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Continuing Studies goes to the State Fair!

Today, thousands of Milwaukee Metropolitan School District students got up early to start their first day of school–and many of them had been helped to get ready for the big day by UW-Madison Continuing Studies staff!

On Aug. 8, staff members Judith Strand, Antonio Noguera, and Ileana Rodríguez transported a large collection of school supplies donated by Continuing Studies staff members to the Wisconsin State Fair as part of a campus-wide campaign to help disadvantaged Milwaukee Public Schools students.

Continuing Studies staff joined forces with campus colleagues to take part in the UW-Madison Day at the Wisconsin State Fair. The three Continuing Studies ambassadors set up an informational booth and were busy all day greeting visitors and sharing information about Continuing Studies programs. The booth showcased two activities that drew significant interest: the Community Art Project and the Learn Spanish in 3 Minutes.

Judith Strand, associate dean and director of Adult Career and Special Student Services, and Ileana Rodriguez, senior outreach specialist, helped interested adults and children add personal artwork to the Community Quilt–a project with roots in the popular summer program, School of Arts in Rhinelander. Visitors were enthusiastic to learn the technique and add their unique ‘stamps’ to the State Fair canvas.

Among the many faculty and staff dressed in Badger red, Spanish language instructor Antonio Noguera introduced visitors to a few Spanish expressions using flash cards featuring Spanish words related to the State Fair and UW-Madison campus. Ileana moved back and forth from the art project to the language activity to help Antonio, because  his language activity had an immense amount of traffic throughout the day.  Parents and children were enthusiastic to experience a UW-Madison language course “on the road.”

For more about the day’s activities, which included science displays and an appearance by Bucky Badger, check out the story on Wisc.edu.