September, for instance, the college's Fond du Lac campus hosted its first Community Connections Fair. Another fair is scheduled at the Beaver Dam campus in February 2013. These fairs encourage students to connect with community organizations. I sat in on some student presentations this week. These students shared their service-learning experiences this semester, and an overwhelming majority of students (perhaps all?!) indicated they would continue volunteering with their respective organization. While they were concerned about finding the time, they easily carved the time into their weeks. What's important to note is the relevance the students found with these experiences to their education and life plans.

I was humbled and quite proud of them--and I'm not their instructor! Kudos, Ms. Brenda Schaefer, for the dedication you have as an instructor in connecting your students to our community.

Monday, November 19, 2012

New Title, New Focus, New Updates

Welcome to the revised international education blog, Experience-Based Learning. This blog supports several goals the bloggers intend for the site. 

First, we want to promote the experience-based learning opportunities the college provides students. While Moraine Park Technical College is an advocate for performance-based learning, students with MPTC will find Experience-Based Learning opportunities substantial supplements to their education. These opportunities include not only the international education voyages you've learned to follow through this blog but also the service-learning experiences many students acquire as part of their curriculum with the college.

You will still get the updates and photos to support the international travels, allowing you to follow your friends and colleagues as they engage in college-related travels. We have a familiarity excursion to Morocco scheduled for January, spring break travels to London, and end-of-semester treks to Germany (and additional locations--Italy? Paris? Amsterdam? Where will James' side trip be this year?). As a first, the college will be represented in Costa Rica for a service-oriented trip to increase international education opportunities at community/technical colleges. This venture combines international education with a service component--and the service takes us to the other aspect of the revised and renovated blog.

The college is committed to enhancing community connections, and service-learning experiences infuse aspects of the community in students' courses. With reflection being key to this fusion of curriculum, theory and application, service-learning activities support our role in the community and allow us to connect with community partners. Just as the Costa Rica trip extends and blends service and travel, a trip to the East Coast is being planned to support service to communities in need. A group of MPTC students plans to volunteer with Hurricane Sandy clean-up and assistance over spring break.

Please support us as we move forward with this new goal for the blog. Share us with your friends. Follow us. Better yet -- join us for experience-based learning, both on the local level with service-learning and at the global level through international education.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Welcome GEMS Girls!!

This morning, I am facilitating a session about using blogs and other social media with young women from the region. We are testing how to use a blog and direct the message from there using social media. Here's to Girls in Engineering Math Science! Salute!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Spring Break 2013

London over spring break, anyone? Or perhaps you might be more interested in helping those folks affected by Hurricane Sandy over spring break? Planning and plotting is underway, and additional trips are being organized and determined. Please contact the International Education office at the Fond du Lac campus (E-176) or call us at 920-924-3163 for additional information about the opportunities being planned for spring break 2013.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Kohlrabi Kartoffel

After a day walking the riverfront in Sheboygan and enjoying the cool waves and breezes of Lake Michigan, Hagen treated us to this special recipe.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Ledgeview Nature Center

Whether trekking through the guided tour in the caves or hiking among the golden showers of the fall colors in Wisconsin, the German students soaked in the natural beauty and wonders of the Niagara escarpment, otherwise known in these parts as the "ledge".

Friday, September 28, 2012

Willkommen!!

Our honored guests from the Hessen region in Germany arrived Wednesday -- but not without delays. While Park Terrace was set with a BBQ and drinks for a 2:30 arrival, Customs lines in Chicago did not move quickly enough. Unfortunately, the group missed the flight from Chicago to Madison, but fortunately, Greyhound Bus Lines came to the rescue. The group arrived at Park Terrace at the college around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday. Understandably, everyone quickly ate. met their hosts, and went on to their final destinations for some rest after 24 hours of travel.

Thursday was the formal college reception to welcome the students and their instructors, Hagan and Corrina. Today, everyone will have a campus tour at 10 a.m. and then enjoy the Ford Family Farm for a hayride this evening. The dairy farm has several hundred dairy cows they milk and feed daily, and the students will get an introduction to the joys of farming (and smells!) this evening.

Tomorrow we head to Ledgeview Cave Tour in the morning, allowing the rest of the day for shopping and visiting. We plan to take Hagen, our guest, over to Sheboygan to enjoy dinner by that little pond called Lake Michigan.

We are delighted our guests arrived safely. Several hosts have commented on the delightful company and conversations. We look forward to the week ahead and teh continuation of this important exchange for our college.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Preparing for the arrival

We look forward to hosting our friends from Germany Sept. 26-Oct. 6. Students and instructors have host families ready to open their homes for their guests. I will post as we get the events underway!!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Schwenker!!

While listening to NPR one morning last week, a particular broadcast segment perked my ears. The broadcaster was interviewing some German folks in Washington state, and they were talking about how they missed their backyard grills. They built their own Schwenkers and hosted Schwenker parties to recapture a summertime tradition of their own culture related to the backyard grilling party--but with a Schwenker, not a Big Green Egg or a firepit or the gas grill rolled out of the garage. But with a Schwenker. Read or listen to the NPR segment here: Schwenker.


Fortunately, for those students who traveled with us to Darmstadt in June, they experienced the Schwenker in its finest form in its native country. See the photos of culinary instructor Chef James handling the Schwenker earlier this year.

Please consider hosting some students from the Hessen region in a few weeks and then put your name on the list to join us in May/June 2013 to get your own experience of how another culture enjoys their own backyard traditions and summertime festivities.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Summer Planning

The facilitators of International Education are reviewing options and opportunities for the 2012-2013 academic year. At the end of September and early October, we will seek host families to welcome our German guests for a week to 10 days or so. We are also looking to possibly expand some travel opportunities for students this year--more on those possibilities at a later date. If we are successful in our endeavor, students may have an additional travel opportunity for the 2013-2014 academic year. The WTCS colleges are also signing on a new agreement with the technical college system in Ireland to open exchange programs with their colleges. Similar to our German exchange, the goal with the Irish exchange is to send students to campuses in Ireland and learn about their educational, commerce and technical systems while we host an Irish coalition during another time of the year. Otherwise, we are planning for Germany for May 2013, with a possible London trip for March 2013. Watch for the updates related to the international travel and exchange opportunities for students with Moraine Park!

Monday, June 11, 2012

And we return...

Many thanks to our new friends and wonderful hosts in Darmstadt, Hessen. We look forward to your return to Wisconsin in September/October and our chance to repay you for your kindness and hospitality!

The flight leaves Tuesday at 9:40 am--we land in Madison at 3:45 pm.