When Panthers Mentor Panthers
When Panthers Mentor Panthers
By Laura L. OttoNatalie Hernandez felt disconnected. It was fall 2020, COVID-19 was in full swing and she was taking virtual UWM courses from her parents’ home in Illinois. She was also doubting whether she should continue pursuing her architecture major.
Then came the lifeline: a UWM Alumni Association email about its Mentoring Program. “I thought, ‘You know what? I feel like I need a mentor,’” says Hernandez, a first-generation college student. So she signed up.
The Alumni Association paired Hernandez with Kate Riordan, a city of Milwaukee transportation planner. Riordan, who earned a UWM master’s degree in urban planning in 2013, spent a lot of time talking to Hernandez about her own career and her projects at work. She also served as a reassuring sounding board for Hernandez.
It was exactly what Hernandez needed and exactly what the Alumni Association envisioned when launching the program in spring 2020. “Just to have that emotional support then was great,” Hernandez says. “She helped me when I was deciding to change majors from architecture to urban studies. She went through the whole emotional roller coaster with me.”
It would be a full year before Hernandez and Riordan could meet in person, but their partnership has now passed the twoyear mark. They’re one of the Mentoring Program’s 50 active matches.
Riordan’s mentorship goes beyond nutsand-bolts tasks, like providing feedback on Hernandez’s resume, preparing her for job interviews and helping build a professional network. She also understood Hernandez’s struggle with settling on a major and helped talk her through it.
“My first piece of advice for Natalie was to be sure you get what you want out of school,” says Riordan, who wished she’d spent more time pondering whether to pursue her own bachelor’s degree in business.
Hernandez has developed a renewed sense of confidence in her urban studies degree, which she’s on track to earn in 2023.
And her conversations with Riordan provided a better understanding of what urban planning entails, which led to a new appreciation for why people would want to work for a city.
“You get to reach a lot of different communities and have a positive influence,” Hernandez says.
The Mentoring Program welcomes alumni wanting to help current students. Learn more at alumni.uwm.edu.
Kate Riordan (left) and Natalie Hernandez at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning Fall 2022, Vol.24, No. 2
A MESSAGE FROM CHANCELLOR MONE
We do so many things here at UWM. We teach and train, research and discover, and coordinate and collaborate with community partners. But at the core of everything we do is the central goal of helping people improve their lives. We recognize people’s circumstances, then provide the support, tools and experiences that help them succeed.
You’ll find tangible examples of this in our latest edition of UWM Alumni. Our cover story explains how Panther graduates are helping students through the Alumni Association’s Mentoring Program. You’ll read about the hopes and challenges of students who fled Afghanistan and the first UWM alum to captain our freshwater research vessel, the Neeskay. And you’ll learn how we’re providing new opportunities for students though the Tuition Promise and microcredential programs.
No other institution provides a better educational value than UWM. We help turn the academic dreams of students into reality. We help businesses build a workforce that fuels the economy. We are a trusted ally in finding solutions to the issues of the day.
We couldn’t do any of this without the continued advocacy of our alumni and friends. We recently lost one of those cherished friends in philanthropist Isabel Bader, who gave so much to so many. You can read more about her indelible impact on page 7, and we thank her and the countless others who support UWM’s mission.
regards, Mark A. Mone, PhD ChancellorAFGHAN STUDENTS BALANCE THEIR HOPES AND CHALLENGES
Khatera and Farzana, first-year UWM students from Afghanistan, have come a long way to try to make their hopes a reality.
They’re among 148 students from the Asian University for Women who escaped gunfire and bombings at the Kabul airport during the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover of Afghanistan. Ten of the young women are studying at UWM.
The transition is difficult, but the students are willing to do what it takes. “I want to be able to pursue my hopes,” Khatera says. “I don’t want to keep them as a hope. I want to make them true.”
This story uses only the students’ first names to protect family members still in Afghanistan. Khatera’s mother has already had visits from the Taliban, who demanded to know if she had family in the United States or other countries. “She was terrified and told them no,” Khatera says.
UWM is one of 10 universities
across the U.S. welcoming the women from the AUW. UWM’s English Language Academy connected with Eastbrook Church through senior lecturer Mari Chevako. The church found host families and helped raise money for intensive English classes and tuition.
Brooke Haley, director of the English Language Academy, is organizing a workshop to help the students apply for financial aid and learn how to use the scholarship portal now that the U.S. has given them humanitarian parolee status. Even with grants and scholarships, there will still be a shortfall, so their supporters continue to raise funds. Go to ASPOM.org for information or to donate.
Farzana is studying psychology with the goal of helping immigrants and refugees. “That is something I can relate to personally,” she says.
Khatera is studying microbiology with the goal of becoming a doctor. “There are challenges,” Khatera
Best Khatera and Farzana at the Golda Meir Librarysays, “but we are overcoming the challenges and, hopefully, we will be OK, or maybe great.”
The challenges include language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, worries about their future and homesickness.
“We had a happy life in Afghanistan, and suddenly it all changed,” Khatera says. A main reason she and Farzana fled is because they valued their education, and for women pursuing education in Afghanistan, that means danger.
On Sept. 30, an explosion killed at least 53 and injured more than 100 at a Hazara school where young women were preparing for an exam. Khatera, as a member of the persecuted Hazara minority, is passionate about bringing attention to the issues, promoting the #StopHazaraGenocide hashtag. She struggles to balance her roles. “I need to do my homework, but I need to speak for my people.”
– Kathy QuirkA NEW TUITION PROMISE TO HELP WISCONSIN STUDENTS
A new University of Wisconsin System initiative starting in fall of 2023 aims to help underserved Wisconsin students attend any UW System university without paying tuition or fees.
The goal of the Wisconsin Tuition Promise is to increase the number of state residents who graduate with a bachelor’s degree – especially firstgeneration students and those from lowto moderate-income families throughout Wisconsin.
The payoff: the potential to improve the quality of life for graduates and their families while also meeting the state’s workforce needs.
“A college degree needs to be within reach for every Wisconsin citizen as a path to a better life, and the Wisconsin Tuition Promise will provide these opportunities,” UW System President Jay Rothman says.
Plans call for about 8,000 students
across UW System institutions to be supported through the program once it’s fully implemented over four years.
Eligible students will be Wisconsin residents and first-time college enrollees or transfers who enroll full time. They will be awarded an average of $4,500 over four years.
Tuition Promise students will need to make sufficient academic progress each year. They’ll also have to attest that they were employed at some point during the previous year.
“The Wisconsin Tuition Promise comes at a pivotal time for our students and families who are faced with increasingly challenging economic circumstances,” UWM Chancellor Mark Mone says.
UW System intends to fund the first year of the program in academic year 2023-24 at $13.8 million and seek state investment for subsequent years.
– Genaro C. Armas
UWM MICROCREDENTIAL PROGRAM OFFERS FAST-TRACK APPROACH TO TRAINING
UWM has started offering microcredentials – a fasttrack alternative to completing a full degree – in eight sought-after nonprofit management skill areas.
A microcredential requires students to take a cluster of three courses focused on a specific topic, such as fundraising and marketing. Clusters can be finished in 12 to 18 months, and completion earns a badge that signifies competency on resumes or LinkedIn accounts. The credit hours could also be put toward a full certificate or master’s degree.
“This is a way for people to get training in a much more concentrated form,” says Bryce Lord, who directs the graduate program in nonprofit management. “The microcredentials are an ‘a la carte’ system for learners.”
Phyllis King, UWM associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, says the microcredential initiative grew from a demand by students and employers for shorter, more competency-based learning experiences.
UWM plans to create microcredentials in other academic areas, with a goal of 20 to 30 offerings in various disciplines within the next two years. The programs are designed for working people who haven’t attended college as well as people who already have a degree and current college students.
The payoff can be tangible. “The use of microcredentials could translate into better jobs, higher starting salaries and faster promotion by making a learner’s qualifications clear and transparent to employers,” King says. – Laura L. Otto
UWM ALUMNI FALL 2022 • 3
Lord
NEESKAY’S NEW CAPTAIN HAS PANTHER BLOOD
You can’t thoroughly study the Great Lakes from atop the water because most of the action lies beneath the surface. That’s why the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences has used a research vessel on Lake Michigan for more than 50 years.
And when the school was looking for the Neeskay’s newest captain, it didn’t have to go far to find him.
Max Morgan earned his master’s degree in freshwater sciences from UWM in the spring of 2021. In October of that same year, he became interim captain of the only year-round research vessel on the Great Lakes. He’s the first UWM alum to ever captain the Neeskay.
Morgan, a boat enthusiast since childhood, previously worked on the EPA’s Lake Guardian, a research vessel where he was head technician and operated the scientific equipment. He’s captivated by both the Neeskay’s physical capabilities and the science that the ship makes possible through its hydroacoustics, sonar
and other technology.
“I like working with researchers because they come up with great ideas,” Morgan says. “Then, I have to devise ways to make what they want to do work in real life. To do this job, you need to know every single job on the boat, every little nuance.”
Researchers rely on the Neeskay to monitor water quality, track invasive species and launch large remotely operated aquatic robots – all necessary to study the life and health of the lake. And without the Neeskay, UWM researchers couldn’t place some of the buoys that make up the Great Lakes Observing System.
These 6-foot buoys give real-time data on lake conditions and are used by scientists and the general public alike. Putting them into the water each spring and taking them out as winter approaches is a challenge.
It’s important that the buoys stay put, so Morgan must anchor each one with a pair of 500-pound railroad wheels and
hundreds of feet of thick chain.
“The Coast Guard has to know each location, so you have to be fairly precise,” Morgan says. “You also have to get [the mooring] right so it’s there when you come back.”
The Neeskay began life in 1953 as an Army T-boat before being bought and converted to accommodate research in 1970. Today, it remains a workhorse, but an aging one.
That’s why fundraising is well underway for the Neeskay’s replacement, the stateof-the-art Maggi Sue.
“This new vessel will be much faster and larger,” Morgan says, “and we’ll also have something called dynamic positioning. That’s where I can put in coordinates and we can hold the boat in that exact position without dropping the anchor – even with high winds and strong currents. The new vessel will allow our scientists to venture to any part of the lake and expand the things that we can study.”
– Laura L. Otto4 • UWM ALUMNI FALL 2022
Max Morgan is the first UWM alum to captain the Neeskay.
MILWAUKEE BOOKSTORE IS ROOTED IN PURPOSE
Ashley Valentine loved reading as a child, but even though books were a haven, something was conspicuously missing: characters that looked like the young Black girl she saw in the mirror.
“Now that I think about it, it’s sad,” Valentine says. “I didn’t think people like me were capable of the things I was reading about.”
She wants today’s children to think differently, so the UWM alumna opened her own bookstore and tutoring center in March 2022. Rooted MKE focuses on helping children of color, and it’s located in a bright, colorful Vliet Street storefront across from Milwaukee Public Schools’ central office.
“All titles in the bookstore are written or illustrated by or depict BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) characters as protagonists,” Valentine says. “As an educator, I had trouble finding books that were age-appropriate and represented characters of color, so I was always on a hunt to source books for my classroom. I
knew there were many other parents and classroom teachers who wanted to support children in their love of reading.”
Valentine earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology as well as a teaching certification and a master’s degree in exceptional education from UWM. She held a traditional teaching job for a while but felt a stronger calling to get into tutoring, and the bookstore dream was never far from her mind. So when her tutoring business outgrew her small office, she looked for a larger space that could include a bookstore.
Rooted MKE was born, and the response has validated Valentine’s vision. Children come in and get excited about books featuring, for example, superheroes who are all brown. Parents and grandparents tell Valentine they wish
they’d had such a store when they were growing up.
“We had a Muslim family come in,” Valentine says, “and the little girl started crying because she’d never seen a book about brown people in a mosque that was celebrating being Muslim.”
– Kathy QuirkA MEMORABLE STROLL THROUGH KENWOOD HALL
Iva Gundrum had only vague memories of Kenwood Hall, the lakefront UWM residence hall she lived in during the early 1960s. So while making plans for a June 2022 reunion with other UWM alumni, she stopped by with a friend to take a few photos of it.
The building sits at 3230 E. Kenwood Blvd., and it’s now a private residence that’s no longer part of UWM. The new owner, Andy Nunemaker, happened to be home when Gundrum stopped by, and he opened the door to ask if he could help her. After Gundrum explained how it used to be her residence hall, he surprised her by offering a private tour on the spot.
Gundrum would return there as part of the June reunion, which was timed to coincide with the residence being the 2022 Wisconsin Breast Cancer Showhouse. Although the June reunion’s main festivities were at the Hefter Center, a tour of the former Kenwood Hall was also on the agenda. And as the gathering of about two dozen people got underway, so did the reminiscing.
Their collegiate home offered a perfect balance – lakeside living that was only a few blocks from campus. “When we were in our 20s, it was a hop, skip and a jump,” Gundrum says. Still, they recalled gladly accepting rides from strangers on cold winter
mornings in lieu of walking to campus.
They also remembered how everybody pitched in to help with dishes, and about the one time that Eleanor Roosevelt came for dinner. And about longtime Kenwood Hall house mother Lillian Fuller, and how anyone who smoked kept it such a secret that even 50-some years later, their classmates were surprised to learn about it.
When the group toured the remodeled house, they were delighted and touched to find that Nunemaker had devoted a room to the residence’s storied past. The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents originally bought the 25,000-square-foot mansion in 1949 to serve as a student dormitory for Milwaukee State Teachers College, one of UWM’s predecessor institutions. In 1964, the building was converted to UWM’s Alumni House, and it hosted countless events.
After UWM decided to sell the building, Nunemaker, a Milwaukee entrepreneur and philanthropist, purchased it in January 2021. And though the property is no longer under the UWM umbrella, its many memories certainly are.
“Those pictures meant a lot to us,” Gundrum says.
– Kathy QuirkUWM ALUMNI FALL 2022 • 5
Valentine at Rooted MKE
Bart Lundy didn’t exactly ease into his new job as UWM’s men’s basketball coach. Since being hired in March, he’s reshaped the roster and coaching staff, and introduced himself to countless students, faculty and staff. He’s also been out in the Milwaukee community speaking with media, making appearances and even throwing out a few first pitches at baseball games. Then, of course, there’s the actual start of basketball season in November. Here’s an update on how it’s all going, courtesy of an excerpted interview from the Milwaukee Athletics Roar Report.
How is UWM and the state of Wisconsin treating you?
Fantastic. This has been even more than I imagined it would be. The fans, the administration, the students, they have embraced me and my family and they are on board. Everyone is excited, which pumps me up.
How are those first pitches coming at baseball games?
Well, they have gotten progressively better. First one at the Panther game was a strike, but was
a Little League strike (from in front of the pitcher’s mound). The second one at the Brewers game was from the mound, but a bit outside. The third one, at the (Milwaukee) Milkmen game, came from the mound, and was straight down the middle.
What does a team coached by you look like?
It will look exciting and fast and tough. It will look full-court, and we will score a lot of points. We are going to be good with the basketball but conservative at the same time. I think the fans will really enjoy the entertainment value of our brand.
What were the biggest things that attracted you to the job?
The potential! Not only for the program and where it’s been and where it could go. But what really attracted me was the university and the city. The university fits my values, my family’s values. We could energize the city, and I think they are eager to get this going. There are 200,000 graduates of UWM, and 74% live in the state … they want to see this be a winner. – Chris Zills
BALDWIN JR. DRAFTED IN FIRST ROUND
Patrick Baldwin Jr. became UWM’s highest-ever NBA draftee in June when the Golden State Warriors selected him with the 28th pick of the first round. Baldwin battled injuries in his only season at UWM, averaging 12.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in 11 games. But he’d been on NBA radars since he starred for Sussex Hamilton High School, and he was the 2020 Gatorade Wisconsin Player of the Year. He’s UWM’s first NBA draft pick since Von McDade in 1991 and the third in the program’s history. – Howie Magner
YES, MOMENTUM REALLY DOES MATTER
Another big play, another first down, and your team is on a roll. The fans go wild! You’re winning this game for sure…
Not so fast, academics have long claimed. Momentum is imaginary, and success doesn’t necessarily lead to continued success.
But UWM Distinguished Professor Paul Roebber has proved the fans right. He used machine learning and 10 years of play-by-play data from NFL regular-season games to show that momentum within a game is real and that it improves a team’s chances of winning.
Roebber trained a neural network – in which the algorithms perform like the connections of neurons in the human brain – to predict a team’s probability of winning through momentum.
The model defines momentum as an increase in a team’s “win probability” over the course of at least three changes in ball possession, based on factors such as the down, score and the team’s location on the field.
Both offense and defense contribute to win probability, Roebber says. So positive momentum by one team coexists with negative momentum by the opposing team.
Previous research that failed to establish a correlation between momentum and game outcomes looked primarily at streaks from individual players, not a team’s collective effort.
“The home team might improve its chances of winning through an offensive possession, and then the visitors get the ball,” he says. “And perhaps the home team defense holds their opponents to a three-and-out, which gives the home team possession of the ball in good field position. That would be considered two positive changes in possession, where the home team has improved their chances of winning on both sides of the ball.” – Laura L. Otto
6 • UWM ALUMNI FALL 2022
LUNDY GOES FULL-COURT PRESS
Lundy at a Panthers practice
Roebber
IN MEMORY OF ISABEL BADER
Isabel Overton Bader, a great friend and unwavering supporter of UWM, died Aug. 28, 2022, at age 95.
“Isabel Bader was a role model for everyone who knew her,” UWM Chancellor Mark Mone said. “At UWM, she was known for being a champion of those who needed opportunity, and she genuinely cared about the people she helped. We will remember her and the remarkable imprint she made on our university.”
Isabel advanced causes she believed in through the generosity of Bader Philanthropies and her own giving. Since 2001, she and her late husband, Alfred Bader, provided scholarships to more than 70 UWM students who needed financial assistance. Isabel and Alfred were also instrumental in making the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex (KIRC) a reality, and they supported UWM students studying abroad.
Bader Philanthropies is one of UWM’s largest donors, and both Bader Philanthropies and Isabel Bader have supported the Electa Quinney Institute, providing resources to preserve Indigenous culture in Milwaukee and beyond. Isabel had long been an ally of First Nations, a preferred term for most Indigenous people in Canada. – Kari Pink
ALUM WINS ‘GENIUS’ FELLOWSHIP
UWM alumnus Sky Hopinka has been awarded a prestigious 2022 MacArthur Foundation fellowship, colloquially known as a “genius” grant. The unrestricted fellowship provides $800,000 over five years for winners to pursue whatever projects they desire.
Hopinka received a Master of Fine Arts from UWM in 2016. He’s a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation/ Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians who develops new forms of cinema centered on the perspectives of Indigenous peoples.
In accepting the award, Hopinka told the MacArthur Foundation, “The more that I can be seen as one small part of a larger constellation of works and voices that make up Indigenous peoples in this country, the better.” – Howie Magner
QUINNEY INSTITUTE BOLSTERED BY BADER GRANT
Mark Freeland, new director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education (EQI), has welcomed a $3 million grant from Bader Philanthropies.
The grant, given through the UWM Foundation, will go toward scholarships and hiring additional Indigenous faculty researchers and instructors. It will also support programming like sponsoring visiting elders, fire circle events, and community and international convocations for Indigenous peoples and allies.
Freeland, an associate professor of anthropology, joined EQI in the summer of 2022. He’s lauded EQI’s commitment to revitalizing regional languages – such as Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oneida, Menominee and Ho-Chunk – as well as providing culturally significant physical spaces, such as the fire circle located in front of UWM’s Merrill Hall.
“Higher education has not been a welcoming place for Indigenous students.
By recognizing Indigenous languages, culture and knowledge as coequal systems of thought, UWM has provided a place for Indigenous peoples to reintegrate their cultural learning into their degree programs,” Freeland says. “EQI helps to support Indigenous students, teachers and administrators to successfully complete their academic programs and prepares them for their chosen fields. In that way, we are able to inform a much larger audience on Indigenous knowledge.”
Freeland is Bear Clan and a member of the Bahweting community in Northern Michigan (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe Chippewa). Prior to joining UWM, he was co-coordinator of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at South Dakota State University. It provided the academic component for the Wokini Initiative, a program to redistribute land-grant funding to support Indigenous
students. His research critically identifies the role of Indigenous worldview as an integral component of cultural and linguistic translations.
The $3 million grant marks a continuation of Bader Philanthropies’ longstanding support of EQI. “The Electa Quinney Institute’s academic program and on-campus activities will transform lives today and for decades to come,” says Daniel J. Bader, president and CEO of Bader Philanthropies. “UWM’s steadfast commitment and leadership in preserving Native languages, cultures and traditions is a significant step forward in helping our community reconcile the shortcomings of the past and creates spaces for healing.”
Bader Philanthropies has given more than $20 million over several decades to support programs, faculty and students at UWM. Among the many beneficiaries are the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare and the Helen Bader Institute for Nonprofit Management.
To help support the Electa Quinney Institute, contact Tom Bjornstad at bjornsta@uwm.edu. – Kari Pink
UWM ALUMNI FALL 2022 • 7
Freeland
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