Community Connections Fair -- Beaver Dam

Moraine Park Technical College in Beaver Dam hosted the first Community Connections Fair for the Beaver Dam campus. The Fond du Lac campus hosted the same type of fair in September 2012, but we wanted to expand our reach to the Beaver Dam community. As a result, 9-10 community agencies were on hand in the student lounge/Beaver Dam cafeteria to take student applications for volunteer and service-learning opportunities. These agencies were included among the participants:

Red Cross

Dodge County Humane Society

YMCA of Dodge County

Green Valley Enterprises

People Against a Violent Environment (PAVE)

Bethesda Lutheran Communities and Thrift Store

Marsh Haven Nature Center
City of Beaver Dam--The Watermark

Beaver Dam Community Hospital

Hillside Manor Nursing Home

Badgerland Animal Reading and Comfort Companions (BARCC)

Thanks to Ms. Amy Patterson and Mr. Bayard Frederick for their work and determination to ensure this inaugural Community Connections Fair in Beaver Dam was a success. We appreciate everyone's support for our students and their potential service-learning opportunities. Thank you.

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.

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.

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.