MATC Matters

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Although I was unable to attend the Winter Portfolio Show at the Downtown Education Center (our district board met at the same time), I understand it was very successful.  Thanks again to Deb Vogt, Penny Aguilera, Ingrid Slamer and John Andrews for inspiring their students to always put on a great show.

Holiday Shopping Made Easy
Honor a colleague or friend this holiday season with a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation in the form of Kris Kringle Cash. The Foundation office will give you a cleverly designed gift certificate that you can use in office gift exchanges or other celebrations. With a donation of just a dollar, give a gift that helps our students and means something to your colleagues. Plus, you’ll help the college get to 100 percent participation if you direct the gift to the Smart Future Campaign. Certificates will be available in the Foundation office after noon today (Monday, Dec. 8.) Call the Foundation office at 246-6441 and ask for Michelle Downer. Your gift(s) will be delivered to you so you can avoid the long lines at the mall!

Our Information Technology department put on an educational open house this past week at the CISCO Networking Center which gave folks a chance to upgrade their computer skills and learn about cutting-edge MATC careers in IT programming, networking, security and troubleshooting. Congratulations to Ken McCullough and the IT team for making the open house a big success!

December is a busy month!
As I mentioned in last week’s letter, December is a busy month with many celebrations taking place. I hope to see you at many of them!

Mark your calendars for:

Mid-year graduation is Thursday, December 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the Redsten gym.

President’s Holiday Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch to be held at your work location:

Monday, December 15:
10:30 a.m.-Noon Fort Atkinson (Room 157)
12:30-2 p.m. Watertown (Room 121)

Wednesday, December 17:
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Portage (Room 102)
1-2:30 p.m. Reedsburg (Room 113)

Thursday, December 18:
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Downtown Education Center (D240)

Friday, December 19
8-9:30 a.m. Truax (Cafeteria)

Please don’t forget the MATC Holiday Party is scheduled for Friday, December 19, at the Door Creek Golf Course, 4321 Vilas Road, Cottage Grove, from 5-9 p.m.

MATC Marvels
When I talk to students and hear about their favorite teachers, I also ask them to tell me about anyone at MATC who has especially helped them or been kind to them. Here are the names mentioned to me most recently:
Jeffrey Hein, CMAT laboratory coordinator
Ingrid Slamer, commercial art
William Huntsman, chemistry
Dawn Delaney, psychology
David Shaw, science
James Magruder, English
Joseph Gaglio, culinary arts
Penny Aguilera, commercial art
Gerald Lehman, accounting
Alberto Rodriguez, electronics
Patricia Geske, career facilitator

More MATC Marvels
MATC has been awarded a $32,460 grant from The Foundation for Financial Planning’s Board of Trustees for its Wisconsin Smart Education (WISE) on Finances Project. Funding will be available through December 30, 2010 to provide financial planning workshops and ongoing financial planning classes targeted specifically to three underserved and needy populations in our region: 50+ adults, women, and Latinos. WISE on Finances will serve approximately 200-300 students through the two spring and fall workshops and more through ongoing classes. Congratulations to the development team for their work in securing the grant.

Information Technology Department Chair Ken McCullough has accepted an invitation from Elizabeth Burmaster to serve on the Department of Public Instruction’s Business and Information Technology Advisory committee. The work includes providing training opportunities for high school IT faculty, providing IT curriculum and support for high schools, as well as developing Dual Credit agreements for IT courses. Congratulations to Ken and his staff for all the good work they do in training high school faculty—who then teach the curriculum in their schools.

A student wrote about Nail Technician instructor Avery Sielehr “…we feel we can enter the industry with a greater understanding of what it takes to be a good nail technician.”

Madison Area Technical College was a first place winner in the recent National Exemplary Initiatives Competition! MATC was a co-winner in the Workforce Development category, which highlighted the college’s accelerated clinical laboratory technician program. Congratulations to Dr. Sido, Mary Nelson and Sue Beglinger.

The Collision Repair and Refinish Technician-training Program has received recertification from the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation, Inc. Thanks to all the faculty and staff for maintaining the program’s standards and continuing to meet the industry’s requirements.

Highlights of my week:
• conducted mid-year goals and performance assessments;
• welcomed two new MATC Foundation Board members at their orientation (Pamela Druhan, Vice President of Global Information Technology at Covance, and Mark Fuhrman, attorney with the Bell Gierhart & Moore law firm in Madison);
• attended the district board meeting;
• addressed attendees at the WTCS state-wide marketing retreat;
• dropped in at the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Utilities sector team meeting;
• stopped in at the information technology education open house;
• lectured on governance and administration of technical and community colleges for the UW-Madison Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis class (April Kigeya of our diversity and communications staff is a student in this class);
• visited with a faithful donor to our health programs; and
• served as host for the Madison Symphony Orchestra at their Christmas Spectacular concert.

In closing, here is a quote from “Minding the Dream� by Gail O. Mellow and Cynthia Heelan:

“America as we know it today would not exist without her community colleges. The inclusive, democratic, and meritocratic impulses of the community colleges, and the transparent boundaries between college, work, and social life, have kept alive a promise of advancement and opportunity unlike any other institution in the United States.�

Thanks for all you do for our students!

Bettsey