Outlook Magazine - Fall 2020

ON CAMPUS

Campus briefs

Menards donate $2.36M The Menard family, Wisconsin natives and owners of a Midwestern chain of home improvement stores, donated $2.36 million for the UW-Stout Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation. Initiated in 2017 with a Charles Koch Foundation grant as the Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation, the center’s goal is to provide programming on campus and around the state for debate and research on important civil liberty issues. The center, directed by Professor Tim Shiell, is in Bowman Hall. Coal out, natural gas in UW-Stout took “a big step in the right direction” on March 4, said Sustainability Manager Sarah Rykal. That day marked the end of the coal-burning era, which dated to about 1910, to heat campus. The university — following a UW System mandate — switched to less expensive natural gas as its fuel source for the 2.6 million square feet of buildings. Rykal sees natural gas as a “bridge fuel to a renewable energy infrastructure.” UW-Stout has taken many steps in recent years to be more sustainable, including solar projects and campuswide recycling and composting. The university is on Princeton Review’s Green Colleges list and plans to be carbon-neutral by 2050. Professor authors book on African-American soldiers Le’Trice D. Donaldson, an assistant professor of history, has authored “Duty Beyond the Battlefield: African American Soldiers Fight for Racial Uplift, Citizenship, and Manhood, 1870-1920.” It was published by Southern Illinois University Press. Donaldson found that soldiers during that time served to disprove stereotypes about African-Americans. “It wasn’t just about their personal service,” Donaldson said. “It was for the entire community.”

will compete in the Legends and Overwatch leagues. The electronic video game matches will be held on weekends. Players will have jerseys and are tentatively scheduled to compete from a computer lab in the University Library. Grad working on vaccine Jack Hemsath graduated in December 2019 with a degree in applied biochemistry and molecular biology. With his sights set on beginning medical school in 2021, he found himself in the spring of 2020 working on the COVID-19 vaccine project in the Infectious Disease Lab at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “I can’t say enough about how Stout prepared me for lab work and everything else. The hands-on approach was really beneficial,” said Hemsath, who also played on the Blue Devils baseball team. He hopes to help Mayo deliver a vaccine and then focus on becoming a physician. Graduate realizes dream at 50 Growing up on the south side of Chicago, Golden DeAngelo never imagined going to college. However, when he was in his 40s and passing UW-Stout every day on his way to work, he suddenly found himself doing just that. After several years of full-time schooling while working a night shift at Andersen Corp., DeAngelo graduated in December at age 50 with his bachelor’s in business administration. “It’s about like a dream,” he said. DeAngelo is one of many nontraditional students at UW-Stout who benefit from transfer and degree completion programs, as well as online and hybrid learning options. He promptly enrolled in UW-Stout’s risk control and safety management master’s program. “My mother told me people have died so I could get an education. That always stuck with me.” 7 8

Black soldiers were often sent to harsh, remote areas as the military moved westward in the U.S. They took pride in their service and laid the foundation for the rise of Black Nationalism, which influenced future leaders of the 20th century civil rights movement, Donaldson said. Three cheers for O’Leary Nenagh O’Leary and her family had three reasons to celebrate when she graduated May 9. She received three degrees, a result of five years in college and 167 credits. “I filled my schedule to the max,” she said. She didn’t plan it that way, but she saw advantages to all three areas of study as she learned about each one and dug in: business administration; digital marketing technology; and information and communication technologies. “Having these degrees has broadened the possibilities for me,” said the St. Paul native as she began her postgraduation job search. New fashion, retail program The bachelor’s in fashion and retail is a merger of the apparel design and development program and the retail merchandising and management program and will be debuting this fall. The two programs were merged to maximize some of the overlapping areas in curriculum as well as enhance the overall program with the addition of emerging technologies and practices. With internship opportunities and a career focus, the program will have three concentrations: fashion design and development; fashion marketing; and retail analytics. Students will learn about market research, planning, designing, developing, buying and marketing.  Game on for esports team The university’s and UW System’s first esports team will begin competing this fall against other collegiate teams. The first Blue Devil squad will compete in Rocket League. In the spring, two more squads 6

18

U W - S T O U T O U T L O O K