News & Events

Written by Kristine Zaballos | Photos by Craig Schreiner and Kyle Winter

For the ninth consecutive year, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has been named among the Colleges of Distinction, a national honor that recognizes campuses for exceptional teaching and dedication to student success. UW-Whitewater is one of just five public universities in the state to receive this distinction.

For the second year in a row, UW-Whitewater has been awarded the international badge, and is the only public university other than UW-Madison in the state to earn this distinction. To be recognized, UW-Whitewater must be seen as a university that goes above and beyond to support international students, demonstrating their dedication to helping students from around the world not only adjust — but truly thrive.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for the educational experience international students are having at UW-Whitewater. Small classes, approachable professors, welcoming community — these are just some of the things that allow international students to experience the best of what UWW and the US have to offer,” said John McGuigan, director of the Center for Global Education. “And just as our Warhawks can learn and grow through studying overseas, they benefit as well from working side-by-side with students from around the world. International students bring such a wide range of experiences and perspectives to the classroom and campus. They add real vitality to the campus and local community.”

UW-Whitewater is also the only university among the Universities of Wisconsin to earn a badge in military support, recognizing an institution’s efforts to support and cultivate the skills that military students bring to the classroom while helping them achieve their personal and professional goals. Among the resources and support services recognized by the badge are the university’s Veterans, Military Service and Family Members Lounge, two full-time veterans support staff members, an active Chancellor’s Committee on Veterans and Military Student Success and a dedicated website of resources for students.

The international and military support badges round out existing badges that highlight UW-Whitewater’s excellence in business, education, equity and inclusion and as a public institution in Wisconsin. And it continues to be the only college in the Universities of Wisconsin to earn the career development badge and one of just two universities in the state to be awarded the affordability badge.

To be named a College of Distinction, UW-Whitewater demonstrates continued excellence in undergraduate education in such factors as student engagement, teaching excellence, outcomes-based learning, and community involvement. This evaluation process differs from those of popular college rankings publications, whose formulas grade institutions based on factors like faculty salaries, endowment size, and peer opinion.

The Colleges of Distinction selection process consists of a review of each institution’s freshman experience and retention efforts alongside its general education programs, alumni success, strategic plan, student satisfaction, and other criteria. Schools are accepted on the basis that they adhere to the four distinctions: engaged students, great teaching, successful outcomes and vibrant community.

Distinction 1: Engaged students

Distinction 2: Great teaching

Distinction 3: Vibrant communities

Distinction 4: Successful outcomes

Editor’s note: For additional information regarding the persons depicted in the photos above, please click here.

The Young Performing Arts Center at UW-W is expected to announce its ’25-26 season soon, but the first show already sold out, resulting in the addition of an additional performance. Wisconsin native comedian Charlie Berens is returning, “with brand new material” in a show called Working it All Out, on Friday, September 12. The 7:00 p.m. show sold out long ago, but as of noon on July 30, 233 tickets are still available on the website for the 9:30 p.m. show. Seats are priced at $45-50. The ticket office is closed until late August, but in case of questions a message may be left for the staff at (262) 472-2222.

Editor’s note: The following is from the Young website.

CHARLIE BERENS is a comedian, New York Times Best Selling Author, Emmy-winning journalist, musician and creator of the Manitowoc Minute. The Wisconsin native has been featured on Comedy Central, Fox, CBS, Funny or Die, TBS, Variety, MTV News and more. He creates weekly content for his various social platforms and has amassed over 7.5 million followers.

Charlie began his career working for MTV News’ Choose or Lose. After that he worked in front and behind the camera for emerging YouTube news channels. In 2012, Tribune Media tapped Charlie to host the comedic news show Nightcap. In 2013 he won an Emmy for “The Cost of Water” while reporting for KDAF.

In 2017, Charlie began hosting his weekly comedic online news show, the Manitowoc Minute. Since then, Charlie’s been creating Midwest-focused sketch comedy videos on his social media platforms. He’s also traveled the country with three sold out stand-up comedy tours.

In 2020, Charlie paired up with Horseshoes & Hand Grenades alum Adam Greul to release the music/comedy album, Unthawed. The album, which is a mixture of bluegrass, country and Charlie’s comedy, hit #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass chart and #6 on the Bluegrass Comedy chart.

Charlie’s first book, The Midwest Survival Guide, was released in November of 2021 by William Morrow/Harper Collins and immediately became a New York Times Best Seller! Charlie is currently on his third stand-up tour in support of the book’s release. His Midwest Survival Guide Tour sold over 150,000 tickets!

Charlie hosts the Cripescast podcast where he interviews musicians, artists, comedians, creators and more to talk about their story and connections to the Midwest. Guests have included Jeff Foxworthy, Nate Bargatze and Roy Wood, Jr.

Studio 84 is pleased to announce that Second Saturdays are back! Every second Saturday of the month Studio 84 will open its doors to the community with a new and exciting artistic adventure. We are extremely grateful to the Geneva Lake Women’s Association for their grant, making Second Saturdays possible again.

Second Saturdays provides the opportunity to drop in, hang out and participate in a fun artistic activity as a family, group or individual at no cost. Staff and volunteers will be on hand to provide any assistance needed and at the end you’ll be able to take your new art piece home with you!

Studio 84 is a non-profit art studio, gallery and store located at 121 W. Center St. in downtown Whitewater. Our mission is to provide fully accessible opportunities in the arts to enrich people’s lives. Our regular weekday programming provides individual guidance and instruction to people of all ages and abilities for a cost. We are privileged to be able to provide this free opportunity to create art together as a community thanks to the generosity of the Geneva Lake Women’s Association. 

An adult must accompany kids under the age of twelve. Anyone with special needs may also be required to have a guardian or caregiver present depending on their needs. 

You can learn more about Studio 84 at our webstite www.studio84inc.org , Facebook @ Studio84, Inc. or Instagram @ studio84inc

Photos courtesy of Tom Ganser

“The Greatest Beer Run Ever”

Friday, August 1, 1 p.m.

(Adventure/War Drama/True Story)

Rated R(language); 2 hours, 6 minutes (2022).

Join us Friday afternoon, August 1 at 1 pm to celebrate International Beer Day worldwide! 

An anonymous donor will provide the PBR and pretzels!! This is a true story of a friend who delivers beer to his buddies in combat during the Vietnam War. Yes, it really did happen!! Stars Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, and Bill Murray. 

Seniors in the Park is located in Starin Park, 504 W. Starin Road. Although there is no charge to attend, regular participants are encouraged to join Seniors in the Park. The annual fee for residents of the Whitewater Unified School District is $10 and non-residents is $15. The funds support about half of the cost of our front desk staff person for 15 hours per week. The rest comes out of our fundraising monies. If you cannot afford the fee, we have a fund that will cover it for you. Fees are accepted at the Starin Park Community Building or online at https://schedulesplus.com/wwtr/kiosk/

Editor’s note: Updated on 7/29/25 @ 3:40 p.m. to revise and add on to the paragraph below, per the submitter.

Whitewater’s 2025 4th of July Festival was all about celebrating the freedom our families, friends and community enjoy All Year Round. Congratulations to this year’s parade winners and a massive thank you to Whitewater Lions Club, First Citizens State Bank and the Friends of the Fourth donors for putting on a spectacular parade!!! A huge shout out to Lisa Dawsey Smith for her hard work and excellent organizational skills for making the 4th of July weekend a success!

Editor’s note: The homepage photo of Whippets Football is courtesy of Tom Ganser. Article submitted courtesy of Donna Segraves.

UW-Whitewater Foundation announces new Board Directors to help lead $50 million minimum campaign

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Foundation is proud to announce the appointment of seven distinguished alumni to its Board of Directors, effective July 1, 2025. From healthcare to high-tech, these seven Warhawk alumni leaders bring a remarkable depth of experience — more than 210 years in total — to their roles supporting the university and UW-Whitewater Foundation.

The new directors will serve as champions of the foundation’s historic comprehensive campaign, which is aimed at raising a minimum of $50 million to support student scholarships, faculty excellence, and capital improvements, including critical renovations to Winther Hall, home of UW-Whitewater’s College of Education and Professional Studies.

“Our new directors embody the leadership, passion, and Warhawk spirit we need to guide the UW-Whitewater Foundation through our most ambitious campaign in history,” said Katie Kuznacic, vice chancellor for university relations and president of the UW-Whitewater Foundation. “Each of them brings exceptional professional experience and a deep personal commitment to our mission. Together, we are charting a bold path to transform lives through education.”

The incoming directors include:

• Steven Brown ’90 – Vice president of culture + engagement, talent acquisition, and early talent at Molson Coors Beverage Company
• Mark Gmach ’83 – Retired Northwestern Mutual executive and co-director of financial planning at UW-Whitewater
• Andrew Hoeft ’15 – Entrepreneur and founder of Pinpoint Software, recent executive turned consultant for Upshop 
• Scott Richardson ’97 – Managing partner at Atlas Wealth Advisers
• Lindsay Scheidell ’04 – Founder of Hadley Public Relations and senior advisor in strategic community relations 
• Gayle Stettler ’74 – Former educator and business leader in construction and property management
• Mike Warmuth ’85 – Former executive vice president at Abbott Laboratories and global healthcare strategist
  

“As we invest in our future, we proudly lean into the strength of our alumni – leaders who have answered the call to be Warhawk Bold. Their leadership and service as Foundation Board members speak volumes about their continued commitment to UW-Whitewater’s mission and core values. Together, they join the entire university community in advancing student success. We are honored to welcome them to this pivotal role,” said Chancellor Corey A. King.

A new chair will lead the directors in 2025-26. Sally Bean, who served as vice chair for the last two years, began a two-year term as foundation board chair on July 1. Bean, who has served on the board since 2013, earned a BBA in management from UW-Whitewater in 1981 and an MBA in 1986. She retired in 2016 from Ecolab following a successful career in supply chain management.

The “Our Stories. Our Future.” campaign publicly launched June 12 and is focused on transforming student access, enhancing academic excellence, and revitalizing campus infrastructure to meet 21st-century needs.

For more information about the UW-Whitewater Foundation or to get involved in the campaign, visit uww.edu/campaign.

About UW-Whitewater

At the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, we inspire, engage and transform lives. Founded in 1868, we serve more than 11,500 students and celebrate more than 100,000 alumni around the world. Our faculty and staff are devoted to student success on our Whitewater campus, our Rock County campus, and our vibrant online environment. We prepare innovative, resilient students with outstanding skills that make them strong candidates for 21st-century careers and community leadership. We embrace our priority mission to serve students with disabilities. Home to the Warhawk family, UW-Whitewater delivers a supportive, caring culture with an entrepreneurial spirit and championship drive.

About the UW-Whitewater Foundation

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Foundation serves with professionalism and integrity to benefit the university and its alumni, students, faculty, and staff. The Foundation team drives long-term university support through strategic engagement and impactful giving, supporting UW-Whitewater’s transformative programs that facilitate student success. Using a collaborative, results-driven approach, the Foundation works closely with donors, philanthropists, and other stakeholders to fulfill aspirations and legacy for the good of the university. Learn more at uww.edu/foundation.

The high school robotics off-season is in full swing, and 21 members of Ferradermis spent this past weekend competing at MROC, the Mukwonago Robotics Offseason Competition, held at Mukwonago High School on July 26 and 27. The event featured 26 robots that competed in the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition season as well as a brand new robot from a new team at Edgewood High School that Ferradermis has been helping get started.

One of the great things about attending off-season events is the “extras” that the host teams are able to include in the schedule in terms of education, entertainment, and service. MROC kicked off with two hours of team workshops on Saturday morning. Twelve different workshops were hosted by representatives of 13 different teams, including a session presented by seniors Chacha Binagi, Erison Dreksler, and Margaret Brown on how Ferradermis uses the free tools of Basecamp, Canva, and pivot tables within Google Sheets to manage team communication, workflow, budgeting, team branding, and more. Other team members were able to attend 2 – 4 workshop sessions each on everything from fundraising and outreach to specific technologies used by other teams to build and control their robots.

Throughout the competition, the MROC Live desk provided commentary between matches. Both Margaret Brown and Chacha Binagi took a shift at the desk, sharing information about projects that Ferradermis is working on including 3D printer waste recycling and state level advocacy for robotics programming. Binagi was also given the opportunity to announce during the mentor matches where students fill all official field roles, including refereeing and drive coaching, while the adult mentors get to control the robots. Head Coach Mark Zimmermann and Engineering Mentor Quinn McKenzie took the controls for Ferradermis during their mentor match, while Programming Mentor Andy McKenzie and Team Administrator Laura Masbruch filled the roles of Technician and Human Player respectively. Erison Dreskler stepped in as Drive Coach. On Sunday, the students took to the field in Human Player matches, where they played in place of the robots. Jayden Kehrer, Chacha Binagi, Owen Taylor, and Mason Genung each participated in matches that stretched the limits of the students’ creativity in ways to score (or not score) during the match.  A team social at the end of the day on Saturday gave teams the chance to get to know each other through soccer, oversized yard games, and some pretty serious dodgeball along with free ice cream sundaes.

The FIRST program emphasizes volunteerism and service, and many off-season events will include some sort of community service aspect. The MROC host team, Team 930 from Mukwonago, conducted a school supply drive as part of the event, and Ferradermis members donated enough supplies to contribute two full backpacks. Ferradermis is now working to collect new LEGO sets to be donated to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee as part of a fall off-season competition in Muskego. If community members would like to contribute LEGO sets, they may be dropped off in the high school office after school starts or shipped directly to Laura Masbruch at Whitewater High School at 534 South Elizabeth Street.

Throughout the competition, the Ferradermis robot, Chief of the Reef, was led onto the field by Driver Margaret Brown, Operator Erison Dreksler, Technician Ace Hudec, Human Player Jayden Kehrer, and Drive Coach Mark Zimmermann. Videographer Vivian Harris captured footage of each match for the drive team for immediate review after the match. Cooper Housel wore the team’s media badge and documented the team’s every move throughout the weekend.

Already having a great familiarity with most of the robots in the competition, Ferradermis opted to gather minimal scouting data, just enough to allow the new freshmen in attendance, Owen Taylor, Paxton Wilson, Mason Genung, and Wyatt Meyers, to get a feel for using the scouting tablets. Their scouting work was overseen by veteran members, including Rae Breisath, Elora Wildermuth-Breitzman, Asher Downs, Georgia Esch, Virginia Nelson, and Andrew Zimmermann, and mentor Kevin Housel.

Ferradermis played to a 7-3-1 record in their 11 qualification matches, ranking 5th out of 27 robots at the end of qualifications. Programming Subteam Lead Ace Hudec had been working closely with mentor Andy McKenzie and other members of the programming team including Emilie Bruns, Carson Miller, and Wyatt Meyers in the weeks leading up to MROC to construct the team’s first ever custom button board. The button board uses an Arduino and provides 24 buttons to send commands to the robot. Many of the buttons are positioned on the board to match the layout of the field and are used to tell the robot to access vision with the April Tags (similar to QR codes) on the field to automatically align itself to score in a particular position. The Design and Assembly Team, including Preston Miller, Vivian Harris, Owen Taylor, Mason Genung, and Paxton Wilson worked with mentor Quinn McKenzie to design and build the physical case to hold the button board. Even though the actual season is over, the team never stops experimenting and learning to make improvements to the robot, and the button board was a resounding success.

During alliance selections, Ferradermis moved up to become the Captain of the #4 seeded playoff alliance. Represented on the field by Scouting Specialist Rae Breisath, drive team representative Erison Dreksler, and new member Owen Taylor, Ferradermis invited Team 93, NEW Apple Corps from Appleton to join our alliance. Team 93 had been ranked 8^th after qualifications so had the option to accept the invitation or decline and form their own alliance. They chose to accept the invitation from Ferradermis and the two teams then invited Appleton’s second robot, operating as team 9993, to fill out the alliance.

The alliance started off strong in the double-elimination playoffs, defeating the #5 seed 100-78. They then fell to the #1 seed and eventual champion alliance led by Team 1732  Hilltopper Robotics from Marquette University High School. In their third and final playoff match, the Ferradermis alliance lost a heartbreaker to the #7 seed, 63-43 when both Appleton robots died on the field in the early stages of the match, leaving the Ferradermis robot to score alone. As a result, the alliance finished their weekend in a tie for 5^th place.

Nina Heim and Chacha Binagi were excited to host new WUSD Superintendent Samuel Karns when he visited on Sunday. They were able to watch some of our matches with him to explain this season’s game as well as provide a tour of the pits where teams work on their robots.

The team would like to give a shout-out to mentors Tori Breisath, Kevin Housel, and Kat Dunham for supporting them in the stands throughout the event and to Tori for transporting the robot and equipment. FIRST Robotics Competitions are run entirely by volunteers, and at this event Laura Masbruch was able to serve as a queuer while team parent and WUSD Robotics Booster Club Member Alan Trautman served as a judge.

The team will again be open to new members starting at our annual parent meeting scheduled for Wednesday, September 17, at 6:00 pm, in the Whitewater High School library. All parents of new and veteran members should plan to attend this meeting. The team is open to any current Whitewater High School student as well as home-schooled students residing within the physical boundaries of the school district. Parents of students in grades 4 – 12 can learn about the entirety of the robotics program in the WUSD during the back-to-school registration event at Whitewater High School on August 5. Ferradermis will take the field for two more off-season competitions in October – TWIST at Muskego High School and Roboteer Rumble in Tremont, Illinois.

Article and Photos Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Robotics Advisor
lmasbruch@wwusd.org