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The Wisco Pilot
New Staff
New Faces at Honey Creek Hall by Frank Quan-Pham, JoonWoo Ha, and Hieu Than, photography by Micheal Wiechmann
Since 2019, Honey Creek Hall has been the place of residence for nearly 70 Wisco students from overseas and elsewhere in the United States. This year, these dorms welcome four new staffers to serve as supervisors and other roles such as advisors, counselors. Here are their experiences with Wisco’s students, dorm, and school.
A Reverse Legacy –– Mrs. Sra. Peterson-Lehr
Sra. Catherine Peterson-Lehr, a daughter of a native from Puerto Rico avid folk dancer, served as a teacher at Morgandale Elementary School for 33 years. She still serves as a substitute teacher for the suburbs in and outside Milwaukee County. During a service she attended at Grace Lutheran Church, an announcement was made that Wisconsin Lutheran High School needed new supervisors in their residential halls. In fact, Sra. Peterson’s oldest son was a student at WLHS, who graduated in 2016. During her first weeks at the school and dorm, she has been impressed by the modern facilities that Honey Creek Hall and the school has to offer. She’s also taken interest in conversing with the other staff and the “fascinating students” at the dorm. She commends the high standards that Wisco demands of its students and approves of our religious education and theology programs. Sra. Peterson states that she looks forward to developing relationships with the students, staff, and faculty within and beyond Honey Creek Hall, and to helping and serving the school and the students whenever and wherever her assistance is needed. She advises everyone “to always do [our] best and to love one another,” as commanded by God.
Dorm Bitter-sweet Dorm –– Mr. Jacob Bitter
During his senior year at Martin Luther College, studying to become a pastor at the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mr. Jacob Bitter (brother of alum Sarah Bitter ‘21) was contacted by Mr. Douglas Carter, the Dean of Residential Life at Honey Creek Hall. Mr. Carter told him that the dorm has supervisor positions available and asked if he’d like to become one. Trusting in God’s calling and in his 8 years of living in dormitories in high school and college, Mr. Bitter decided to take this job and make Honey Creek Hall his own home. Since then, he has taken note of the student body at school and in the dorms, praising them as extremely gifted, driven, and hard-working; moreover, he appreciates that the faculty and staff are dedicated and want to see the students succeed. During his time working as Dorm Supervisor, Mr. Bitter is excited to grow in his relationships with the diverse community that resides at Honey Creek Hall. The students come from 19 vastly different countries and cultures around the world. As someone born in Montana and raised in North Dakota, he also hopes to become closer to Wisco, Milwaukee, and Wisconsin as a whole. His advice for students is the following: “Learn as much from your friends as you do from your teachers.”
A Retirement Twist –– Mrs. Frau Joanne Kohler
In 2018, after 23 years of teaching German and ESL at the Michigan Lutheran Seminary, Mrs. Frau Joanne Kohler was ready to retire. Shoreland Lutheran High School, however, was having a problem: their German teacher was seriously ill, and they needed a replacement. She became that replacement for two years. After that, while teaching at Whitefish Bay High School, she found out through the bulletin at her church, Woodlawn Lutheran, that Wisconsin Lutheran High School, where she attended with her siblings and graduated in 1970, was looking for new Dorm Supervisors. Mrs. Frau Kohler said that when she was a student here, there were, in fact, more students within a smaller campus, and that conditions are now much more spacious for each student, including those residing in Honey Creek Hall. She considers the location of our school and dorm to be very beneficial to students, with many stores, restaurants, and parks within walking distance, and food options from home readily available within Milwaukee. Having worked with international students before in Michigan, she takes pride in the students at Wisco. She said they are a large, diverse, nice, group of young people with a good command of English.
Continued on page 3 Illustration by
Willow Zak
