GOOD Examplesalumni Advance ‘The Common Good’
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Service-minded GOOD EXAMPLESalumni advance ‘the common good’ Adoption advocate Kim Garner ’96 and her children FEBRUARY 2008 Notes from 2420 Nicolet… Greetings from Green Bay’s University of Wisconsin! A risingWhat do the generationservice-minded alumni featured of in this issue have in common with the distinguished leaders pictureddifference on this page? Quite makers a lot, actually, with regard to “promoting the common good.” Let’s revisit December commencement, where our graduating seniors heard many references by several speakers to giving back to society. That’s standard commencement-address fare, of course, but as I listened I couldn’t help but think this familiar message rings especially true at UW-Green Bay. Perhaps it’s because so many of our students “connect learning to life” and address civic issues through coursework and volunteer activities. Perhaps it was the conviction with which that day’s speakers — foremost among them alumna Jill Lajdziak ’79 (below, left), general manager of GM’s Saturn division — touted the value of passionate commitment to family, work and community. Perhaps it was the way the ceremony spotlighted recipients of Chancellor’s Awards, our highest community honor. Carl and Mary Ellen Kuehne (below, right) and former dean of students Jerry Olson (center) were richly deserving of their standing ovations. The Kuehne name is known industrywide for building American Foods Group into one of the state’s largest employers, and Jerry helped shape today’s UW-Green Bay. Yet, as was made absolutely clear, we celebrate these individuals not so much for professional accomplishments as for their extraordinary contributions to building a better community for others. We’re missing something important, I believe, when higher education is portrayed primarily as a private benefit with earnings and career options accruing to the individual. In truth, a university education can be a powerful force for the common good. Thank you to Jill, Jerry, Carl and Mary Ellen, and to all those profiled in this issue, for helping illustrate this important distinction. Enjoy this issue of Inside. Thank you for all you do in helping us connect learning to life. And Go Phoenix! Bruce Shepard 4 Inside UW-Green Bay February 2008 FEATURESPuppy love Volume 34, No. 2 She makes difference for abandoned pets 4 Editor Chris Sampson Chapel in the woods 11 Editorial Staff Hidden gem recalls faith, history Chris Sampson 4 Sue Bodilly Scott Hildebrand Honeymoon period Megan Gustafson So far, everyone loves the Kress Designer 11 Yvonne Splan Kiss me! I’m a grad, too Valentine’s stories from campus Photographer Eric Miller 1 4 Contributing Photographer 15 Matt Robinson • 15 Inside UW-Green Bay is 11 DEPARTMENTSCampus news published by the Office of University Advancement and its Marketing and Communi- 15 Alumni notes cation unit. We welcome your comments. Address them to: Inside UW-Green Bay Editor, Cofrin Library Suite 815, fax (920) 465-2340, or e-mail [email protected]. Mail change of address notification to Inside UW- 14 Green Bay, Cofrin Library Suite 820, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001. Photo by photo intern Matt Robinson Visit Inside on the web at www.uwgb.edu/univcomm/news/page/inside.htm Cover: Kim Garner ’96, president of Community Adoption Center, poses in the atrium outside her Green Bay office with her four children, Solomon, 3; Ela, 4; Max, 6; and Lely, 7. (Photo by Eric Miller, University Communication.) Serving the FAMILY BUSINESS: ADOPTION IS commonAt UW-Green Baygood — the PASSION FOR UW-GREEN BAY GRAD proudly public “Connecting” university — references to serving the common good are, well, common. Faculty and staff encourage students toward coursework and activities that promote civic involvement and action. The University’s emphasis on practical problem-solving embraces the abiding ideas that every graduate can make a difference, that public uni- versities elevate all of society. As Red Cross leaders, Golden Apple-winning teachers, com- munity activists, therapists and counselors, tribal and county social workers, Peace Corps volunteers, peacekeepers and peacemakers… UW-Green Bay alumni are making a dif- ference all over the world. This Inside provides just a sampling. SheFaith has traveled motivates the globe Gustafson’sincluding Africa and global a remote travels, village to service join its grassroots to others HIV/AIDS Thailand. Brittney Gustafson believes the best ministry. Only a second bout with malaria sent her way to make an impact on a community (or per- home to Wisconsin to recuperate. son, for that matter) is in person. Since UW-Green Fully recovered, she now works for InterVarsity Bay graduation in 2003, the Humanistic Studies Christian Fellowship’s national headquarters in grad has been practicing what she preaches. Madison. There she helps prepare others to travel Gustafson worked as a teacher in Thailand and overseas to minister on college campuses. followed that up with three months in an orphan- Gustafson says, in her case, motivation comes age with children who are HIV positive. Then it was from a desire to share God’s love: “I strive to be on to Mozambique, teaching about HIV/AIDS in His hands and feet, to be a tangible representa- rural villages. When she saw the need, she traveled tion of His love to those who are suffering in this by bus on a six-week trek to Uganda, stopping in world…C OMMUNIT whether in my community, or abroad.” Y D edication difference makers good 2 February 2008 She counsels prospective adop- “People tell us all the tive parents to be open. Open time that we look like KIM GARNER ’96 to the country or race of their Major: Social Change and Development prospective children. Open to the United Nations. the idea of a domestic adoption They’re very interested in Occupation: President, Community Adoption Center in which the family maintains all the different cultures.” contact with the birth mother. Hometown: Green Bay “Your heart goes out to — Kim (Johnson) Garner ’96 children who deserve to have a loving family,” Garner says. Kim Garner and her family are “People tell us all the time What prospective parents “I could not imagine a more a walking, talking promotion that we look like the United should consider important role than being a for the joy of adoption… and Nations,” Garner says. “They’re Garner would be delighted if parent. It’s fulfilling to be a for her own business. very interested in all the differ- more couples realized adop- ent cultures coming together in part of making that happen for tion can be one of their early Garner is president of Commu- one family, and that’s great.” others, and helping children.” choices when deciding to have nity Adoption Center Inc. With Her role with Community a family. (Most clients, she says, offices in Green Bay, Janesville To Garner, adoption is both Adoption Center “turn to” adoption because of and Madison, it’s one of the family and mission. “I have Social workers do the home fertility issues.) She notes that largest adoption agencies in always had a desire to adopt studies and requisite paper- blended families such as hers, the state, assisting with nearly ever since I was young, when I work. As owner and president, with both adopted and biologi- 150 placements per year. saw stories about orphans in other parts of the world, and Garner is more involved as a cal children, are increasingly Kim and her husband, Wes, that only grew stronger with manager for her agency, and common. “Whether you want bought the agency in January my studies at UWGB,” she says, advocate and ambassador to start a family, or want to see 2007. They knew it well, having describing her motivation. for adoption in general. She your family grow, adoption is a used its services to extend their also cultivates international tremendous option that many own young family. “This line of work is not about connections; she returned last people don’t even consider,” profit or fast pace, but rather Lely, now age 7, came from Viet- month from a two-week, fact- she says. “There is also a lot of about making a family, which nam in 2001. Born that same finding trip to Ethiopia. Kim support available for couples is priceless,” she says. “I know year was a biological son, Max, runs the adoption business; who decide to adopt. They some adoption agency owners age 6. Daughter Ela, 4, was Wes is president of Great Lakes aren’t in it alone.” start as social workers who find adopted in the United States Calcium, a port of Green Bay their hearts intertwined with and is of Indian-Irish heritage, supplier that processes lime- adoption. For me, it has always and 3-year-old Solomon is from stone and calcium carbonate been a deep part of who I am.” Ethiopia. for the construction industry. Sub duty puts him When the History Channel, Nationalfront Geographicand center or the BBC want to go inside the undersea world of military submarines, James Stockman ’96 is there. Lt. Stockman is public affairs officer for U.S. Navy Submarine Group Two, based in Groton, Conn. Holder of a human biol- ogy degree from UW-Green Bay, Stockman handles commu- nication duties and special events including a highly successful C OMMUNITY “Submarine Days” promotion to celebrate Groton’s maritime history and strengthen sailor-community bonds. Stockman visited campus a year ago as part of a publicity tour for the christening of the USS Green Bay. He recently received the D edication good Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for excep- difference makers tional service in the field of public information.