College of Professional Studies
The Pointer
lgern177@uwsp.edu
On any given day of the week, one can walk into the CPS Café and find a multitude of students enjoying the friendly cafeteria ambiance, fueling their minds and bodies with local, organic and homemade food during gaps in their busy schedules.
But one can take a step beyond the café and explore the hallways of the building that houses it—the College of Professional Studies—and find a place equally unique. From the children’s classrooms to the art studios, it’s clear students here have a distinctly hands-on education.
This may explain why students in the CPS achieve high success both in academic and vocational pursuits.
“I appreciate the partnerships our units make with professionals in central Wisconsin and the high achievements of students through testing on national exams higher than the national norm,” Joan North, the dean of the CPS, said.
According to the official CPS handbook, “students’ pass rate on national exams consistently outranks the national average such as clinical lab sciences, 95 percent to 65 percent nationally or or audiology, 100 percent to 70 percent.
The college has also achieved measured athletic success, finishing in the top 25 out of 441 division three schools for the past 10 consecutive years.
But none of this success would be possible without the hard work of the individual students that comprise the academic college.
Some note-worthy students this year include senior family and consumer science student Sarah Siegel, who received a Student Honor Award from the National Council on Family Relations; health promotion students Corey Towle, Dominick Meyer, Cory Baumann and Mark Mitchell, who all went to the National Championships for cross country; and students Kelsey McCoy, Laura Neuenfeldt and Jennifer Tewes, who were recognized for their outstanding jobs with Employee Wellness activities.
Health promotion and human development students also prepared for their careers by attending three national conferences: the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Chicago, the 18th Annual Worksite Wellness Conference in Middleton and the National Council of Family Relations 70th Annual Conference in Arkansas.
“I love representing this college,” North said. “It’s so full of life, making a real difference in students’ lives.”
