It’s a day University of Wisconsin-Platteville senior Pachia Vang will never forget: Oct. 24, 2019 in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Field Office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, raising her right hand and taking the oath of becoming an American citizen.

University of Wisconsin-Platteville Division of Professional Studies is in the design phase of expanding programs to be offered in Spanish. Currently, professional studies has five child care credential programs being offered in both English and Spanish.

Thirty-four UW-Platteville students were recently inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, an honor society that recognizes academic achievement of top students in all majors.

Dr. Jen Collins, director of the UW-Platteville School of Education, was recently invited by Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction Carolyn Stanford Taylor to serve on the Advisory Council on Rural Schools, Libraries, and Communities. The permanent appointment will begin in April 2020.

Dr. Lucie Kadjo came to UW-Platteville in 2016. As an assistant professor of agribusiness in the School of Agriculture, Kadjo has spent the last four years promoting the importance of learning throughout an individual’s life – not just during a person’s time as an undergraduate or graduate student.

Dr. Evan Larson, associate professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, two former students and three other colleagues recently co-authored an article about their tree-ring research, “Faces in the Wilderness: a New Network of Crossdated Culturally-Modified Red Pine in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Northern Minnesota, USA.”

This coming spring, Dr. Joanne Wilson will retire from her role as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Characteristically, however, she will mark the occasion by holding the door open for a new group of women eager to make their way in STEM. The WiSTEM Scholars and Leadership program, a new initiative at the university, will welcome its pilot cohort of students in the fall of 2020. In honor of Wilson, the first cohort will be named the D. Joanne Wilson WiSTEM Scholarship and Leadership Cohort.

UW-Platteville students recently took part in the second annual Holiday Toy Hack. During the event, students from across campus joined together in Engineering Hall and made adaptations to toys so that they can be used by children with special needs.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville presented more than 700 candidates in the school’s 203rd commencement. Students crossed the stage at Williams Fieldhouse to receive their diplomas and hoods during the three ceremonies held on Dec. 14.

Dr. Mesut Muslu is a professor and interim chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UW-Platteville. He is also a professor of sustainability and renewable energy systems.

This fall, three UW-Platteville psychology students led a 12-week forgiveness discussion group for inmates at the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution, a medium security state prison.

Eight students recently had an opportunity to draw and paint in three-dimensional space using the Vive Virtual Reality System and Google Tilt Brush software in the university’s Virtual Reality Room, located in Karrmann Library.

Dr. Staci Strobl, associate professor of criminal justice at UW-Platteville, and two colleagues recently received the American Society of Criminology Division of White-Collar and Corporate Crime’s 2019 Outstanding Article Award at the organization’s annual meeting in San Francisco, California.

An agreement, signed on Thursday, Dec. 5, will offer UW-Platteville Bachelor of Science degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering to more students in the region through UW-Platteville Engineering Partnerships, and makes UW-Whitewater at Rock County an official UW-PEP Site.

A recent $143,000 gift from the family of Robert “Bob” and James Wright will enhance opportunities offered at UW-Platteville's Wright Center for Non-Traditional and Veteran Students.

Dr. Nancy Turner has been a professor of history at UW-Platteville since fall 1996. She teaches the first half of an introductory course in world civilizations as well as upper-level courses in medieval and renaissance Europe and the histories of European women, the modern Middle East, the British Isles and western science.

UW-Platteville undergraduates have the opportunity to assist in research almost from the moment they arrive, building key skills and gaining real-world experience which helps them stand apart from the crowd.

Jodi Halverson is a UW-Platteville alumna and lead teacher at the UW-Platteville Children’s Center.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville will mark its 203rd commencement on Saturday, Dec. 14. The three ceremonies will take place inside Williams Fieldhouse.

The UW-Platteville Crops Team recently placed second in both the Kansas City (86th annual) and Chicago (91st annual) Collegiate Crops Contests.

Ice cream will soon be the next product made and sold by students on the UW-Platteville campus. A recent grant from the Compeer Financial Fund for Rural America will support the opening of UW-Platteville’s Dairy Pilot Plant and the creation of a student-run ice cream production business.

A chance meeting with a high school math teacher led Dr. Holly Attenborough to pursue the field of mathematics. She joined UW-Platteville in 2013 as assistant professor of mathematics, and has already earned several recognitions, including the 2018 UW-Platteville Early Career Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2017 UW System Wisconsin Teaching Fellow Award.

Thirty UW-Platteville teacher candidates recently implemented an effective teaching strategy by creating theme-based dioramas and sharing them with Pre-K children enrolled in the university’s Children Center.

In a move that will benefit students from both institutions, Madison College and UW-Platteville signed three partnership agreements today that will provide clear pathways and transfer opportunities in the areas of engineering, biotechnology and veterinary technician.

In the seventh year of collaboration between the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired and UW-Platteville, Health and Human Performance students recently had an opportunity to lead students from WCBVI through the university’s Ropes and Challenge course in Williams Fieldhouse.

Elissa (Bahr) Granger is a senior middle level education major with a minor in natural science. This December, the Platteville native will be one step closer to making her dream come true when she walks across the stage at commencement, accepts her diploma and begins applying for teaching positions in Platteville and the surrounding area.

On Thursday, Nov. 21, the Grant County History Museum will unveil a window exhibit on African American history that six UW-Platteville students and a faculty member helped research and build.

UW-Platteville will present a screening of the award-winning documentary “Hearts of Glass,” followed by a discussion with the film director and producer, Jennifer Tennican, on Thursday, Dec. 5. The free event is open to the public and will be held in Room 103, Doudna Hall from 4-6 p.m.

UPDATE: Due to safety and health concerns around COVID-19, this event has been cancelled as a precautionary measure. Dr. Bernice A. King, the executive director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (the King Center) is the 2020 University of Wisconsin-Platteville Distinguished Lecturer.

Donovan Nathaniel, team captain of the 2018 Pioneer football team and winner of the prestigious George Chryst Award his senior year, made the transition from student-athlete to assistant football coach for the Pioneers.

In a unique, collaborative effort, 34 UW-Platteville education students teamed with numerous staff members from Highland (Wisconsin) Elementary School to offer Highland Family STEM Night for more than 100 students and their families at the elementary school.

The Midwest Culturally Inclusive Conference will return to UW-Platteville Feb. 27-28, 2020. The conference offers an opportunity for participants to strengthen their capacity to understand, support and elevate their identities and the identities of others. The conference was held consecutively from 2011-2014, drawing, at times, nearly 1,000 attendees from across the Midwest.

UW-Platteville students, faculty and staff and Platteville community members helped solve a simulated crime at the ninth annual Horrific Crime Scene Revisited event held recently at Rountree Gallery in Platteville.

The Department of Mathematics hosted its 47th annual High School Mathematics Contest on Nov. 6. Nearly 800 students from 33 high schools in the tri-state area competed.

On Wednesday, Nov. 20, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Division of Professional Studies will host an open house and block party showcasing its many offerings to the public.

UW-Platteville alumna Beth (Martin) Digman, recently received some very exciting news: her pottery business, Prairie Hills Pottery, will be featured in this year’s Etsy holiday advertising campaign.

Nineteen criminal justice students recently gained critical skills in tactical response and hostage negotiations during a “barricaded subjects, armed and with hostages” scenario drill conducted by the Grant/Iowa County Crisis Resolution Team, the county’s special weapons and tactics law enforcement unit.

Dr. Todd Stradford is an associate professor of geography at UW-Platteville and teaches courses in human geography, weather and climate and Asia.

With a click of a button, UW-Platteville Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Xiaoguang Ma and his team of students are transforming a local elementary school classroom into a smart classroom with the latest wireless technologies.

UW-Platteville recently announced its Pioneer Pledge program, which will guarantee that the cost of undergraduate, on-campus tuition and fees will be covered for new freshmen who are Pell Grant-eligible Wisconsin residents.

Dr. Pamela Tas is an assistant professor of sustainability and renewable energy systems and the SRES program coordinator. She teaches classes related to the utilization of plant-based hydrocarbons as a more sustainable means to societies’ energy use.

Two students and a faculty member recently presented their research on chattel slavery in Wisconsin at the 13th annual Local History and Historic Preservation Conference in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

While the Internet of Things continues to expand at a rapid rate, Dr. Molly Gribb, dean of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, is leading efforts to position UW-Platteville at the forefront of this cutting-edge field. Gribb was recently appointed as a founding board member of the Wisconsin IoT Council, a professional membership-driven organization that promotes Wisconsin and the Midwest as the epicenter for IoT and drives technological advancement in the region.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering received eight new pieces of GPS equipment from Seiler Instrument, a value of $175,000. Seiler Instrument is lending the programs four resource grade GPS units and four survey grade units for the 2019-20 academic year.