Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - Although he completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in electrical engineering as a traditional student, Ryan Melbard "virtually" came back to UWP again to earn his master's degree in engineering.

Melbard a1999 alum of UWP heard about the online program from his father-in-law, Franco Pagnucci, who had taught English at UWP.

"Being a recent graduate of UWP, I was excited to hear that I could attend Platteville even though I lived more than 100 miles away," Melbard said. "I had always planned to go back to school for a graduate degree, but I wasn't looking forward to the commuting and parking problems. Distance learning was the perfect solution."

While being a husband and an employee at We Energies in Milwaukee, Melbard found the most difficult obstacle for him to overcome with the program was being able to communicate more effectively and efficiently online. He had to consider how his messages, papers and assignments would appear and be interpreted by the instructor or other students.

"Even though I spent a lot of time working on an assignment or considering an idea, if I typed my thoughts in a short amount of time without proofreading, my assignment would appear as if I hadn't spent much time on it," Melbard said.

Initially, Melbard worried about the contact he would have with his instructors and that they would put their traditional students' tasks before those of the online students. He soon found after enrolling in the class that professors often had assignments returned in a day or two. Messages that were left were often responded to within a few hours or minutes of when they were sent.

"I always felt I received full attention from my professors," Melbard said.

Although they are called online classes, they don't have to be completely online. Classmates often discuss classes over the telephone or in person.

Melbard is currently an electrical engineer for the distribution protection and reliability group at We Energies. This group's main objective is to protect the customers, employees and equipment from dangers associated with electric power. The group also tries to increase the dependability of the electric distribution system. Melbard has applied many lessons from his online classes at UWP on the job site in a variety of ways, including management roles, improvement tactics, planning and organizing, and general business communication skills.

While taking a break from working and studying, Melbard has climbed to new heights in the past year and a half by taking up indoor rock climbing.

"The strategy and planning required to figure out how to climb a route and the focus needed to finish that route make climbing a physically and mentally rewarding sport," Melbard said. "Additionally, the strategy, planning and focus that I use during climbing is similar to the skills that I need when studying and working on my coursework."

Melbard is looking in to many opportunities that await him now that he has his master's degree.

"Obtaining this degree from UWP has helped me to keep my options open and help my chances of success in whatever path I may choose."