WAUKESHA – One faculty member and three academic staff have been named Arthur M. Kaplan Fellows for 2004-05. The faculty and staff enhancement program recognizes outstanding contributions to education made by UW Colleges faculty and academic staff.
The award is given to individuals who make “significant and innovative improvement of instruction or of service to students.” The four nominees selected by the campus Steering Committee to be honored this year are: Mary Edwards and Jack Hervert, both of Milwaukee; Mary “Duffy” Kasum, Thiensville; and Bill Schneider, Waukesha.
UW-Waukesha’s adult student advisor, Edwards has been working to build bridges with the community. Most recently, she has developed an internship program, whereby local organizations receive extra hands and students learn the needs of business. She also began teaching a Career and Life Planning class to give student interns the information to assess their job skills and interests. She manages the exploration center on campus and created a committee to look at career development issues. Finally, she is putting in place mechanisms to assess services provided by UW-Waukesha, useful not only in her own area but also throughout the Student Services office. Edwards holds a BS in communications from St. Joseph’s College and MS in college student personnel administration from Indiana University. She has been at UW-Waukesha since 1999.
A faculty member, Hervert started coaching the women’s basketball team at UW-Waukesha in 1990 and joined the physical education department as an assistant professor in 1998. He has taken the team to five state championships and 11 conference titles. The Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association has named him junior college coach of the year three times. Along with assistant professor of biological sciences Kevin Lee, he introduced a new course in the physiology of exercise three years ago, and he has worked with students in the faculty student research program. He earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education from UW-La Crosse and a certificate in health education from UW-Stevens Point.
Kasum actually started teaching French at UW-Waukesha in 1970, but she had a lengthy hiatus and finally returned in 2002. Now she also teaches Spanish. And she’s stepped out of the traditional classroom, using compressed video to teach in a distance education class and employing CD’s, DVD’s, and online news sites to bring modern spoken foreign languages to the classroom. Both her face-to-face and distance education students appreciate her encouraging style, with the distant ones coming to campus for a surprise celebration at the end of the semester to let her know. A co-founder of FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary Education) Fest, which had met elsewhere for 16 years, she brought the Wisconsin and region convention to the Waukesha campus. She graduated from Notre Dame College with a degree in French and mathematics, completed a master’s in French at UW-Milwaukee, and is a doctoral candidate at the Universidad de San José.
An avid bicyclist with a lust for life, Schneider imbues excitement for learning in his philosophy students. He engages them in the query and challenges them to keep moving along a logical chain. He allows the conversations to continue when class is over and demonstrates an honest concern for the future of his pupils. Since long-time Philosophy Club advisor John Knight retired, Schneider has taken over, and the club continues as a vibrant part of campus life. He started college at UW-Fond du Lac, graduated from UW-Oshkosh, earned a master’s degree from the University of Rochester, and has worked toward a Ph.D. there. Schneider has been teaching at UW-Waukesha since 1995.
With each Kaplan fellowship comes a $250 purse, matched by the Friends & Alumni Foundation of UW-Waukesha. The recipients can use the money to further enhance their creative approaches to education.
Former UW Centers (now Colleges) Chancellor Lee Grugel established the award in 1993 on the retirement of Kaplan, who had served the UW Colleges for eight years in the capacities of vice chancellor, provost, and acting chancellor. Kaplan was committed to improving the quality of instruction and service to students at UW Colleges campuses.
The awards can be presented at each of the thirteen UW Colleges, which are the freshman-sophomore campuses of the University of Wisconsin.
For information about programs, admissions, or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at (262) 521-5200 or visit the Web at waukesha.uwc.edu.
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