MATC Matters

Dear Faculty and Staff,

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Can you believe mid-year graduation is only four weeks away? It’s also hard to believe we’re already heading into the busy holiday season. Plans for many of our annual Holiday Celebrations are now in place.

To show my thanks for all you do, I would like to invite you to the President’s Holiday Breakfast, Brunch or Lunch held at your work location:

• Fort Atkinson Holiday Brunch, Monday, Dec. 17, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Please RSVP with Cindy Bowen at (920) 568-7217 or bowen@matcmadison.edu
• Watertown Holiday Lunch, Monday, Dec. 17, 12:30-2 p.m. Please RSVP with Susan Kotur at (920) 206-8003 or skotur@matcmadison.edu
• Portage Holiday Brunch, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Room 102. Please RSVP with Linda Fehd at (608) 745-3103 or fehd@matcmadison.edu
• Reedsburg Holiday Lunch, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 1-2:30 p.m., Room 113. Please RSVP with Patti Fuhrman at (608) 524-7764 or pfuhrman@matcmadison.edu
• Downtown Education Center Holiday Lunch, Thursday, Dec. 20, noon-1:30 p.m.
• Truax & Commercial Ave. Holiday Breakfast, Friday, Dec. 21, 8-9:30 a.m., Truax Gourmet Dining Room

Join your MATC friends on Friday, Dec. 21, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel starting at 5 p.m. for the MATC Holiday Party. This year features live entertainment, door prizes and a special guest. Watch MATC Matters for details as they unfold.

Two other annual seasonal events coming up in December are the annual holiday concert by the MATC Community Show Choir and Madison Municipal Band on December 2 and the student-organized Breakfast with Santa event on December 8. I hope you will be able to attend one of these events and help us kick off the season!

I count as “marvels” all our colleagues who take time to plan and help with these fun events that bring together our college community.

MATC Marvels

Here are this week’s “favorite teachers”, as mentioned to me by students:
Kerri Kliminski, medical terminology
Kathleen Hansen, associate degree nursing
Pithoon Thanabordeekij, economics
Ronald Olson, mechanical tech
Mark Durkee, mechanical tech

Other MATC Marvels

MATC has received a grant for $25,000 for its small grant proposal entitled “The MATC STEM Scholar Program: A Bridge to the Bachelor’s Degree,” from the Wisconsin Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP) with support from the National Science Foundation. The proposal creates a 12-month bridge program for five current under represented minority students enabling them to transfer to a WiscAMP institution to major in one of the “STEM” disciplines-science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Congratulations to Juanita Comeau, principal investigator, and Dzigbodi Akyea, co-principal investigator and to Amy Brown, Ed Clarke, Dana Maya and Anne Scott for their assistance.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education has selected MATC as one of five Adult Basic Education (ABE) Career Connections sites in the country.  MATC’s Wisconsin ELL (English Language Learner) Career Connections Project received $75,000. The project seeks to encourage new solutions for assisting adult basic education students to successfully transition to postsecondary programs and begin careers in high-demand fields. Congratulations to Jane Griswold and Marla Gamoran, project liaisons, who will work on the project with our partners, Pat Schramm and Seth Lentz, from the Workforce Development Board.

Barbara Doherty King, MS, APRN, BC, clinical instructor at the Watertown campus, received a writing award for her article in MEDSURG Nursing: The Journal of Adult Health. She received the 2007 Nurse Competence in Aging Award for her article “Functional Decline in Hospitalized Elders� published in the October 2007 issue of the magazine. MEDSURG Nursing is the official publication of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN).

An Alternative Break trip to New Orleans with our students inspired Construction and Remodeling Program Coordinator Allie Berenyi to seek out more ways to help others. The Isthmus featured Allie in the article “Here, There and Everywhere,” focusing on volunteerism and travel.  In addition to return trips to New Orleans and the bayou region, Allie has traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, where she helped with badly needed repairs and helped build a library and computer room for a school in the small village of El Vigia.

Members of the MATC Watertown Relay for Life team raised $3,264, a new team record, for the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life event held in August. This is the second year in a row that the campus group has qualified for a Bronze Team Award by raising more than $2,500. Nine faculty and staff members, along with several student employees, participated on the team this year. Susan Padron, Watertown clerical technician, chairs the Relay for Life group. Wolfie also made a special appearance and greeted visitors.

Highlights of my week

In addition to events on our campuses, I’ve had the opportunity to go out into the community to share news about MATC and learn what’s going on. Recently, I took part in these events:

• hosted John Biondi of C56 Technologies, a local company involved in biofuels research, and Tom Golden with Mortenson, Matzelle and Meldrum, a Madison-based independent insurance agency, at the president’s table in the Gourmet Dining Room;
• participated in the New Student Ambassador Orientation/Training to help prepare a special group of students to represent MATC;
• attended the Autumn Gathering at Monona Terrace to promote and celebrate Madison’s diversity, hosted by the Greater Madison Convention and Visitor’s Bureau;
• attended an Urban League of Greater Madison capital campaign event;
• participated in the United Way’s Disconnected and Violent Youth Delegation meeting;
• videotaped an interview with Visual Communications students who told me about their wonderful faculty members, Doug Dillman, Teresa Sprecher and Emmalee Pearson.  Having the students tell about their teachers was the highlight of my week!
• attended a fascinating lecture on design by Barry Wood of “Hidden Potentialâ€? and “Trading Spacesâ€?, sponsored by MATC-Madison American Society of Interior Designers Student Chapter.

The snow last week reminded me of this quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

“Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.�

Have a great week!

Bettsey