MPTC Culinary Arts Students Provide Fondue at Fond du Lac's Fondue Fest

Moraine Park's Culinary Arts students donated their time and talents by providing delicious cheese and chocolate fondue along with various breads at this year's Fondue Fest in downtown Fond du Lac on September 6.  The event was a success as the fondue sold out and the students were able to raise money to support their culinary club activities.  

Service-Learning Updates

Classes start Monday, and several faculty are lining up their classes to work with community orgnizations through a variety of service-learning models Moraine Park employs to serve both the students and our community connections. It seems our "Community Connections" tag line, one of the College's Goal Statements through 2016, is catching on.

UW-FDL is hosting their "Community Connections" Fair Wednesday, Feb. 6, from 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. This event is open to the public, and our faculty and students are welcomed to attend if interested. In addition, the Beaver Dam campus of Moraine Park showcases their community connections for service-learning on Thursday, Feb. 14, from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Contact Amy Patterson for more information related to that event.

In addition to the service-learning projects getting underway over the next few weeks through our campus, we are piloting a new tracking database to allow us to more accurately realize the service footprint Moraine Park, our faculty, our staff, our students and our college community are making within our local civic communities. A few of us will be working with the database this semester with plans to roll it out to the campus community in the fall semester. 

The college is also a member of the Wisconsin Campus Compact, and this organization allows us additional resources and opportunities for connecting with community, educational, organizational and statewide partners for service for our students. This statewide organization is a leader and innovator in service-learning and volunteer events for its membership. 

We look forward to posts that highlight the impact our faculty and students make in the community over the next 15-16 weeks.

The Days Are Fast

Wednesday, September 28, was a fun, long productive day. It started off with my baking class. We finished making our Danishes and croissants. They came out really tasty and had a nice brown color to them. Learning how to make these pastries from scratch is really cool because I was able to make my own design and flavor. These are one of baking’s most popular selling items. After we packaged them, we put them on the selling rack, and the pastries are disappearing by the moment. In my next food production class we made breakfast sandwiches from bagels to wraps using eggs as the main ingredient. Everyone in class had a unique way of making their sandwiches, and those turned out really good too.

After class we got organized to see what the plans were for the night. We decided we could do a little shopping before we headed to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for dinner. The restaurant we picked was Red Robin “yumm.” I figured this was a good place for an excellent American burger. Some people had a difficult time trying to figure which burger they wanted to try, but when it was time to order they decided. Once the food came each person was satisfied with the food they picked. The burgers were warm, juicy and tasty. I have to say it hard to get a better than Red Robin. Later in the night we came back to my house, played pool, watched television and listened to music. It seemed like everybody was having a good time.

On Thursday, September 29, there was a tea party held for the German students. This event was prepared by Instructor Lois’ production class. They did an excellent job on prepping all the food and drinks. I missed this event because I had to work, but I heard nothing but good things about the tea party. At night we went paintballing at Do It All Sports in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin at night. Some people were a little nervous and chickened out for paintballing, but the brave ones came and played. Twelve of us played, and it turned out to be a good thrill. We split into teams to face one another. The anticipation of getting the first hit or getting hit by a paintball can be exhilarating. After playing five rounds of paintballing we finished early since it got dark outside. We headed inside to turn in our gear and talked about our bruises from the paintballs. We all agreed going paintballing was a good choice and hopefully we can go again.

Now it’s time to get ready for the weekend, which is sadly the last weekend for the German students already. Until then I’m going to enjoy every moment with them and hopefully you enjoy my future blogs.

Sayonara,
Lee IV

The Germans Are Here!

After waiting three months for the Germans to come to America, the day finally came! On Thursday September 22, 2011, students from Germany landed in Madison, Wisconsin. I couldn’t wait much longer to see them because I made some good friends when I went to Germany in May 2011. Five carloads drove down to Madison to pick up the Germans at Dane County Regional Airport. As we got there the anticipation of seeing them was filled with joy. Once we entered the airport we all hugged one another, took pictures, and laughed about the good times in Germany.  After we left the airport we decided to get some grub at East Town Mall food court in Madison. Some of the Germans were tired, hungry and overwhelmed, but they were in good spirits to be in America.

Once we finished eating at various restaurants located in the food court, we walked the mall to check out some of the stores. It was a little funny to see some of their faces because some of the stores we have here they don’t have in Germany. They were oh my goodness ya have stores like Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria Secret and so on here. I guess at times I take for granted of the stores we have here since I see them all the time, so to me it’s normal. Seeing their faces was priceless.  Shortly after, we talked about some of our plans for the week and departed home.

Our journey back to Fond du Lac was a smooth ride. As I took a look back in the van I saw majority of the Germans already sleeping; some of them had already been awake for a day so they were ready for bed. Once we reached home I introduced my hosts to my housemates and took a tour around to the house. I basically told them to make themselves at home because they are more than guests, and I wanted them to feel like this was their home away from home.  After unpacking, my hosts were off to bed waiting for the exciting days ahead.

Here goes Day 1 stay tuned for more to come!

Cheers,

Lee IV