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donor profile: matt and abby (gaertig) adamczyk ’10
Donor Profile: Matt ’10 and Abby ’10 Adamczyk
—Rachel Shuster, Communication Manager
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Matt Adamczyk ’10 is a numbers guy. So naturally, he can measure his Prairie experience in several important figures.
Six: The grade Matt moved to Prairie, as a Hilpert Scholar.
Named for one of Prairie’s co-founders, the Hilpert Memorial Scholarship is a merit-based program funded by the school’s endowment as well as by gifts from individual friends of Prairie. The honor is awarded to motivated young people who exhibit academic and creative excellence, strong leadership skills, and a concern for the well-being of others, along with a demonstrated financial need. That description fit preteen Matt, a self-described “technology geek” who left the local public school system to join the TPS community.
Seven: The number of years Matt spent as a Prairie Hawk.
During his time in Wind Point, math-minded Matt took advantage of every opportunity he could to hone his skills and abilities. A/V projects, sound engineering for Theatre productions, math competitions: in his words, “total nerd things.” Those “nerd things” fueled interests in computer science and technology that would eventually lead to a career.
His status as a Hilpert Scholar was never far from Matt’s mind. As students joined his class, he would make himself their buddy, able to relate to the experience of joining Prairie as a new addition. Along the way, he made lifelong friends; one of those new students ended up as the best man in Matt’s wedding. Oh, and he met his future wife, Abby (Gaertig) Adamczyk ’10.
It also ingrained in him a sense of giving back.
“I was afforded a Prairie education through that program, which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise,” he reflects. “I attribute a lot of my success back to Prairie and all of the experiences it brought along the way, and having that success pretty early in my career afforded me the opportunity to give back.”
Which brings us to ten: the number of years it has been since Matt and Abby roamed the halls as Prairie students.
THEN NOW
on Lighthouse Drive, the Adamczyks still feel as much a part of the community as ever.
They stay connected as donors — regular, committed supporters, a rarity among couples their age. Matt and Abby have consistently participated in the Prairie Fund since 2015, which was also the year they began donating to Premiere. Matt works for Microsoft, a company who has continued to match his product donations for the silent auction. The Adamczyks were planning to attend Premiere in person in the spring of 2020; they kept their commitment when the event turned virtual, even getting all dolled up for a Microsoft Teams video chat gathering with their families (also full of Prairie alumni).
They also stay connected as friends, reaching out when their favorite faculty members have retired.
“Reconnecting with people brings us back into the world we were a part of, but also allows us to see how it’s evolved,” Abby explains.
It’s that evolution that keeps them connected, too. Matt visited Prairie’s campus last school year, to learn about the various ways TPS integrates technology education from devices in Primary School to AP Computer Science classes in the Upper School, from the SRC to the Wonder Lab.
In his role with Microsoft, Matt is working at TitletownTech to build up the “tech economy” in Wisconsin — including inside school buildings. He holds Prairie up as an example, while still dreaming up ways to use the connections he’s established to bring the school even further ahead of the curve.
“Prairie is at the point that we’re trying to get a lot of the public schools to, so the question is, how do we push Prairie to act as a model for how other schools should be thinking about it? How do we benefit some of the current students?” he asks.
