Family and Consumer Education Students Beth Botwinski | Dawn Arndt | Jodi Cherwenka | Julie Rochford ig Brothers & Sisters of Portage County Provides children from single-parent families with a positive role model that is based on adult friendship, guidance and encouragement in a one-to-one relationship. Project Fresh Start-Sponsored by the United Way Providing children with school supplies During the summer of 2001, Beth Botwinski, a Family and Consumer Education major, interned at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Portage County. As an intern, Beth had many responsibilities that ranged from working with case-managers to helping set up one of the agencies' biggest events of the year; Bike for Kids Sake. Beth enjoyed the variety of her duties. She had input on what she did and could focus on the jobs she felt were the most important to her. Something she found to be very rewarding was working within the community at various fund raising events. Some of these included Herschner's cookout, Crazy Dayz (where she and other volunteers were able to answer questions from the public and recruit new volunteers for the program), Project Fresh Start (sponsored by the United Way-which gives children all the necessary school supplies to start a new year, that they may not have been able to afford), and Bike for Kids Sake. Bike for Kids Sake is one of the agencies' biggest events along with Bowl for Kids Sake. Beth felt this was the most memorable experience she had with BBBS. She found volunteers and sponsors and also biked herself to help raise money to fund the agency. Since her internship, Beth still works closely with the agency, volunteering and helping out whenever needed. Everything about her experience has been positive since she was able to communicate with her caseworker about the types of duties she felt comfortable doing. The biggest reward from her internship has been becoming a Big Sister to her Little Brother Cody. Without the internship, she may have never have met him. awn Arndt finishes up her degree in family and consumer education in time for May 2002 graduation. During the Spring 2002 term she served as an intern with a FCE teacher at Fort Atkinson high school. Dawn grew up in Ontario, WI near La Crosse on a dairy and beef farm. With 2 older brothers helping, her chores were mostly indoors. Her Mom ,Donna, a 1969 UWSP graduate, taught family and consumer education for 25 years at Brookwood high school. After trying out pre-architecture and elementary education, Dawn found the same interest in family and consumer education as her Mother had. She was a camp counselor and found that she loved kids and wanted to find a career that allowed her to work with them. She thinks that family and consumer education is a field that teaches students life skills that they will use every day and allows students to be creative in their approaches to teaching. �There are so many aspects of the field that you can�t get bored and it is more important than ever as society faces the breakdown of family structures, divorce, nutrition problems, parenting challenges, finances,� she says. Dawn faced the terrible loss of her mother after her sophomore year in high school and determined that she would want her to develop a deep inner drive to go on. And she did, graduating at the top of her class and succeeding in three sports. She is a real role model for others and all her faculty members know that her mother would be very impressed and proud. In February she is interviewing for a two-year job in China to teach English to middle school teachers. odi Cherwenka is one of those so-called �non-traditional� students who came to higher education after pursuing other experiences. In Jodi�s case, he drove a semi, served in the Army for three years, was a certified nursing assistant, worked in restaurants�to name a few. Over the course of these experiences, he realized that he really felt drawn to the face-to-face experiences with people where one could better understand them and their backgrounds. Like looking for human development-type majors at a variety of campuses, he found family and consumer education to be the best match with his interests and the warmest atmosphere. A first generation college graduate, Jodi hails from Merrill. He considers himself warm, approachable, energetic, ambitious and still has a bit of the �juvenile� in him. All these traits are well suited for his first job after graduating December 2001�teaching family and consumer education at Kaukauna High School. His challenge is 145 student all with different needs, including three deaf students. He notes that mostly juniors and seniors are in his classes, so he is preparing his students with the skills and information they will need right away in the adult world. He sees that family and consumer education can help break certain negative cycles for families, like abuse. He credits UWSP faculty members for their professionalism, preparation and diligence. They were always prepared. He says, patience is a virtue.� It took time and experimenting for him to find his niche, but now he knows this is for him. ulie Rochford, youngest of three children, found UWSP by by-passing UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout where her older siblings went. That makes for a long drive home to Eden Prairie, outside of Minneapolis, but Julie has loved her time in Stevens Point. Julie has a major in family and consumer education, non-certification option, which means for Julie that she is planning to find work interacting with children in a non-school setting. Her internship this summer at her home town YMCA is just the sort of place she dreams of. Her passion for kids and strong belief in families brought her naturally to the non-certification option in family and consumer education. She believes that her major will only grow in importance as the need for stronger families becomes more and more obvious. Julie has volunteered almost her whole time at UWSP, particularly at the Homework Center located in a low-income housing area. Even children who don't have any homework pretend that they do in order to play with Julie. Julie was also on UWSP's first varsity women's hockey team on which she played for two years. She loves her friends and says that the 30 or so people in her class all know and help each other. Julie at 20 years old and the older majors exchange helping hands. She says that she also talks with her parents at least three times a day. That's a close family!
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