New Insight Opportunities for 22-23! |
Last month I introduced the first newsletter for the 2021-2022 school year. Today I share some exciting news that has been in the works for awhile regarding one of the two new opportunities for students for next school (stay tuned for some incredible updates next month on the other opportunity)!
Historically we have had an Insight strand called Pathways to Teaching. This particular course was developed to support those students who are interested in pursuing careers in the world of education. However, over the past few years we have noticed that we have other students interested in related fields such as counseling, psychology, non-profit work, and early childhood education. These students are also looking for Insight experiences, and often found that while the Pathways to Teaching strand was a close fit, it wasn't perfect. Additionally, some students that have experienced Pathways to Teaching have later determined that one of these other fields was a better fit for them.
We know the labor market information. Across the country we are experiencing a shortage in educators. We also know that the mental health needs that have been increasing (and due to the pandemic, escalating) and has resulted in a need and interest for more individuals to get involved in a variety of ways. As a result of analyzing our students' interests and our community's needs we are restructuring the Insight experience formerly known as Pathways to Teaching.
In 2022-23, we are excited to announce that Insight will launch "Serving Others", an Insight strand that will combine rigorous academics with career exploration in the areas of education, community, and human service. Students will have the opportunity to earn college credit, engage in service learning, and transition from theory to practice as they learn from innovative instructors, personalized mentors, and the incredible array of student-centered professionals in the Pewaukee School District.
Check back next month for an update on our second big announcement for the 2022-2023 school year!
|
|
AGATHA VONDERBERG
ARCHITECT
BRAY ARCHITECTS
Ms. Vonderberg is an architect in Milwaukee leading conceptual and thematic development of educational design projects. She is passionate about making connections with people and gaining context around their wants, needs and dreams - pertaining to building design.
Each opportunity to effect the built environment deserves a unique and tailored process which begins and ends with people. She strives to make complex ideas or abstract concepts accessible to clients, thereby inviting and empowering them to be fully immersed in the design process. That starts with clarity and confidence.
"It's been my pleasure to be an Insight mentor for several years now. I look to encourage my mentees to find their own clarity and help them build confidence around their future pursuits of careers in Architecture or Engineering."
|
|
MARISUE RIEK
RNC-OBSTETRICS
ADVOCATE AURORA HEALTHCARE
Marisue Riek was born and raised in New Berlin. She attended to Pius XI High School, and graduated with a BSN from Marquette University in 1991. In 1990 she started her nursing career at St Joseph’s Hospital in Milwaukee as a Nurse Extern on the Postpartum unit. After graduation, Ms. Riek worked on a Med/Surg floor at St Josepth's Hospital for 15 months. In August of 1992, she was able to transfer to Labor and Delivery where she served until 2010. She then went to work at Aurora Medical Center in Summit on the Labor/Delivery/Postpartum unit. Just last month (November 2021) she transferred over to the OB clinic at Summit.
Ms. Riek became certified in Inpatient Obstetric Nursing in 1994 and earned a certificate in Electronic Fetal Monitoring in 2009. In 2020 she was awarded Nurse of the Year at Summit. She has been a part of the Insight program for 4 years.
"One of my passions is teaching the next generation everything there is to know about delivering babies! It is so rewarding to see them grow personally and professionally. It’s wonderful to see their enthusiasm and drive to learn and succeed. And when I hear from them years later how they learned everything from me or they wish they were half the nurse I am, it makes my heart swell with joy to know I made a difference in their lives and the lives they touch."
|
|
|
|
Building Project Teams: Global Business Students Study the Anatomy of a Project Charter and Meet with Their Sponsors
(written by Gigi M)
After meeting with their mentors for the first time, GB Insight students are continuing to grow their project management skills by starting their long-term projects. These projects are year-long, and involve the following local businesses: Pewaukee Sussex United, Venture Wellness, YMCA, Positively Pewaukee, and others.
In order to be ready for their first meeting with their project sponsors, GB Insight students had to study and analyze the “anatomy” of a project charter. The deliverables, success criteria, summary milestone schedule, etc.
Alongside this, students prepared several questions regarding their project charter to gain greater insight at their first sponsor meeting. Not only that, but students also formulated a well-thought-out agenda for the meeting as well.
Junior Gigi Manganya shares her experience at her first sponsor meeting with us, “The first meeting honestly was a lot easier than we thought it would be. When we were preparing, it felt like a lot of information to bring up in just an hour-long meeting, but we managed to be efficient with our time and were successful in our meeting.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global Business Insight: Hands-On Experience and a Step into the Real World
(written by Connor B)
An Amazing Opportunity
Taking the next step into their future with an amazing opportunity. Striving for future success, with preparation into the world after high school, students of Insight have gone after the opportunity of working with real businesses and organizations throughout the community as part of our Business and Project Management - One of the three classes provided in this strand.
Taking the Next Step
Placed into teams, students worked together to analyze a project charter provided to them, as a tool to gain an idea of their business’/organization’s vision for the year.
The document displayed a list of roles which were allocated to each team member, a list of deliverables that were requested by the business, a schedule for each objective, and a success criteria that allows students to identify tasks that need to be done in order to be successful with the project. Each team completed their first meeting with the sponsors of their business/organization, allowing them to take that next step into further recognizing, and discussing each deliverable, and going through with the project.
Continuing on a Straight Path to Success
With the help of our class instructors, teams are continuing to develop a better understanding of the concept of being professional in a project setting. We continue to learn the importance of staying on task, being proactive, and taking initiative in order to create a successful outcome for not only our assigned business/organization, but also ourselves.
|
|
ELEMENTS OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE (EHM)
All students in the EHM strand successfully completed their course work in the nursing assistant program at WCTC just before the Thanksgiving break. Students are now taking their written and practical exams through the State of Wisconsin to become certified nursing assistants. Several even have CNA jobs lined up already! Congrats to all EHM students on a job well done!
These students also continued to track the fictitious bacterial meningitis outbreak in their Medical Interventions course by learning about bacteria pathogens, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. They completed two labs in which they grew bacteria. In one, they tested the effectiveness of various antibiotics on two different bacterial species. In another, they observed how bacteria can transfer antibiotic resistance genes to each other.
In the Advanced Math & Analytics course, students learned about asking statistical questions and how to gather, clean, and organize raw experimental data.
Below: Alyssa K places discs of antibiotics on bacteria cultures
|
|
|
|
|
BIOMEDICAL INNOVATIONS
After working through our introductory mission this year, we have moved into Mission Two. Mission Two is focused on research-based studies and finding significant statistical data. We began this mission a few weeks ago, learning to differentiate between authentic sources and fictitious skewed data.
Many corporations and large businesses often use certain statistical fallacies to help buttress their business idea or product. To better understand this, we created fake products for which we used statistical fallacies to sell. For example, one classmate created a steroid-type product named “BM Performance” and stated in his presentation that “happiness points increased when people consumed the product.” Students in the class had to debunk his misconceptions. Questions such as, “What is the basis for calculating happiness points?” and “How are happiness points not just a random correlation to your product?” were asked. These presentations provided us with a basis for how to create significant and factual data.
Our final product for this mission is a poster presentation based on a research study we conducted. We are currently in the process of developing this study. Each of us selected a question that could be answered through specific quantitative data. Luckily, we have fantastic access to many different medical instruments and probes to help us through these studies. We will continue to collect and analyze the significance of this data using unique strategies such as a t-test. Although this is independently structured, we collaborate, bounce ideas off each other, and grow as biomedical students.
|
|
BUSINESS INNOVATIONS
In the Business Innovations Strand, Mr. Upton, the Entrepreneurship teacher at Pewaukee High School, makes each class informative and exciting by doing something new every day to help get students excited about their learning topics. We are currently learning about customer segments. We created customer personas, journey maps, and empathy maps to understand how businesses attract and retain customers.
Wisconsin Metal Parts, the company that we have been working with, tasked us with discovering how facility managers across the country would use the product they have been developing. Recently, the class interviewed John Stangler, the Director of Buildings & Grounds and Safety Coordinator at Pewaukee School District. Using thoughtful and engaging questions, we have been able to help Wisconsin Metal Parts get the information they need to build their product.
We are only halfway through the first semester of the school year and have already had so many interesting and exciting experiences. The rest of the school year will bring more opportunities to develop new skills and real-world experiences
|
|
|
|
|
ENGINEERING INNOVATIONS
In Engineering Design and Development, we have started our year-long project. Our goal is to create a product that solves a problem in our lives. Each group has chosen a problem and started researching that problem's prior solutions.
Our class will tackle four problems:
- sunglasses getting scratched
- mouse cables getting tangled
- package hazards
- listening safely to music while skiing
Each group brainstormed solutions to these problems. Each member of the group had to come up with at least 25 additional answers to their problem. Then, with those solutions, each person picked their top 7 and sketched them out to present to their group. Next, in our groups, we will discuss our sketches and decide which idea will move forward.
We have been communicating back and forth with our mentors. Our mentors will guide us through the design process during this project. Depending on our mentor, some groups may even use the designs to build prototypes of their solution. This year our mentors will teach us about their careers and become a beneficial resource for our project.
|
|
TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT INTERNSHIP (TSI)
(written by Ben N)
|
In the technology support internship class I have been hard at work improving my technology repair skills and technological knowledge. I am given a lot of power over how I want my day to look in this class. When in class I will find myself doing 1 of 4 things: I might be working on taking one of two certification classes that I will complete throughout the school year, or when I am not learning how to better work with technology through those two programs I will likely be fixing other students computers or working on a technology based project I am going to do.
The two certification programs give me a measurable way to show other people what I have learned. Both of the certification courses that I am doing throughout the year are going to teach me things that I personally will use both outside of school and in school. Even if I do not go into a field that has to do with IT it still shows to other people that I know about a wide range of subjects and are willing to learn, which is a valued skill. After a lesson in the certification I am doing right now, they make sure that I am able to apply the knowledge right away through the use of a simulated lab test that helps you see where my new skills may be useful when dealing with computers.
Fixing other students' computers is a big part of the class. When taking the two certifications I will be sitting at the TSI desk located next to the school library so that I am available to help other students that are experiencing technical difficulties. The most common issue with students’ computers is physical damage. When taking this class I have become very familiar with how a computer works and how to replace everything efficiently. The computer skills gained from even just trying to figure out what is causing the problem are very hard to find without having a class like this that provides such a unique opportunity.
It is also possible to work on a project of your choosing as well. These can be a wide range of things that are fun to do and also something that you might not see yourself doing if you were not taking this class. One student from a previous year built a working arcade machine using Chromebook parts and some scrap wood. Larger student driven projects are something that is offered to many students taking the class. I am planning on doing a project where I am going to lay out a Chromebook’s insides onto a piece of wood so that you can see all of the parts at once and then arrange them so that the Chromebook still works.
(Below: Ben helps a student with Chromebook issues)
|
|
|
|
|
ADVANCED WRITING AND COMMUNICATIONS
This month the Advanced Writing for the Media Insight course is focusing on two projects. The first is our printed publication of the Hook. We are just a few weeks away from printing and being able to distribute copies school wide. We are aiming for a Dec 15th distribution day, but we are most certainly going to be distributing prior to winter break. The students have worked so hard on this fall edition and we cannot wait for everyone to read it.
The other project is our updated podcast, The Bait. Hosts Grace, Elena, and Kiley have decided to go with a specific theme for this entire year. The focus will be on Juvenescence, a collection of recordings that focus on the student condition, struggles, and successes. We cannot wait for our next Bait episode to be released mid December! Watch for it to be linked in our next newsletter, and catch up on prior episodes on Spotify!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
