Where in the world is... "Admissions Nicole?"

Elkhorn HS turned it out today and turned me into...

 PETER BRADY!  (Click on the link to see what I mean!).

Just a funny story "from the road" today...

At 1:00p.m. today at Elkorn Area High School, Counselor Ellen Holly warmly greeted me with "PARKSIDE!  I am always talking about your school to our students!" 

She then said that she thought she would have 8 students for me - well, it swelled to 22!  The students and I had a great group conversation about UW-P and I touched on each of the majors they were interested in.  They had GREAT questions and many stayed after as late as 2:30 to ask me additional questions. 

By the end of my visit I literally had no voice left and the students and I were joking about how I sounded like a 12 year old boy!   Elkhorn - you literally talked me out (which is a first for me)! 

Thank you Ellen for referring your students to us and a big thank the EAHS students for a great visit!  We hope all of you visit us at UW-Parkside very soon!

Now, back to my hot tea and lemon... I have four high school visits tomorrow!

See ya on the road,

~ Nicole

WEF @ UWP FRI. OCT 16th!

It's that time of year again, when the Wisconsin Education Fair (a.k.a. WEF) comes to our corner of the state and UW-Parkside will once again be host to the fair! 

What is a WEF?   

WEFS are college fairs held throughout various regions of the state every mid-Sept through mid-October.  They give all students in our state the opportunity to meet with 100+ representatives from 2-year, 4-year, public/private universities and colleges as well as tech schools, military and specialty schools. 

If you are a high school junior or senior (or parent of one) you need to have a post-high school plan in place and this is the best place to learn about the various options available - it's literally a "one stop shop" for your post high school planning!

We will also feature a "College & Career Planning Resource Area" that will feature additional information regarding financial assistance, trade/apprenticeships, etc.

The Wisconsin Education Fair will be held at UW-Parkside this Friday, October 16th from 9a.m. - 11a.m.  Many Kenosha/Racine county high schools will be busing students in but if your school is not sending a bus you are welcome to attend.  This is also a great opportunity for those who are home-schooled and older students who are thinking about returning to college and/or seeking education for a career change.

For more information visit:  The Kenosha WEF Website

See you at the WEF!

~ Nicole

Now Tweeting on Twitter...

UW-Parkside Admissions is now on Twitter - important deadlines, reminders, tips, news, etc...follow us a.k.a. Twittername:  UWPAdmissions or check out our latests Twitter posts on the right side of this blog!

I'm a slide show nerd... plus a website you should check out!

Since my last post, I've done weeks "on the road" for daily high school visits.  One week I visited the suburbs of western Cook County and the following week I was in the greater Madison area.  I also had a SUPER-busy fair at College of Lake County in IL.  The CLC ICE fair is for all high school students in Lake County, IL.  I was glad Mary Beuscher (our Pre-health Advisor) and Trudy Biehn, (Business Advisor), came along to assist and meet with students interested in their areas of study.  All night we had a crowd at our table.  Trudy had no voice at the end of the night.  I cannot thank them enough for coming along - we were swamped with students and it was great!

There have been some nights over the last couple weeks that I had "off," (as in no evening college fairs). On nights like these when staying in a hotel, one can only watch so much election coverage and reality shows.  So I decided to figure out a creative way to put some UW-P pictures to music to present at recruiting events.  I found a free program called Picasa and became addicted.  I'm now "a slide show nerd."  Here's one of them (turn up your volume - I used one of my favorite songs whose lyrics fit with many of the pictures):

More slide shows can be seen on my YouTube Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/AdmissionsNicole

In other news...

Even though he's a White Sox fan, I wanted to give a plug to Counselor Joe Tullo at Mundelein High School in Mundelein, IL.  I had a great visit again at Mundelein and Joe always makes time to chat with me to learn about what's new at UW-P (and he always manages to have a joke or some cartoon to tease me about my beloved Cubbies!).   Joe and his staff have one of the best high school college/career web pages that I've ever seen!  He has some great resources on it - that are of use to all students.  Check it out at: http://www.mundeleinmustangs.com/CollegeAndCareerResourceCenter/index.html

PS: We're in the midst of UW-P's Experience Days!  Have you signed up to attend one of them?  Check out the who, what, where and when of Experience Days at:  http://www.uwp.edu/admissions/eventsa.cfm

See you on the road,

~ Nicole

Extreme Makeover: UW-Parkside Union!

Recently our admission counseling staff gathered together to start planning our fall recruiting activities.  A highlight to our meeting was a hard-hat preview of the Union expansion project.

I remember "the original union" from when I was a student until last year, so it was very surreal seeing the new Union and all the changes that have been made.  There are stairs in places where we had none and whole new event-spaces we never had before - it was exciting. 

The ballroom with its huge windows was breathtaking.  The grand staircase when you first enter is also impressive.  The new cafe/dining area has some cool features including a brick oven for pizzas.  The new and totally re-done "Den" (rec/gaming area) is under the dining area and you get to it via an open staircase.  It also features a cyber-cafe as well.  WIPZ radio has a whole new broadcast booth and production area with windows that overlook the cafe. 

I've made an album that you can check out so if you're curious, click on it to the left!

See you on the road,

~ Nicole

Fuel for Finals and Farewells @ Late Night Breakfast

It was a late night for many here at UW-P last night!

Chancellor Keating and the Student Life sponsored The Late Night "Midnight" breakfast that went until 12a.m. in the Parkside Cafe.  It was Chancellor Keating's last breakfast with us and it was a tradition that he started when he came to UW-P 10 years ago.

From 10p.m. through midnight a study stream of hungry students lined up for food to fuel their brains as they studied for finals.  I worked 2nd shift from 10:45 until midnight on the juice table and busing tables as well, plus getting fun pictures of it all!

The breakfast was a full spread - eggs, pancakes, sausage, muffins... you name it!
The "The No Tan Lines" Band front-man got up and broke it down with a few of our students, and a caricature artist did portraits of students - all of it FREE! 

Check out the pictures in my album to the left, and a video of our Vice Chancellor of Student Services/Dean of Students Steve McLaughlin introducing Chancellor Keating as he wishes them luck on finals and says a few words of thanks back to the students.

See you on the road,

~ Nicole

 

Off-Roadin'

Last week was extremely busy, but fun and productive.  I was able to sit in all the Chancellor candidates' Q&A forums between the 3 days I had between the Madison suburbs of Verona, DeForest, Sun Prairie, McFarland and Stoughton.   

Friday afternoon I ended my week of visits at St. John's Northwestern Military Academy and they had 8 cadets there to see me - all were from Illinois.  Many were from towns near my hometown so it was fun talking about places back home with them.  They were interested in Parkside but concerned about our out-of-state tuition until I told them about our Nonresident Scholar and Grant Programs and many were excited since they qualified. As Capt. Niemcyzk walked me back to my car we were treated to a concert of SJNMA's Bagpipe Corp as they practiced on the lawn next to my car... and they rocked!  I drove off into the sunset to the sound of bagpipes - what a way to end my high school visits!  I wouldn't have it any other way!

Today kicks off UW-Parkside finals week.  Tonight is The Chancellor's Midnight Breakfast.  This is a tradition that Chancellor Keating and his wife Pam started 10 years ago when came to Parkside.  For all the students who are up late burning the midnight oil, it's our chance to serve them free breakfast and wish them luck on their finals. It is a nice break for students, a lot of fun and many show up in their flannel pj's!  If you haven't heard, Chancellor Keating is retiring this August, so this will be his last breakfast with us - so it's a bit sad.  We expect the turnout to be big, with many students coming out to say their goodbyes to our Chancellor. 

I will be working the graveyard shift tonight from 10:45-midnight, but I know the students will keep me going, not to mention the band and all the other events they have scheduled in the Parkside Cafe.

For now, I'm about to go home, grab some dinner and catch a long nap so I can keep up slingin' short stacks with everyone tonight.

See you on the road,

~ Nicole

Now THAT'S Ranger SPIRIT!

Greetings from Janesville, WI - I've been here all week visiting the small communities laced in and around South-central Wisconsin and meeting prospective juniors and UW-P admitted seniors at places like Craig HS (Janesville), Milton HS and Brodhead HS - to name a few!

I'd like to share a fun story of one new freshmen I've had the pleasure to work with over these last few months...

Earlier this year I received a phone call from a student from Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, IL.  Her guidance counselor recommended UW-Parkside to her and she picked up the phone and gave us a call to learn more about the University. 

We had a great conversation, talked about her major of interest and she was ecstatic when I told her that if she applied for admission, that her academic achievement on the ACT allowed her to be considered as an Out-of-State Distinguished Scholar, which would significantly reduce the out-of-state portion of her tuition.  I encouraged her to visit campus and apply for admission.

Her parents wanted to see the campus as well so we arranged for her and her parents to tour UW-Parkside with one of our Campus Ambassadors, Carly-Ann Ravnikar.  Lindsay emailed me that following Monday and said she liked the campus, the residence halls, she had a great visit with Carly and her application materials were being sent.  Within several days she contacted me to let me know she received her Passport to Parkside with acceptance materials and a few days after that she was hyped when she got word that she received the Out-of-State Distinguished Scholar Award.

We continued to email back and forth about various UW-P questions she had - and I just loved her enthusiasm and excitement for attending Parkside.  The week before Easter she said she wanted to come up that Friday and get some UW-P shirts and other gear before heading to Texas for Spring Break to visit family.  I told her that we were open, but we were also supposed to get 16 inches of snow that day and it would be best for her to stay home because of the approaching blizzard! She said she was going to try to come anyway - she just had to head to Texas with a little bit of Parkside!   I was off of work that day, but I left a little something for her (UWP Flag and backpack) at the front desk in Admissions just in case she did come to campus.

16 inches of snow and Lindsay made it!  She took this picture standing by a construction fence from the Union Construction/Expansion - that is Ranger Hall behind her. 

She also took pics showing her UW-P SPIRIT in Texas! (and gave me permission to post them here).  NOW THAT IS RANGER PRIDE and she hasn't even started at UW-P yet!

She's coming to the first Ranger Day this Saturday April 26th - so if you're a new freshmen look for her and say hi!

Here's her pics with her Ranger Gear in Texas:

Are you a new freshmen coming this fall?  Send me your UW-P SPIRIT pics at leipski@uwp.edu and I'll mail you a little thank you UW-P Prize for sharing your photo/s (clue: Lindsay is wearing it on her back!).

Thanks Linds for your spirit and sharing your pics with us!

See you on the road,

~ Nicole

Drumroll Please...

Congrats to the students who were selected to be the 2008/2009 Campus Ambassador Team!

A Campus Ambassador is a student leadership position at UW-Parkside and they serve as the University's student representatives at community relation events, Chancellor VIP events, campus tour-guides, and they serve on panels representing the university when we have student group visits and families visit for open houses.  Should you attend such an event next year, these are the students you'll meet:

Amber Frenzel

Temeka Kennedy

Nikki Kulas

Stephan Kurdas

Jessica Lapcinski

Tiffany LeFlore

Kethleen Meo-Martino

Scott Mingilino

Stephanie Morgan

Chelse Pipkin

Martel Pipkins

Camilla Simon

Aaron Taliaferro

Shoua Yang

Anita Zachariah


Congrats again to our 2008/2009 Campus Ambassadors!

See you on the road,

~ Nicole

Think Spring!

Where in the world was I for the past week and a half? 

My first official day of my spring recruiting took me to Salem, WI to Central High School and I had an amazing visit.  Ms. Pfeffer asked if it would be okay if they could move me from the conference room to the cafe-torium because they had a large group for me.  I walked in to a FULL cafetorium of approximately 70 students!  One-third of them were seniors who were already admitted to Parkside.  I followed up and reminded them to sign up for one of the early Ranger Day orientation dates.  The remaining students were all Juniors.  I was happy to see the majority of them were registered for the April ACT.  We filled the entire hour and a half with UW-P info and Q&A.  They all had great questions - way to go Central!

On Tuesday of this week Trudy Biehn, the new advisor from the School of Business joined me on a full day to the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois.  We had a busy morning as we met students for a transfer-student fair.  Then we met-up with UW-P professors Dr. Mike Manion and Dr. Dirk Baldwin for a meeting with the CLC Transfer Director and Coordinator to discuss the great transfer agreements we have with CLC.  Trudy and I grabbed late lunch and went to set up for the Illinois College Expo (ICE Fair) at CLC's field house.   We were so busy at the ICE fair we almost lost our voices!  It was a buys and productive day.

The next morning at UW-Parkside, we hosted 40 high school counselors for breakfast to update them on various programs, services and the new suites and union being constructed on campus.  Then I was off to Mukwonago High School for their 21st Annual College Information Night and Panel - they had the largest turnout that I've seen to date.  Dr. McGair and his staff did an excellent job with this event. The next morning I had my high school visit there and several students who attended the event the evening before, came to chat with me that morning. 

I took today off, to get ready for the holiday weekend and spend time with family...and it's a blizzard outside!  What to do?!  Make a "snowbunny," and then keep thinking SPRING!!!

Speaking of spring!  Most high schools are in Spring Break next week - so remember what I had said in my earlier posts, and VISIT!  UW-Parkside is back in session next week, so it's the best time to see us as a living and breathing campus, rather than during the more quiet season of summer session. 

See you on the road,

~ Nicole