ORANGE & BLUE updates
Filling in the gaps
STANDOUT STUDENT Senior Spencer Butterfield is one of only two student-athletes nationwide handpicked to represent the United States at the International University Sports Federation World Forum in Costa Rica this spring. This biennial forum brings together students, officials, and other partners from more than 60 countries to engage in discussions on education, culture, and sport. Butterfield, originally from Shawnee, Kansas, is a member of the men’s soccer team and President of the Pioneer Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Like most states, Wisconsin has experienced a shortage of substitute teachers—an issue that has been around for years but reached critical levels during the pandemic. This spring, UW-Platteville initiated a plan to help address this shortage, offering students an opportunity to have an associate degree conferred, while in the process of earning their bachelor’s degree, in order to meet the state’s substitute eligibility requirements. Wisconsin requires substitute teachers to hold an associate degree or higher and complete an approved substitute training program. UW-Platteville’s School of Education offered the substitute training program to interested students this spring and covered the cost for the training. Students will have
their associate degree conferred in May so that they can start substitute teaching in the fall. “We know our K-12 partners have been struggling to find substitute teachers for some time now,” said Dr. Jen Collins, Director of the School of Education. “We can not only help them find someone to cover a classroom in a teacher’s absence, we can actually send them a future teacher, someone with an aligned skillset and a passion for this work. We owe our local K-12 partners a great deal; they are the application piece to our campus classroom theory. We could not develop and train our future educators without their assistance, so any opportunity we get to support our rural schools and communities, we jump at.”
From our labs to your kitchen Engineering students have had a hand in some of the new or redesigned appliances hitting the market and industry trade shows, thanks to a partnership between Spectrum Brands and the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science’s Senior Design program. The program pairs groups of engineering students with industry partners to solve real problems or create new products. Over
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