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"There is probably no academic field more adaptable and responsive to changing societal needs over the past century
than the field of home economics. "
UWSP Professor Emerita Mary Ann Baird
Home Economics Centennial Steering Committee
For over 100 years, home economics has continued to shift with evolving changes in society, becoming more specialized in some
areas and branching out into new fields. Now, the programs descending from the original home economics at Stevens Point Normal
prepare students to become registered dieticians, design functional and healthy work environments, and guide high school
students and families as family living specialists. These programs would not exist without the pioneering work of the first
mothers who created the field of home economics.
At this time in the history of UW-Stevens Point, the story of home economics is one of a rich past and of unprecedented
opportunity for the future. At this transition, it behooves us to pause and celebrate the past while we look toward our
future. Like all great people and institutions at a crossroads, we look for what we need to do to take the next steps to
excellence. This next step is to forge bonds with distinguished professionals who will work with our students and faculty to
face new challenges. The Home Economics Centennial Endowment fund was created to do just that.
The Home Economics Centennial Endowment
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 n Dietetics and Nutritional Sciences
It is too costly to send all of our dietetics students to national conferences, so they don't have the opportunity to meet the
well-known faces and names in the field. They miss the excitement of conversations with people who are on the cutting edge of
new developments. They know their own experiences with foods in the past, but seldom have much exposure to unfolding national
and international developments. After all, they are just beginning their orientation to the professional world of dietetics and
many long-time professionals do not have the opportunity to meet the trend-makers. We want to have the opportunity to give our
students a jump-start, an early opportunity to learn from the book-writers in the field and to see themselves as the next
generation of "big names."
Furthermore, dietetics is an interdisciplinary field, often spilling over to agriculture, politics, advertising, business,
chemistry, bacteriology, global issues, genetically modified organisms, popular culture, food science and so forth. No campus
has the breadth and depth of faculty to explore all emerging issues within the required classes. We want to broaden our
students' exposure beyond what is normally offered in a dietetics curriculum. With financial assistance from the Home Economics
Centennial Endowment for Outstanding Professionals, we will look for exciting, cutting-edge professionals to spend a month on
campus providing a total immersion course for students, workshops and brown bag discussions with faculty, research opportunities
for nutrition graduate students, and advice about expanding the curriculum into news-breaking areas.
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n Family and Consumer Education
Family and consumer education graduates have extensive professional involvement with families in our diverse society. They work
with youths and adults to improve conditions within the family, in the workplace, and in the community. Family and consumer
education professionals in all of these settings help others develop the skills needed to address the complex issues facing
families today.
And today's families and communities face very complex issues. While our academic program addresses these many challenges,
there is scarce time for students to develop in-depth experiences with a particular aspect of family/community life. With the
funds from the Home Economics Centennial Endowment, we will create supervised student practicum experiences with outstanding
practitioners in UW-Extension or community agencies in one or more of those challenge areas. These focused practica will give
our students strong specialties, experience with real-life problems, and connections to outstanding professionals.
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n Interior Architecture
In the interior architecture major, we schedule several field trips a year so that our students gain exposure to design and
architecture firms in the Midwest. Students see these professionals at their work place and can envision themselves as
successful practitioners. While these visits are crucial to expanding students' views of the field, they are short and focused
on the professionals' work. We need to provide more in-depth experiences with outstanding designers and one in which the
professionals mentor, critique and interact with our students and faculty.
The best design programs bring in big names from the field for a lecture or two. We want to provide even more for our
students. With funding from the Home Economics Centennial Endowment, we will invite an outstanding practitioner to spend as
much as a week on campus working with the juniors and seniors on their capstone projects.
With yearly access to these super-stars, our students will enter the design world not only with better knowledge and
understanding of new directions anticipated, but also with personal acquaintance with some of the biggest names making news
in the field. We are convinced that this exposure will assist our students both personally and professionally to gain
leadership positions in whatever work they choose. In sum, this endowment will give unprecedented opportunities to our
undergraduate students and catapult the reputation of our program.
Summary
Through the UWSP Home Economics Endowment we can mobilize some of the best professionals in the world into in-depth
relationships with our students and faculty in family and consumer education, dietetics, and interior architecture. These
special relationships will enrich our students, expand our curricula, and spotlight our home economics history.
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