Robb Schuelke and Suzanne (Flickinger) Schuelke attended the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha from 1985 to 1987 and will return September 13 as the Outstanding Alumni of 2002. They will be honored guests at a reception for scholarship donors and recipients.
Annually for the past 20 years, the Friends & Alumni of UW-Waukesha, a group of volunteers dedicated to serving the campus in its educational mission, has chosen one or two alumni to recognize for their outstanding accomplishments. To be eligible for the honor, the alums must have 1) finished their UW-Waukesha studies at least 10 years ago, 2) achieved something notable, and 3) served either the school or the community.
Both the Schuelkes went on to earn bachelors degrees from UW-Milwaukee – Robb in business and Suzanne in communications – and Suzanne continued for a master’s degree. They return for the UW-Waukesha reception as a married couple and as administrators in the successful and growing Children’s Learning Center, Pewaukee,
Set to enroll at Carroll College, where his parents and a number of relatives had received their degrees, Robb changed his mind in the spring of 1985 when recruiter Kurt Eisenmann visited Brookfield East High School and convinced him to re-assess the value.
“I loved the small classes, and the cost was better for me,” he says. “I wish there would have been a four-year program.”
After graduating from Hartford Union High School, Suzanne decided to follow the lead of her older sister and attend UW-Waukesha. Like Robb, she found it a good fit.
Suzanne’s honors sociology class with Don Weast met the hour before Robb’s class, and he remembers watching the students file out of the room and admiring “the nice-looking girl with the long black hair.” They first met at an International Club potluck dinner held at the home of writing specialist Sarah Connor. Suzanne approached Robb that October evening, noting that he was the only one at the party whom she didn’t know. Seven years later they were married.
Serendipity played a role in their careers as well as their meeting. Freshly graduated from UW-Milwaukee, Robb planned to relocate in Fond du Lac, where he had accepted a position with Shopko, when a developer, who also was a family acquaintance, offered Robb’s family the chance to help design a building that they could use as a permanent home for the Children’s Learning Center. Until then, Robb’s mother, who had founded the Center in 1974, ran it more as a service than a business, housing it in various church facilities. Demand for full-day classes was growing, and the Center needed a firmer business footing if it was to expand. Robb could supply that.
Within a year, they moved the Center into a leased, stand-alone building, from which they served the community for 11 years. With Robb in charge of business operations, Suzanne handling personnel and marketing/communications, and Robb’s mother remaining the program director, the Center again outgrew its space. The Town of Brookfield would not permit expansion at that site, so they acquired land down the road. In October 2001 the Children’s Learning Center opened at its own, new 15,000-square-foot facility that houses half-day preschool, childcare, school-age, and kindergarten programs..
Speaking of the construction phase, Robb sighs, “Those were the worst two years of my life.” Although the process was exhausting, he is pleased with the results. Located where any further development that would block the natural view is prohibited, the building is designed with well-defined areas for each level of care and instruction. It fits their needs, allows for some expansion, and will retain the family-run, personalized style. Robb’s sister is a kindergarten teacher at the Center, and his dad drives the van and does purchasing.
“We wanted to do it right,” Robb avers, “not to get rich. We have a caring place for kids to come and to build their self-esteem.”
Very happy with his own education, Robb served on the Friends & Alumni of UW-Waukesha Board from 1998 to 2000, sitting on its alumni relations and scholarship committees. To anyone who is considering UW-Waukesha to start a college education, Robb says emphatically, “Do it! It’s one of the best universities I’ve ever found. You can get an awesome education at a reasonable price. And people there still know me by name!”
Suzanne was pleased with her decision to attend UW-Waukesha as well. “You have a chance to interact with faculty. They are there to teach, and that’s what’s fantastic,” she says. For her, the experience was a breath of fresh air. “I hated the cliques in high school,” she begins, but at UW-Waukesha she belonged to Student Government and the International Club and worked on the student newspaper and in the library. “I made my best life-long friends there,” she concludes. She returned to teach a course at the campus in the spring of 1996.
Robb and Suzanne have a daughter, Skyler, 4, who attends half-day preschool at the Children’s Learning Center. |
