Magazine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
ALUMNI
Special Edition Spring 2021, Vol. 23, No. 1
A MESSAGE FROM CHANCELLOR MONE It’s been more than a year since COVID-19 changed everyone’s lives. It has, at times, seemed daunting. But we continue to be resilient as we turn the corner on this pandemic. At UWM, we are looking forward to a fully operational fall semester. Meanwhile, we’ve maintained a stalwart commitment to serving our students and communities through education, outreach and research. You’ll find prime examples of this inside our latest edition of UWM Alumni. Since the pandemic began, UWM’s faculty, staff and students have played crucial roles to address its many challenges. Most recently, our College of Nursing students have helped staff our campus vaccination clinic. We’re extremely thankful for the partnership with Advocate Aurora Health, which has led to thousands of people at UWM and in our community receiving life-saving vaccinations. I’m so proud of their work, and you can read more about it on Page 2. I’m also proud of all the UWM graduates honored at our Spring Commencement. They endured a final year of college like no other, and they now stand ready to make their mark on the world. At the ceremony, UWM alumnus
Darian Dixon shared his inspiring story of going from humble beginnings to playing an important role on NASA’s Mars Curiosity and Perseverance rover teams. He now encourages other students, especially Black students, to follow his path into the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. His story personifies the promise and possibilities that are the foundation of our work at UWM, and I encourage you to read more about Darian on Page 4. We’re very excited about welcoming students back into our residence halls and classrooms in the fall and a return to the experiences that make UWM such a special place. Until then, I thank you for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy a safe and happy summer. Best regards,
Mark A. Mone, PhD Chancellor
UWM NEWS STUDENTS AT THE HEART OF UWM VACCINATION CLINIC “These nursing students were so One by one, day by day, people stream happy to put their scrubs on and gather through the UWM Student Union to as a clinical group for this,” says Kim receive their COVID-19 vaccinations. Litwack, dean of the College of Nursing. And as she watches them come and “We’ve all been carrying a weight go, nursing doctoral student around for so long, and we’re Tala Fuad Hatem Abu Zahra not even aware of it.” feels heartened by the UWM junior Cassidy steady progress against an Kolbeck gave clinic dose insidious disease. No. 10,000 to John Moser, “The people I’ve a UWM alum who lives in vaccinated are hopeful. the campus neighborhood. A They are tired of masks, jubilant Moser said vaccination and they miss their means he can soon visit his vulnerable family members,” Kim Litwack 92-year-old father, whom he’d not says Abu Zahra, a registered seen in 14 months. nurse. “They’re trusting the science and UWM’s vaccination clinic was one of the research.” nine sites operating at UW campuses. Abu Zahra is a volunteer, administering Tommy Thompson, UW System interim shots at UWM’s public vaccination president, wanted campuses to contribute clinic alongside 200 UWM nursing to the vaccination effort just as they’d done undergraduates. The clinic, a partnership for surge testing. “The Wisconsin Idea with Advocate Aurora Health and the City is about our universities stepping up and of Milwaukee Health Department, began solving problems,” Thompson says. More operating March 3. By mid-April, it had than a million COVID-19 tests have been administered more than 10,000 doses.
administered to students and community members at UW System campuses, including more than 83,000 at UWM. Morgan Koerber, a clinic volunteer and UWM senior, says she and her fellow nursing students are gaining hands-on experience that will be invaluable when launching their careers. “This gives me the opportunity to be involved in clinical work during a global pandemic, something that doesn’t occur very often on this scale,” Koerber says. “I’m excited to be part of the process.” UW System authorized a $500 tuition credit for students who work two days, or 16 hours, at the clinic. “I am very thankful that UWM is reducing some of my financial burden,”clinic volunteer and UWM senior Hannah Polan says. UWM has one of the largest arrays of health care programs in Wisconsin, with more than 3,300 students enrolled in its College of Nursing, College of Health Sciences and the Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health. Faculty members and students working at two community nursing centers have provided health care to underserved populations for more than 40 years. “We have a longstanding history in our city of providing public health care services to our community,” UWM Provost Johannes Britz says. “We are truly a campus for the community.” – Laura L. Otto
UWM nursing student Cassidy Kolbeck delivers the clinic's 10,000th COVID-19 vaccination dose to UWM alumnus John Moser.
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UWM OUTREACH UWM CLIMBS ABOARD FOR MOON SHOT LAUNCH UWM is partnering with other area universities on an initiative to ensure that Black and Latinx students, as well as students from other underrepresented groups, graduate from college at the same rate as white students by 2030. Southeastern Wisconsin’s Moon Shot for Equity partnership includes UWM, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Carthage College, UWParkside and education firm EAB. Launched in October 2020, it represents the initiative’s first regional consortium. Chancellor Mark Mone says Moon Shot’s goals align with UWM’s dual mission of providing access to education to students from all walks of life while fostering world-class research. “If we band together,” Mone says, “we can make a much greater difference than any of us can do on our own.” The need for Moon Shot is clear. As of 2020, the six-year graduation rate for UWM’s Black students was 24%, lagging far behind UWM’s overall six-year graduation rate of 43%. Latinx students also trailed at 36%. For the region, the overall graduation rate is 48%, but Black students’ rate is 20%, and Latinx students graduate at a
rate of 32%. Increasing graduation rates will benefit the entire region. Colleges and universities can help address a significant regional workforce shortage for jobs requiring higher education. Racial disparities ranked as the Milwaukee region’s biggest challenge in a 2018 survey of Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce board members and the CEOs of its member companies. The Moon Shot collaboration’s campus leaders, faculty and staff met virtually in March to discuss efforts and share ideas. Although collaboration is a crucial component of addressing equity on a regional scale, each institution will focus on its own campuses to address issues and eliminate obstacles. One initial area of focus will examine ways to help students pay for unforeseen or emergency expenses that might prevent them from finishing school. UWM also is leveraging technology to ensure students get the academic support they need. An app tracks students’ class attendance, mid-term grades and other data, and lets their advisors know when they are falling behind. – Genaro C. Armas
MITIGATING ELDER ISOLATION DURING COVID-19 of many thought-provoking When COVID-19 sparked “Beautiful Questions,” such lockdowns, care homes as, “What is the most for the elderly became beautiful sound in the secluded places, barring world?” To reply, people visitors and even group called a phone number and activities. No family visits, left a message. TimeSlips no volunteers and no group also provided the public with dining. “Lockdown was so a do-it-yourself method for thorough and cruel,” says Anne mailing cards to care facilities all Basting, an English professor in Anne Basting over the world. It posted a global the College of Letters & Science map and a list of addresses on its website, whose research often involves working timeslips.org/postcard-challenge, with with care facilities. “An intense isolation examples of the types of cards to send. was happening.” By engaging people with memory loss To respond, Basting’s TimeSlips in creative activities, their focus shifts organization mobilized people to send to invention and spontaneity instead of 150,000 postcards to scores of care memory and their limitations. The benefits homes. TimeSlips grew from Basting’s extend to people without memory loss, research into using participatory arts to too, by fostering more humane and help older people, particularly those with interactive ways to care for older adults. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The The approach is detailed in Basting’s new work earned her a prestigious MacArthur book, “Creative Care: A Revolutionary Fellowship in 2016. Approach to Dementia and Elder Care.” Written on each postcard was one
Basting and TimeSlips have trained almost 1,000 facilitators in the professor’s Creative Care techniques, but many were restricted from entering facilities to serve elders. So to reach elders at home, Basting organized the Milwaukee Tele-Stories Project, which paired 10 local artists with 10 local seniors each, people recruited by Eras, a local senior-serving nonprofit. TimeSlips trained the artists in storytelling techniques and doing Creative Care over the phone, and they called the 100 seniors on a regular basis, using Beautiful Questions to start conversations. Visual and multimedia artists, poets, performance artists and a dancer joined the project to find meaningful work forging connections benefiting both elders and facilitators. It ran until November 2020, when the artists shared legacy projects inspired by the interactions. The expanded pilot evaluation is promising, showing a 41% reduction in loneliness for participating elders. – Matt Hrodey
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Darian Dixon never gave up on his boyhood dreams, and they launched him on a journey across millions of miles of space. BY KATHY QUIRK
Darian Dixon spent his childhood nights staring at the glowing stars and planets adorning the walls and ceiling of his small bedroom. But weighed down by his circumstances on Earth, young Darian wondered if he’d ever get much closer to space than that. “I was a poor Black boy with an uncertain future in a single-parent household, a prime recipe for a ‘statistic,’” Dixon says. Once, when his mother, Gloria, was between jobs, she called him into her room and sat him down. “She holds up two pennies and tells me, ‘Sweetheart, this is all we have now.’ But she also told me this wouldn’t be for long. And come hell or high water, we would find a way.” Gloria was right. And today, Dixon’s path has taken him all the way to the surface of Mars. 4
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The 2015 UWM graduate plays a key role on NASA’s $3 billion Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in February. Dixon is Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z data management lead. His duties involve guiding the two Mastcam-Z cameras, which are part of the rover’s array of nearly two dozen cameras. They’re capturing panoramic stills to help scientists learn more about the planet’s atmosphere, landscape and soils. And he teamed with colleagues to quickly ensure Mastcam-Z footage of the inaugural Ingenuity helicopter flight was received on Earth as soon as possible. Moreover, the Perseverance mission isn’t Dixon’s first Martian experience. He’s also been involved with the previous rover mission, Curiosity. For both missions, Dixon has handled
“You just get to look
the data storage, coding and programming needed to take thousands of images and transmit them 150 million miles back to Earth. “There are a lot of ones and zeros that speak in a language that only the rover understands,” Dixon explains. Using their command of coding, Dixon and his team tell the cameras how to point at, focus on and acquire images. Without them, humans would never see what the rovers see, including one of the most famous images taken by Curiosity in late 2019 and known as the “giga pixel.” At 1.8 billion pixels, it’s the highest-resolution picture ever taken on any extraplanetary body. It took four days for the team to write the commands, verify them and instruct the camera to create the image. “It turned out to be spectacular,” says Dixon, who lives with his wife in southern California. “We pulled it off without a hitch.” Dixon’s interplanetary journey began in earnest at UWM, and his connection to UWM started long before he earned his bachelor’s degree in geosciences there. He grew up near the campus, and his mother attended UWM. In fact, some of his earliest memories are of being with Gloria in the UWM Student Union. Along the way, Gloria inspired and encouraged him to dream and believe despite their many challenges. She’s now community giving manager at the Washington state corporate offices of BECU, the country’s largest nonfederal credit union. “Watching her climb to where she is has been an integral part of my journey and my motivation,” Dixon says. With support from Gloria and his “amazing stepfather,” Troy Hubbard, Dixon enrolled at Dominican University in Chicago and then transferred to UWM. Although he wanted to find a field that would lead to a space-related career, he initially majored in political science. “I was terrified of taking classes that I thought would be too difficult or a career
path that would be too hard,” Dixon says. But eventually, he found the courage to pursue his first love, as well as support at UWM to do just that. “A week after I decided I wanted to go into geology and into the space industry, I was in Professor Lindsay McHenry’s office talking to her about my interest in Mars and planetary geology.” He worked alongside faculty members on undergraduate research projects, graduated from UWM and later earned a master’s degree in planetary geology at Western Washington University. Next stop: Mars. Working with the Mars rovers means adjusting his sleeping and waking cycles to Mars time, which is 40 minutes a day longer than Earth time. The effects, he says, are like a permanent case of jet lag, but the rewards are well worth it. When asked about the value of space exploration, he can list all of the products and knowledge the work has produced. But for him, it comes down to the sense of possibility that began when a little boy stared at those glowing stars on his bedroom walls. “We’re exploring the final frontier. It’s something that fills our hearts with awe and wonder,” Dixon says. “I don’t think you can put a price on that. You just get to look up and be happy that you are part of something that is much bigger than humanity.” That’s why he’s passionate about inspiring other students to follow their dreams, too, especially students of color. He encourages them to pursue careers in the STEM-related fields of science, technology, engineering and math. He’s chatted with UWM students during Geek Week and shared his story with new UWM graduates at the 2021 Spring Commencement. He knows that they, like him, can start with two cents, reach for the stars and capture a planet.
up and be happy
that you are part of something that is
much bigger than humanity.”
Photos, clockwise from facing page: Darian Dixon in front of a model of Curiosity; a young Darian with his mother, Gloria; in his UWM graduation regalia; the Mastcam-Z cameras he helps guide (photo courtesy of Malin Space Science Systems); and the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars (photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech).
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ALUMNI SNAPSHOTS
Tenia Fisher
LEADING THE CHARGE TO RUN FREE TOGETHER Tenia Fisher wants everyone to be free to run everywhere. It’s why she advocates for Milwaukee F.E.A.R. (Forget Everything and Run), a group that encourages people of color to run together. “We’ve built a community of diverse runners who feel like they have a safe space, a family,” says Fisher, who leads the group founded by her friend Nyerere Davidson. Fisher is a former UWM cross country and track and field star who majored in communication. She broke five school records and was inducted into the UWM Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019. Today, she’s the health and wellness director at Social X MKE, a diversity and inclusion consulting group, and she also teaches first grade at Greater Holy Temple Christian Academy. Running has been Fisher’s passion since middle school. However, like many other runners of color, she often felt fearful or unsettled running alone. Then came the case of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed man who was killed while running in Georgia in February 2020.
Douglas Machkovech
“That could have been my brothers, been anyone from my F.E.A.R. family. It really just opened everyone’s eyes to it,” Fisher says. “Ahmaud Arbery lit the fire, helped push our mission of being a safe space for runners of color. It was our way of protesting.” Fisher’s goal is to make running fear-free for everyone. “I love running through my neighborhood. The little kids will say, ‘There she goes again.’ When they grow up, I want them to think it’s normal to see a Black person running. That’s the type of world we should all live in.” Fisher was one of three people with UWM ties that Milwaukee Magazine honored with its inaugural Unity Awards, which recognized people building a more equitable and inclusive Milwaukee. Also honored were UWM alum Jose Trejo, principal of South Division High School, and alida cardós whaley, UWM academic programs coordinator and advisor for the Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latinx Studies major and Latin American and Caribbean Studies certificate. – Kathy Quirk
UWM ROTC CADET NAMED BEST IN THE NATION A recent UWM graduate was honored as the nation’s top Army ROTC cadet. Douglas Machkovech, who graduated in December 2020, is the first-ever member of the local ROTC battalion to receive the No. 1 ranking on the Order of Merit List. UWM cadets serve with the Golden Eagle Battalion, which is based at Marquette University and includes students from
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UWM, Marquette, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Concordia University Wisconsin and UW-Parkside. “This is an amazing achievement that this program has never witnessed and is unlikely to repeat for years to come,” says the Golden Eagle Battalion’s Lt. Col. Ioannis Kiriazis, a Marquette professor of military science.
Kassidi Macak and the Salam Stars
HELPING BASKETBALL PLAYERS SHATTER STEREOTYPES Kassidi Macak wasn’t quite sure what to expect in 2016 when she interviewed for a basketball coaching position at Salam School, a Muslim preparatory school on Milwaukee’s south side. “I went into the interview thinking I probably wouldn’t do it,” Macak says, but Salam’s athletic director convinced her to give it a try. “I thoroughly enjoy it and think it’s one of the better decisions I ever made.” Macak, a 2014 UWM graduate with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, is now assistant athletic director and teaches physical education at Salam. She also coaches one of the few all-Muslim female high school teams in the United States, and the Salam Stars have attracted a great deal of attention, being featured on such media outlets as CNN and CBS Sports. Because she’s not Muslim, Macak faced a “long learning curve about religion and culture,” but the team’s focus has always been on basketball. “When we did the pre-hire, meet-the-coach thing, they were drilling me with basketball questions – ‘What are we going to do on defense, what are we going to do on offense, how long have you been playing?’ They wanted to see if I’d be a good basketball fit,” Macak says. “They were definitely wanting to get better at basketball.” That was right in Macak’s wheelhouse,
and she’s used her ties to UWM and the College of Health Sciences to help the team. For example, UWM Professor Barbara Meyer, a sports psychology expert, has led sessions on overcoming performance stress and anxiety. After going 13-21 in Macak’s first two years, Salam went 26-16 in the next two before the pandemic canceled the 2020-21 season. Meanwhile, players have brought Macak up to speed on Muslim religion and culture. Salam’s players wear long-sleeved jerseys, long pants and traditional hijabs – scarf-like head coverings. In recent years, many athletic governing bodies have eliminated hijab bans that forced many Muslim women to choose between sports and their faith. Now, sports hijabs are available, replacing longer, looser versions. And players have become adept at adjusting the head coverings on the fly, even tucking them inside their jerseys if necessary. Although media coverage has generated some nasty online responses, Macak says that opposing teams and fans generally treat the Stars like any other
basketball team. Macak tries using cultural misunderstandings as learning opportunities. When a well-intended official asked if the team would take offense at the national anthem being played, Macak patiently explained that the Stars were all Americans playing a game in the United States. And while the players are all about basketball, they’re also proud of their role in representing their religion and culture to others. “With social media, Facebook and Instagram and TikTok,” Macak says, “they see other Muslim women influencing sports, and say, ‘You know, we’re doing the same thing, and that’s really cool.’” – Kathy Quirk
Machkovech, who earned his UWM bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, was one of nearly 6,000 cadets eligible for the honor. He was commissioned Dec. 18, 2020, as an Army second lieutenant and headed off to the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. “When I was younger, I knew I wanted to do something with the military for sure, but I also wanted to go to college,” Machkovech says. “So I was looking for options that would let me have the college
experience, earn a degree and then join the military.” Machkovech chose UWM because he liked the campus as well as the engineering and ROTC programs. He also appreciated UWM’s large veteran and military community. Once on the UWM campus, Machkovech discovered that the atmosphere was accepting and that his instructors were flexible when he had ROTC commitments. “They were always good about rescheduling exams and assignments,”
Machkovech says. Order of Merit scores are awarded based on a combination of factors, including academics, clubs and community service, and athletic competitions in ROTC. Machkovech expected to finish his training at Fort Benning at the end of May. Afterward, he’s scheduled to be assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He says he’s looking forward to the chance to gain “more experiences and see some of the rest of the world.” – Kathy Quirk
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UWM RESEARCH A SOCIAL APPROACH TO FIGHTING COVID-19 MISINFORMATION Growing up, Amanda Simanek saw how friends and family sought out her father, an automotive mechanic, for trusted advice on car repairs. Years later, she’s tapping into trust as a way to fight misinformation in the midst a global pandemic. Simanek is an associate professor of epidemiology in the Amanda Simanek Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined an all-women interdisciplinary team of scientists who launched a social media-based science communication campaign to answer questions about this new disease. The initiative, called Dear Pandemic, provides comprehensive and unbiased information about COVID-19, delivered in easily digestible question-and-answer servings through posts on the social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Launched in March 2020 to help people navigate the onslaught of COVID-19 information, some factual and some not, the campaign now has more than 100,000 followers. “One of the key things we’ve learned is how fundamental trust is to successful spreading of science-based information,” Simanek says. Those with COVID-19-related questions can submit them via the campaign website, dearpandemic.org, where previously answered questions are archived. The group uses a just-the-facts approach to provide practical, actionable information, and their followers often share and boost the messages. “By communicating on these channels, we’re beating the spread of misinformation on social media at its own game,” she says. Having such a large following gives Simanek and her colleagues a good start in the natural next step: assessing how effective this intervention has been at stopping the spread of misinformation and affecting pandemic-related health behaviors. The questions submitted by followers also provide additional data on potential holes in public understanding of the pandemic. Through this effort, Simanek and her colleagues are not only helping people know how best to protect themselves and others, but they are also laying the groundwork for researchers to understand best practices for science communication in the context of a global pandemic. The team plans to continue its science communication efforts through Dear Pandemic as long as needed and may eventually transition the campaign into a permanent science education endeavor. – Laura L. Otto 8
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NEXT-GEN FACTORY NOW AT UWM
UWM’s Connected Systems Institute has launched its first industry testbed, putting a manufacturing facility on UWM’s campus. It allows researchers, industry partners and students to virtually simulate solutions to common manufacturing challenges and execute those approaches physically.
DEVISING BETTER METHODS FOR ONLINE EDUCATION Simone C.O. Conceição has devoted nearly three decades of her career to researching and advancing online education and virtual learning. It’s work that became more relevant than ever when the pandemic transformed schooling routines in 2020. “Online education is the thing right now,” says Conceição, a professor of adult and continuing education. In the summer of 2020, she and School of Simone C.O. Conceição Education colleagues held workshops for K-12 teachers, sharing methods and tools she helped devise to keep students engaged in the online environment. Conceição’s research examines aspects of online learning that are particularly critical right now, such as methods and tools for creating a sense of presence online. It’s important because when students have a sense of being there, as well as of being with others, it enhances their relationships with teachers and leads to a fuller learning experience. When students feel isolated and disconnected, it can lead to problems with retention and persistence. Conceição has also looked at how teachers can manage their online workload. The Brazil native initially came to UWM for a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and then earned her master’s degree in adult and continuing education leadership. Nearly 30 years later, she remains at UWM as an international authority in her field. “It’s the American dream,” Conceição says. – Kathy Quirk
UWM SPORTS
Photos courtesy of NYCFC.
MAKING THE JUMP TO MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER As a child, Vuk Latinovich enjoyed looking through an atlas, studying the flags and learning about the countries of the world. Playing soccer fueled his interest. “I think that was partially tied to soccer, because there were players from so many different countries, so I always wanted to know where those countries were and what they looked like,” he says. Now, Latinovich takes the field with his international teammates as a defender for Major League Soccer’s New York City FC. Latinovich, a four-year player for UWM, graduated in December 2020 with his bachelor’s degree in history. In January, NYCFC made him its third-round selection in the 2021 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. The club rewarded his strong
preseason with a spot on its first-team roster, an uncommon development for rookies. He debuted on May 1, 2021, as a substitute in a 2-0 victory vs. Philadelphia. Latinovich is the fifth-ever UWM player to be drafted by an MLS team. His parents, both athletes, encouraged his love of the sport from an early age. “I saw a tape of me kicking the soccer ball around when I was little,” Latinovich says. “It’s just always been part of my life.” Even before he started high school at Brookfield Central in suburban Milwaukee, college coaches showed interest in recruiting him. He committed to UWM in his first year of high school. “I knew the coaches there very well, and it was 30 minutes from home,” Latinovich says. “It
was a no-brainer.” UWM deployed him as a midfielder, and he excelled both on the field and in the classroom. He was a two-time All-Horizon League honoree who earned first-team all-league and second-team United Soccer Coaches All-North Region accolades as a junior in 2019. He missed his senior campaign when fall 2020 athletic events were canceled due to COVID-19. But NYCFC gave Latinovich the chance to continue playing the sport he loves, and he’s made the most of that chance. “It may sound corny,” Latinovich says of being drafted and continuing to play soccer at the professional level, “but it was pretty gratifying to make my family proud.” – Kathy Quirk
FOUR TEAMS CLAIM HORIZON LEAGUE TITLES UWM celebrated a quartet of Horizon League team championships during the 2020-21 school year. Both the women’s and men’s soccer teams won their respective league tourneys and competed in NCAA Tournaments. It was the 14th NCAA trip for the women’s team, which advanced to the second round, while the men’s team made its 10th NCAA appearance and first since 2013.
The women’s cross country team claimed its second Horizon League crown in three seasons. Meg Swietlik cruised to the individual women’s title by 25 seconds. UWM’s women’s basketball team won a share of the Horizon League regular-season title and was rewarded with a berth in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, where the Panthers reached the second round.
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ALUMNI INITIATIVES HANK AARON’S LASTING IMPACT ON ONE UWM STUDENT Hank Aaron left an incredible legacy on and off the baseball field. Nobody knows this better than UWM senior Hawa Brema. For the past four years, Brema’s UWM education was funded through gifts to an endowment created by Aaron’s Chasing the Dream Foundation 4 for 4 Scholarship. The scholarship at UWM is in memory of Aaron’s longtime friend and UWM alumnus, the late Joseph Kennedy. Aaron died on Jan. 22, 2021, at age 86. Like so many people, it hit Brema hard, and even a few weeks afterward, she wiped away tears while talking about him and what the scholarship has meant. “He changed my life. He literally changed a lot of people’s lives,” says Brema, a senior majoring in human resources management who was scheduled to graduate in May. Brema’s UWM education also included certificates in real estate and cultures and communities. In September 2019, Brema met Aaron and his wife, Billye, when the Aarons invited foundation scholars from across the United States to their home in Atlanta. The Aarons paid for the students’ expenses and treated everyone to a barbecue and an Atlanta Braves game. “They were so nice, just really genuine people,” Brema says. Brema was born in Sudan and spent 12 years in Kenya before her family emigrated to the U.S. “My dad’s big on education,” Brema says. “He wanted us to come here for a better education.” The family settled in Milwaukee, and Brema graduated from Bradley Tech High School, but with Brema having five siblings, college tuition was a challenge for her family. Aaron’s scholarship made it possible. A high school softball player, Brema wasn’t a stranger to baseball, and she learned more about Aaron’s baseball career when she applied for the 10
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scholarship. She’s the second student at UWM to receive the four-year renewable scholarship. Aaron’s path to the Baseball Hall of Fame spanned 21 big-league seasons and included minor league seasoning in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His major league career began with the Milwaukee Braves and ended with the Milwaukee Brewers. He won the 1957 World Series with those Braves but left Milwaukee when the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966. Although his best playing days were behind him when he returned to Milwaukee and the Brewers for the 1975 and ’76 seasons, it was a fitting coda for the man who meant so much to Milwaukee baseball. Aaron retired as MLB’s all-time home run leader. He hit his 755th and final homer on July 20, 1976, at County Stadium. His career homer record stood for 31 years. He remains MLB’s career leader in RBIs (2,297), total bases (6,856). At his funeral, Aaron was honored for his contributions on and off the baseball field. “In my humble opinion, he was no doubt the greatest player of our generation, but, more important, he was a great and wonderful human being,” said Aaron’s longtime friend Bud Selig, MLB commissioner emeritus and former Brewers owner, at a memorial service. “Neither fame nor fortune changed his extraordinary kindness and empathy, which led to his greatness off the field. His impact not only in baseball but all of America will never be forgotten.” Aaron’s scholarships have supported more than 100 students since 2010, and they will continue. “I’m glad I had the chance to meet him in person,” Brema says. “I don’t have any debt because of him and the scholarship. He was just a blessing. That’s all I can say.” – Kathy Quirk SPRING 2021
Hawa Brema stands with Hank Aaron (right) and his wife, Billye, in 2019.
UWM’S TIES TO AARON UWM’s baseball team played its home games at Henry Aaron Field in Lincoln Park from 1994-2019 before moving to its new stadium, Franklin Field, for the 2020 season. UWM also played a key role in honoring Aaron in 2007 when the Brewers commemorated his 755th and final home run at County Stadium. Because Aaron hit the home run in 1976 and County Stadium was torn down in 2001, it was hard to figure out the ball’s exact landing spot. Professor Alan J. Horowitz, then chair of UWM’s civil engineering and mechanics department, teamed up with students from UWM’s chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. They studied GPS measurements, reviewed surveys of County Stadium, studied aerial photos of Miller Park and County Stadium, and closely examined video of the home run to determine where the ball landed. Horowitz and his team calculated that the ball traveled 363 feet and landed in what became a parking lot for Miller Park, which was recently renamed American Family Field. A plaque marks the spot.
THEATRE FOR JUSTICE AND SOCIAL CHANGE 2021: A TOOL FOR HEALING CIVILIZATIONS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 2021 | 10-11 A.M. CST Featuring Assistant Professor Sheri Williams Pannell, Area Head, Musical Theatre Program, UWM Peck School of the Arts Theater can be used to reflect the state of the world while promoting social discourse, dialogue and social change. UWM Peck School of the Arts Assistant Professor Sheri Williams Pannell will lead a discussion of Milwaukee’s theater community and its response to the issues of justice and social change during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a founding member and artistic director of Milwaukee’s Bronzeville Arts Ensemble and a co-founder of the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival. Advance registration is required for this free event at alumni.uwm.edu/mmcjune2021.
MENTORING PROGRAM COMPLETES INAUGURAL YEAR enthusiasm and eagerness of The UWM Alumni Association’s my mentee,” Fung says. “She Mentoring Program launched comes to our meetings with an eye toward creating with updates on progress lifelong, meaningful toward her goals and professional and personal with great questions. Her mentorships between passion and energy remind current UWM students and me of the reasons I entered alumni. One year after its my career field to begin with.” creation, the program is already The program’s first year paying dividends. Rae Anne Ho Fung featured regular mentor/mentee Beginning in April 2020, the meetings, monthly networking events and program matched 55 current UWM newsletters, and a lively year-end virtual students with an alumni mentor for the celebration. Because of the pandemic, all subsequent academic year. Rae Anne Ho interactions were virtual, but participants Fung (PhD ’13 & ’18), a clinical supervisor still built valuable relationships. at Rogers Behavioral Health, served as The program’s impetus stemmed from one of the inaugural mentors. “I love the
feedback from the Alumni Association’s 2019 all-alumni survey. Many alumni said they wanted regular opportunities to engage with students because they knew they’d have benefited from such interactions when they were still in college and seeking to enter the workforce. Plans call for expanding the Mentoring Program in the 2021-22 school year to match 75 students with alumni mentors. Program leaders also hope to provide a variety of in-person opportunities in addition to virtual ones, should public health circumstances allow. To learn more about the program or to become a mentor, contact Abby Rojas at strozins@uwm.edu.
UWM ALUMNI SPECIAL EDITION
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Thank you
to all who supported our first
414 for UWM: DAY OF GIVING on April 14. $347,064 raised 1,232 donors from 33 states and 5 countries 46 programs supported by Day of Giving gifts
100% grateful Although our giving day has concluded, it’s never too late to support students on their path to graduation. Make a gift today at give.uwm.edu/support. 12
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UWM ALUMNI SPECIAL EDITION
SPRING 2021
