Student Achievements
Janay Alston of Whitewater is the spring 2009 student commencement speaker. Alston will graduate from the College of Letters and Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in social work.
Kimberly Ashby, a senior education major from Loves Park, Ill., and Garrett Volpendesta, a freshman in theater performance from Sharon, won an online audition to sing with Broadway stars during the "100 Years of Broadway" musical at Young Auditorium. Ashby won top honors and sang a solo during "Seasons of Love" while Volpendesta was runner-up and sang in the chorus.
Joe Chambers of Davis, Calif., was named Player of the Year and first team All-American by the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Intercollegiate Division. Wheelchair basketball team member Chris Okon of Mayvillle was named second-team All-American.
Joshua Figurski of Hartland is the 2009 UW-Whitewater National Alumni Outstanding Junior Award winner for the College of Business and Economics. Figurski is an accounting major with a 4.0 grade point average.
Nicole James of Fond du Lac received the McGraw Award for Student Excellence. James graduated with honors in December 2008 with a degree in instrumental music education and a 3.947 cumulative grade point average.
Sophomore Jordan Leahy from Dane won top honors at the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization’s (CEO) conference. The Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence selected Leahy’s hero story on Richard Kessler, of Kessler’s Diamond Center, as one of the three winning stories from the "Take an Entrepreneur to Lunch" pilot.
Tasha Mills of Westby is the 2009 UW-Whitewater National Alumni Outstanding Junior Award winner for the College of Arts and Communication. She is a public relations major with a 3.868 grade point average.
Senior Luis Ortiz from Chicago, Ill., was named a student ambassador at the National Safety Council’s (NSC) conference.
Seniors Ashley Smith, an education major from Elgin, Ill., and William Thomas, an art major from Beloit, received the Reuben Klumb Outstanding Senior awards for their student leadership through campus involvement, scholarship and extra-curricular activities.
Alison Spankowski of Menomonee Falls is the UW-Whitewater National Alumni Outstanding Junior Award winner for the College of Letters and Sciences. She is double major in psychology and Spanish with a 3.92 grade point average.
Lindsey Sveum of Edgerton is the UW-Whitewater National Alumni Outstanding Junior Award winner for the College of Education. She is an early childhood education major with a 4.0 grade point average.
Twenty-one students participated in a travel-study class to Shama, Ghana in January. The students donated school supplies to the Ghanaian students and $1,600 toward the development of a new wing for St. Peter’s primary school.
Students in a health and wellness class donated the largest amount of Christmas presents in the area to Third World countries such as Cameroon, Kenya, Mongolia and Rwanda. The students packed 122 shoeboxes full of soap, clothes, school supplies toys and hard candy.
Members of the Student Optimist club spent spring break volunteering in orphanages in Belize. They also raised $3,000 to purchase supplies for the children in the orphanages.
