The UW-Platteville Health and Human Performance program recently rolled out three new minors that can be paired with majors across the university to increase the marketability of graduates. Beginning this fall, students can enroll in a health promotion, coaching or sports management minor.

The School of Business recently announced a new partnership with Foster MSP. The collaboration will offer students a unique apprenticeship opportunity, providing them with a valuable, rare skillset to give them an edge in a growing field.

UW-Platteville alumni and friends celebrated Pioneers Day of Giving by raising $141,514 on Oct. 9. The university surpassed its goal with more than 290 donors.

The School of Education recently received a grant from the Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC), a national nonprofit committed to strengthening the bonds between schools and communities. The grant is part of RSC's I am a Rural Teacher campaign, a national advocacy effort that is supported by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Hal Evensen, UW-Platteville professor of engineering physics, is the recipient of the inaugural Dale Dixon Professor of Engineering Award. The award was established by Dr. Dale Dixon, a former engineering department chair in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, to celebrate engineering faculty excellence.

The Dairy Innovation Hub has released its first annual report that reflects progress and activities from initial funding approval by the Wisconsin Legislature in early October 2019 through June 2020.

Heather Burkholder grew up in Platteville and began working at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2007 in the Admission and Student Affairs office before moving over to Athletics in 2010, where she is coordinator for internal operations.

The School of Business has realigned its programs to ensure that students are ready for the changing needs in business and industry, with the launch of six new undergraduate degree programs and an ongoing commitment to providing a cutting-edge education – from its teaching philosophy to leveraging the latest online resources.

In recent months, Dr. Phillip Gordon, associate professor of English and Gay Studies coordinator at UW-Platteville, has received continued recognition for his book, “Gay Faulkner: Uncovering a Homosexual Presence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond,” including a newly published essay, an upcoming article and delivery of a keynote speech at a United Kingdom conference.

Based on overwhelming interest, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Continuing Education Institute is pleased to announce the expansion of its cannabis-related certificates to include an Agriculture and Horticulture Certificate program.

Dr. Jenna Zucker joined the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Department of Psychology in 2019 and teaches courses focused on development.

The sculpture is titled “Pandemic” and for University of Wisconsin-Platteville fine arts major Sara Ditchman, it’s a reflection of the uncertainty of COVID-19. Ditchman was selected to present her piece at the Water Street Studios 11th Anniversary Show: Create-in-Place in Batavia, Illinois.

For more than 50 years, the Busby family has helped transform and enrich UW-Platteville and the greater Platteville community. To honor their family legacy, UW-Platteville will rename Engineering Hall to the Busby Hall of Engineering.

The UW-Platteville Foundation is giving future Pioneers the opportunity to submit their college application at no cost until Saturday, Oct. 31.

It’s an idea that has evolved since 2019 when four engineering students and Dr. Gokul “Gopal” Gopalakrishnan, associate professor of engineering physics, discussed their passion for rock climbing and developed the first prototype of Skillzboard. Today, Gopal and his former students are now partners and have started their own company.

Two recent UW-Platteville alumni, Kathryn Bartels and Dominique Kornely, have had their research work accepted for publication in academic journals. Both alumni are former participants of UW-Platteville’s Summer Undergraduate Scholars Program and credit the program for their success.

After growing up in Canada, Demi Vetesnik, program manager for the UW-Platteville Continuing Education Institute, made the jump to the United States for college when a soccer scholarship led her to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2019, she joined the CEI team at UW-Platteville Richland Center. As part of her responsibilities, Vetesnik provides quality programming for the community she now lives in.

UW-Platteville will celebrate 154 years since becoming an institution on Friday, Oct. 9. In honor of Founder’s Day, alumni and friends are invited to participate in the annual Pioneers Day of Giving. The all-day event raises funds to support student success.

Nicole Ruchotzke may be one of the newest advisors to join the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Center for Distance Operations, but she’s already left her mark. This week, Ruchotzke will officially be awarded the Advising Profession Impact Award by the Wisconsin Academic Advising Association.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville and Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SWWRPC) have been selected as co-applicants to receive a highly competitive grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration that will bring nearly $1.1 million of new investment to the region.

Dr. Carolyn Keller joined UW-Platteville in 2018 as the director of Academic Assessment. While she still oversees the area of Academic Assessment, Keller is now interim assistant provost. Her background is in the field of sociology – a discipline that she still teaches every chance she can.

The message to never give up is one that alumnus Greg Loek ’80 and his wife Kathy Rice share through their endowed Loek-Rice-Titus Family Engineering, Mathematics, and Science Scholarship. The renewable four-year scholarship is targeted to UW-Platteville students from Minnesota who have declared a major in the College of EMS. Both Loek and Rice, who have spent their careers as engineers, want to give students an opportunity to further their education.

Creativity is nothing new to faculty in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts. But, the COVID-19 pandemic put their creativity to a new test this summer, as they planned for how to safely instruct students in theatre, music and art — areas that normally involve hands-on learning.

School of Business Associate Professor George Krueger is giving his students and local entrepreneurs an insight on how to enhance marketing strategies for small businesses through his podcast titled, “The UWP Professor George’s Podcast.” Krueger combines his academic research along with his experience in developing marketing campaigns for both small businesses and Fortune 100 companies to deliver different themed episodes.

Dr. Dong Isbister, University of Wisconsin-Platteville associate professor of women and gender studies, recently published an anthology she co-edited titled “Chinese Women Writers on the Environment: A Multi-ethnic Anthology of Fiction and Nonfiction.”

The Grant County Health Department is offering a free community COVID-19 drive-through and walk-through testing site on Wednesday, Sept. 16 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville campus.

The growing interconnectedness of smart devices – known as the “internet of things” – is changing the way the manufacturing industry operates and the products it produces, and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville is continuing to lead the charge of ensuring that the next generation workforce is prepared for these changes.

Dr. Anne-Marie Lerner, assistant department chair and associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Karen Brenner Drees, academic advisor and coach, are both being recognized by the Wisconsin Academic Advising Association for excellence in advising.

When UW-Platteville's School of Education was presented with the opportunity to re-envision its core framework, Dr. Jennifer Collins, director, said they started with a question: “whom are the people and where are the places we serve?” The answer, she said, was overwhelmingly rural communities. The School of Education began looking toward the future with a focus on place-based education and building a teaching workforce responsive to the needs of their local, rural communities.

When Hannah Exner accepted a summer internship offer last September, she expected to spend the summer of 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, working for Thermo King – a Trane Technologies brand. But when the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold last spring, Exner began to worry about the possibility of her internship being canceled. Thanks to longstanding relationships with UW-Platteville, many industry partners like Trane Technologies, made it a priority to honor these internship commitments, finding creative solutions to provide meaningful experiences.

As UW-Platteville welcomes students back to campus this week, faculty and staff are rethinking concepts of traditional learning space and bringing classrooms outside. Earlier this week, a group of 30 student volunteers built and installed 50 wooden benches, over a two-day period, to create a series of outdoor class spaces in time for the first day of the semester.

Gretchen Bockenhauer grew up in the field of construction, learning from her family’s business. But it was her experience as a student at UW-Platteville that cemented her interest in the field. Now, as lecturer and co-program coordinator for UW-Platteville’s Building Construction Management program, she enjoys sharing her experience with students and helping them find their own passion in the construction management field.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Continuing Education Institute has announced three certificate programs related to one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation: cannabis. The certificates are offered in partnership with Green Flower, a national leader in cannabis education.

As hundreds of Pioneers participated in Welcome Weekend at UW-Platteville, one area business is helping to keep students safe as they embark on the fall semester. Lands’ End headquartered in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, partnered with the university to donate more than 1,000 face coverings to help protect against COVID-19.

As the fall semester gets underway, the College of Liberal Arts and Education is offering a number of opportunities outside of the classroom for students, and the wider community, to engage in discussions about race and inequality, as well as the contribution of African American voices to the liberal arts and education fields, through two concurrent forum series.

A team of five University of Wisconsin-Platteville construction management students took first place in the area of safety and second place overall, among 26 teams, at the recent 2020 National Associated Builders and Contractors’ annual Construction Management Competition.

After growing up in south Florida and spending summers at her grandparents' North Carolina farm, Dr. Sharon Klavins, professor of biology, was drawn to the natural world. Her passion led her to the field of paleobotany, where her specialty is plant structure and evolution. She began her career teaching high school. Klavins then earned her doctorate degree in plant biology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She started at UW-Platteville in 2005.

Remembered as an “individual more concerned with making a difference than making a fortune,” Teresa Kirkeeng-Kincaid ‘80 was a leader in the engineering field, respected as much for her care and compassion as for her expertise and drive. It is this legacy that her family hopes to see carry on through others with the Teresa Kirkeeng-Kincaid Memorial Scholarship for Women in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Nancy Ware was one of the most visible citizens in Platteville, whether at sporting competitions, at the swimming pool or taking her dog out for a walk. It was only fitting that in her will, she ensured her impact would live on in the city for years to come.

Karen Brenner Drees, an academic advisor and coach, is the recipient of UW-Platteville's 2020 Outstanding Professional Advising Award. The award is presented annually to academic staff whose primary responsibility is advising.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville announces a new partnership with the California Curriculum Alignment Project (CAP). The partnership recognizes that UW-Platteville’s curriculum meets the high standards of the CAP, allowing California’s early childhood educators to take advantage of UW-Platteville’s innovative and engaging online courses.

College of EMS shop supervisors are producing self-supporting plexiglass barriers to help protect the campus community against COVID-19. The shop supervisors are teaming up with the Facilities Management department in creating the two-foot by two-foot countertop items with an etched university logo and a slot to pass papers through.

As the recipient of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s 2019-20 Innovations in Technology for Teaching and Learning Award, Dr. Vettrivel Gnaneswaran, assistant professor of industrial engineering, will use the award funds to implement new learning glass technology on campus.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is the recipient of two federal Student Support Services grants, totaling more than $3.4 million over the next five years. The grants are critical for UW-Platteville’s TRIO Student Support Services to carry out its mission of supporting and retaining underserved populations.

Victoria Livingston, executive director of Enrollment and Student Success, has been selected to receive the University of Wisconsin-Platteville 2020 Academic Staff Award for Excellence.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is bringing real-world engineering projects to students, faculty and the public, through the fall 2020 EMS Engineering Seminar Series.

Area high school teachers from across Wisconsin met virtually with engineering professors from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science for the STEMStart Summer Institute. STEMStart is an early college credit program for engineering.

A message from Dr. Wayne Weber, Dean of the UW-Platteville College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture.

Joseph Creanza, a junior soil and crop science major at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, scored first place at the recent 2020 Student Research and Innovation Showcase for his project, “Plant Essential Oils as Natural and Safe Pesticides for the Control of Soybean White Mold Disease.”