 I would like to start with a few remarks. Being selected as one of the WTCS Ambassadors last year truly made a difference, not only in my career, but in my personal life as well. Thanks to the opportunity that Baird created with the Ambassador Program, it really helped me gain confidence in myself. I learned to be proud of who I am and all the hard work that I put into my future. I remember the day that my instructor asked me if it was okay that he nominated me for this great opportunity. I was in shock. I remember telling him how honored I was to be a nominee. I didn't expect to be selected. I didn't feel that I had that much confidence in myself. I still was very grateful and happy. But then the day came when I received the fantastic news. I was selected as one of the 16 Ambassadors, my heart filled with joy and disbelief. I cried tears of happiness. From there, I learned that I can succeed in life. I was given many opportunities to speak about my story in front of the audience. I also had the opportunity to bring my oldest of my eight children to hear me speak about our struggles, how we overcame them, and where we are today. Thanks to all those opportunities, I gained many new relationships along the way. I gained the confidence that led me to attend more opportunities outside of the college setting. For example, me assisting the Professional Association of Wisconsin's Licensed Investigators. That is led every year with private investigators throughout the state. I had the opportunity to work with an interpreter. I had the opportunity to work with and interpret for API on a case that met headlines in the Milwaukee and Madison area. It was about a death of a child at a farm. That is now caught the attention of legislators. With that, I would like to say one more thing to the 2023 Ambassadors. Thanks to all your hard work and perseverance you are here today. Be proud of yourself. You deserve this. We all have struggles in life. Life isn't always easy. But you are here today because you pick yourself up after your trip and fall. You continue on your path to the future you want. That, my friends, makes you resilient. Be proud of who you are. All of you carry the strength and the courage that will take you to your dreams. Just believe in yourself. Now, before we hear from our 16 Ambassadors, two special guests would like to extend their congratulations and best wishes. As many of you know, Baird Public Finance is the generous long-term sponsor of the WTCS Ambassador Program. Jordan Masnika is Senior Vice President of Baird Public Finance and was kind enough to join us tonight along with his colleagues, Debra Brunette and Justin Fisher. Please join me in welcoming Jordan to share his thoughts with our 2023 Ambassadors. Good evening, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here again. So last year was the first year that I attended this event. And to be honest with you, I came into it a little blind. I, of course, spoke with some of my colleagues before coming. My colleagues that attended in prior years, and they had nothing but amazing things to say about this event. But I think until you attend this event, it's really hard to understand the gravity of what this is all about. So last year I walked away knowing that this is an amazing event and being really excited for this year. I told one of my partners last year, like, I don't know who's going next year, but I'm definitely coming as well. But yeah, last year walking away, it's such admiration for the honorees from last year. And I walked away with greater appreciation for the Wisconsin Technical College System. Baird is lucky to be a sponsor for this event. So for those of you that don't know, Baird is a full-service financial firm. We're headquartered in Milwaukee. You may know our financial advisor network. It's the biggest portion of our company. So our employees that work with individuals and their wealth management needs. My colleagues and I are here tonight as part of Baird Public Finance. So I don't expect you to know what public finance is. So it's interesting, my wife is a criminal defense attorney. So anytime we meet new people and you know, you do the small talk of, oh, what do you do for a living? They're way more interested in her. Nobody cares about municipal bonds, I can promise you. And honestly, I'm not even sure my wife can explain fully what I do to people. But in a nutshell, we work with municipalities, counties, K-12 school districts, and the technical colleges throughout the state to facilitate the process of issuing debt to fund needed projects. We work with the majority of the technical colleges across the state and have a strong, long history of a great relationship and creating great outcomes throughout the state. My colleagues and I, in our roles, we spend a lot of time working on financing plans, attending board meetings, I've probably seen some of you at board meetings. But in our daily work, it can be really hard to see that ultimate fruition of what our work comes to. It's just like many of you in your daily jobs, it's really easy to lose track of what that ultimate goal is. The honorees tonight, that's the ultimate goal. And all the other individuals that are successfully going through the Wisconsin Technical College System. I firmly believe the Tech College System is an amazing path for growth and development. And it leads to great outcomes for individuals, businesses, communities. I've seen it personally within my family and with some of my friends. With that, I know illusions that anybody came here to hear me or to hear about Baird. I am very excited to hear from our 16 honorees tonight and to hear their story and how the technical college system has helped them develop into who they are now and who they are becoming. So with that, Baird is very honored to be a part of this program and I'm really excited for the night to unfold. Thank you. Thanks to Jordan and to Baird for its steadfast support of our students and this program. At this time, I'll ask our first group of 2023 WTCS ambassadors to come forward. The Wisconsin Technical College System plans the ambassador program. Dr. Mona Foy is the system president and will share her thoughts with the 2023 ambassadors. Thank you, Rosa. Good evening, everybody. I am so glad to be here. I took the red eye back from California just so I could get here tonight and I would not want to miss this event for anything. Just a little bit about Rosa before I let her escape. For one thing, she may have stumbled a little bit over the written word, but for those of you that were here last year, she is unrecognizable. Amazingly growth over the last year. Talking to a group of this size is nothing anymore. I don't think you felt that way last year. She has done a lot of great things this last year and for those of you incoming ambassadors, just so you know, she has been speaking to groups of all sizes with all sorts of different interest levels. Two very important ones were Wiscor, which I think you're going to hear about today or you're going to hear about tomorrow. A great event, one of the most exciting ones we have in the system. After this one, of course. She's also spoken to some of our system-wide conferences like Common Ground which brings professionals from all 16 technical colleges together. So these are folks who do this work for a living and they still appreciate hearing from you and learning about how they could do their work better and more successfully. I have a couple of really good honors tonight. First is to say welcome, welcome everybody, especially the ambassadors and your family and friends that are here tonight. We are so glad. And the second is to acknowledge your incredible star power. So I don't know if you realize it, but there are a lot of very important people that drove here to the Dells tonight just to hear from you and hear about you. So I need to recognize a few of those folks right now. First, the Baird representatives that are here. Jordan, you just heard from, but Debbie Burnett and Justin Fisher. Baird has been sponsoring this program for 38 years. Yes, and I can say for a fact that that is the longest, continuously running partnership we have with any private organization or any public organization truthfully of this kind. So it's just an absolutely amazing investment of Baird and just a renewed recognition about the importance of the work that we do if you work at a technical college, but also the impact that our students and graduates have on their communities. I really cannot thank you guys enough, not just for your support, but for coming tonight and joining the celebration. So let's give them another round of applause. I also have to recognize all of my bosses that are here in the room tonight. I'm so pleased this is by far and away the largest number of system board members who have attended this event in a single evening. So I just want to recognize them quickly. Dr. Radney Posh, our current board chair, Mark Tyler, Doug Horton, excuse me, Secretary Pahashic, there you are, Department of Workforce Development, State Superintendent Jill Underly, our board's student member and also a former ambassador herself, Megan Barr, Dan Klechner, John Miller, and Sarah Rogers. Thank you guys so much for being here tonight. I also need to acknowledge the fact that we have an enormous number of college leaders here tonight, 10 of our 16 college presidents, many of our vice presidents and deans are here, in addition to all of the ambassador sponsors and nominators and the representatives from our college trustees and college boards. It's just a great turnout and recognition of the amazing people that our ambassadors are. And I also need to recognize the fact that we have three of our foundation members here tonight, Wendy Wink, Bob Sorenson and Dan Clancy, latter two are my predecessors, so I'm really under a lot of pressure right now not to mess this up. And I want to acknowledge Dr. Sorenson was actually a president of the system when this program was created. So thank you very much, Bob. We also have another partner representative, Valerie Crispin-Truth. She's hiding out for me, but Valerie works for Ascendium, which sponsors another very important student program, our Tools for the Trade program that supports our apprenticeship students with scholarship funds to buy equipment and tools for their professions. And that program was in part developed based on this program here and Bayard sponsorship of it. The incredible results, Ascendium representatives have been to this event a couple of times now, and I just want to thank you, Valerie, for being here. We're celebrating a 10th anniversary of the Tools for the Trade this year, and in that process, Ascendium has contributed 1.5 or a little over a million dollars to technical college students in that time. It's an incredible partnership. And lastly, I need to thank the key event and leadership development planners and implementers from my office. My colleagues that are here tonight have just spent a lot of time and energy preparing, but also executing what is truly a highlight of the year in the system. So Julie, Drake, we're here. Yep. Julie, let's give these guys a round of applause. Stephanie Glenn, they're the masterminds. But several other people have been working as I don't know if you all know this, but this banquet is just the funnest and best part for us. But this is actually just a part of a bigger leadership development program that our ambassadors participate in. And that takes leaders and mentors to engage with them. Many of them are from the colleges, but few folks from the system office I want to mention, that's Leonard Simpson, Colleen McCabe, Sarah Mackey, Jeremy Nichols, Colleen Larson, and Layla Merrifield. Thank you guys so much for all the work that you do. And now to the family and friends that are here, to the ambassadors themselves, thank you everyone in the room for everything that you do to support Wisconsin Technical Colleges, but mostly our students. And not just while they're our students, but when they're out there in the great wide world making change, because that's what they are. They are change makers and they are the leaders of the future. You are going to hear some stories tonight that are going to make you want to go out there and change your career or start a new one or do something cool tomorrow. They are just an amazing collection of individuals. They have overcome in some cases some really big challenges or made some really tough hard decisions. I don't think there's one among them that took a nice smooth straight path from grade school on through to their technical college career. So they are the doers of this world. They're the makers and they're the leaders that all of us are going to depend on in the years ahead. With that, I can't wait to hear the stories as well. So I'm going to get off and we'll get started. Thank you. Thank you to President Foy and the team that makes this a memorable experience for our ambassadors. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce our first 2023 WTCS ambassador from Blackhawk Technical College, Skyla Burlingame. Good evening. My name is Skyla Burlingame. My education history has been quite the dramatic one to say the least. I've truly had to persevere in my education. I graduated a semester early in January of 2019 from Parker High School in Janesville. I then went on to UW Whitewater that coming fall and completed my first semester as a full-time business student with a 3.0 GPA. I was going strong into my second semester with high hopes and then I was in a very bad car accident in March of 2020. I was driving home from out of state when a man decided he was not going to pay attention and smashed my car into the center barrier of the interstate in Chicago. I had to complete a medical emergency withdrawal from UW Whitewater because I could not be left alone for the fear of having a brain injury from a concussion I suffered. It was in the fall of 2020 when I was finally cleared to resume most of my day-to-day activities. I was finally able to start driving and just started becoming comfortable in my life again. I applied to Blackhawk and I was accepted. I still had some struggles with learning and adapting to my new lifestyle. Then later in August 2020 I was in another severe car accident. During this time I was attending classes through Zoom trying to finish out my semester. After the spring semester started I found out that I needed to have surgery on my right shoulder. We thought we could save my bicep tendon but we found out it was too damaged and it couldn't be saved. I then had to complete another full medical withdrawal to make sure my mind and body could heal. I then came back to finish my degree at Blackhawk in the fall of 2021. I applied to become a student worker and I decided I was going to do it in the registration records office. This on-campus employment opportunity changed my life completely. At that time I had Professor Charles Quince. He inquired about my injury and encouraged me to persevere and never give up on my dreams no matter what happened I could do it. I think about how a brand new teacher at Blackhawk could care so much about his students and how registration immediately took me under their wing. When I first started back at school I couldn't even pick up my own backpack. Now look where I am. I am becoming that staff member who cares on day one and pushes people to achieve all of their dreams. I've spent the last three years dedicated to my studies to show that no matter what life throws your way you can handle it. There is a way to continue and a way to succeed. It was during my student employment and registration and my time in peer advising that I found what I really enjoy of my working life. I found that I get to be the person who helps others in the working piece to make everyone's life easier while I can still encourage everyone to keep going. I found in the registration office I get to help put students back on track to continue their education. During my time in peer advising I learned that I get to see the students' dreams, goals, understand their fears. This allows me the chance to show them all of their potential, steer them away from their fears and get them on track. I can help them understand every bit of their next steps as I'm the one who helps deal with that. Being a student worker I get the best of the both worlds. I get the loving student community that Blackhawk has built and I also get the amazing staff guiding me every single day. I want to thank my mom and my dad for supporting me each and every day and my boyfriend Nate for pushing me to be better. I would also like to thank Carrie and Caitlin for all of their support and dedication to me in making it better. Thank you again to Blackhawk and the staff for this opportunity. Now from Chippewa Valley Technical College, Rebecca Keller. Hi everyone. I would like to thank Baird for making this event possible. I would also like to thank the WTCS staff and the CVTC staff for coordinating this leadership experience. My name is Becca and I'm a student at Chippewa Valley Technical College and I would like to share a bit about myself and my technical college experience. When I started college I had all these expectations of what it would be like. I thought I would be off on my own doing all the things that I wanted to do and having all the time in the world. Well, that's not exactly how it played out. I am off on my own but it's not exactly as you may think. Doing laundry, paying bills and shopping for food is not that exciting. And don't forget the daily Starbucks. That's expensive. Another expectation that I had growing up was that I'd become a doctor one day. Well, seven-year-old Becca, sorry to tell you this but you're not exactly going to school for ten years or doing any brain surgeries anytime soon. You are though on an amazing path to becoming a physical therapist assistant with the help from CVTC and the technical college system. My journey started off when I was in high school. I had always been a go-getter and knew exactly that I wanted to go into the medical field. My mom is in occupational therapy and I like the idea of working with patients in rehab. Physical therapy just seemed like the right career fit for me. I attended River Falls High School and they had great connections to CVTC allowing me as a high school student to take classes. They had a couple different options for high school students, ranging from academies that allowed you to have a degree by the time you graduated and also dual and credit enrollment. I was able to participate not only in the option of dual credit enrollment where college classes were taught at my high school but also in Stark College now where I took college classes at CVTC while still being in high school. I jump-started my college education by getting all my pre-programmed classes done before starting the PTA program, which saved me lots of time and money. I am graduating next year and going straight into the medical field. With the help from CVTC, getting a job after school is much easier. They connect you to local employers and are able to help you get connected to jobs afterwards. The nice thing about having a PTA degree is there are so many different options that you can go to for after college. I have always been interested in working with pediatrics after surgery and helping them with rehab. For this, I will most likely be in a bigger city and working in a hospital setting. I would not be able to have this PTA degree without the help from the technical college system. My expectation of going into the medical field soon after high school has not been an expectation. It is turning into a new reality. Although college is full of different expectations and realities, and I may not get my fancy Starbucks coffee every day, going to a technical college did not change my expectations. And if anything, this experience has exceeded my expectations and that I would not change any of it for the world. I have had so many great experiences from it and will continue to have more experiences in this next year. Thank you. From Fox Valley Technical College, Tukum Funken. Can you feel me shaking in my heels? Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. There's an African proverb that goes, if the sun claims superiority over the moon, there is shine at night. That statement was true until I experienced the summer in the United States, where there's sun until 10 p.m. Faith, gratitude, discipline, hard work, determination, and my least favorite lack of sleep are all the roots to... Sorry, are all roots of the tree called success. All students in here can relate. My name is Tukum Funken. I am a second year student in the cybersecurity program. Sorry, I can't see. I am honored to be the ambassador of our very prestigious Fox Valley Technical College. Backtracking to 2019, when I first stepped my feet in the USA from Cameroon, West Africa, the culture shock was overwhelming. I could not help but imagine how this new chapter will unfold. I was fervently looking for an environment that I could call home, a place where I could find my direction for studies because I had just graduated high school and I was confused on what I wanted to... on what I wanted in terms of career. I ended up wanting to study music. I ended up wanting to study music, but my amazing but very strict dad told me, only stars make good money in music. With the stand look in his face, I knew that was an automatic no. As an African kid, you're restricted to being a medical doctor, teacher, or lawyer, else you are at the bottom of the introductory list at family reunions... at family reunions. A nurse is manageable. Just imagine if you're a music artist. Yeah, you'll not be introduced at the table. Dad, I know you're watching this. I love you. I like to say that Fox Valley Technical College chose me because after a long time of fighting and deciding on what to do, I had to enroll some way and start school the sooner the better for me. Fox Valley Technical College welcomed me and gave me this environment, not my initial college choice, but I could not prefer it any other way. Being a sickle cell patient who spends most of her academic year in the hospital, every individual that I have had a one-to-one contact with at Fox Valley Technical College has been nothing but supportive. From associate deans to teachers, advisors to friends, the various departments that I have worked with, I am in awe. Fox Valley Technical College, to me, has changed from being just my college to my family. Aside from being very affordable, my repeatable institution is an embodiment of brilliance with programs that do not only fit your schedule, but are also designed to accommodate everyone looking for a study conducive environment. As the African proverb goes, education is a great engine for personnel development. Fox Valley Technical College gave me the opportunity to leave my comfort zone and to discover my strengths and weaknesses. I came here as a shy and timid little girl, but I am proud to say Fox Valley Technical College has designed me into the strong young lady I am today through all the travels, conferences, scholarships, clubs, and the lease goes on. My constant unending zeal to be a beacon of light pushed me to do all this as I wanted to give Fox Valley Technical College what she has given to me. I have also had the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends worldwide, since our institution is racially and culturally diverse. As the Frenchman says, tout est bien qu'il finit bien, translated as all is well that ends well, it is in this light that I conclude, join me as I use my sickle cell disease and my story as an example to represent every student who is here and who is looking forward to coming, who is looking forward to come to Fox Valley Technical College, any student who has challenges or is impaired and have somehow lost themselves or do not know the direction to take, join me as I encourage them to remind them that nothing is impossible as the word says impossible. Aspire to inspire, I can't end this speech without expressing my profound gratitude to Fox Valley Technical College for being the start of my big dreams. Magnificent Dr. Kelly from Counseling and Advising, exceptional Brooke Sumner and the whole of the IT department, my wonderful Auntie Allison from and my wonderful Auntie Allison and the whole of global education, student life and all the outstanding excellent staff and student body of Fox Valley Technical College, my amazing sister Zita, my marvelous friends and family all over the world for their endless support. The biggest thanks to God Almighty, all your love and support keeps me going. The holy book says in Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9, two are better than one because they have good return for their labor. I would not have done this, I would not have done it without your support. Ladies and gentlemen, please tell a friend to tell a friend you are welcome home at Fox Valley Technical College. Thank you. Well our second group of ambassadors, please come forward. Now from Gateway Technical College, Dejanay Williams. Good evening. My name is Dejanay Williams. It's such an honor and pleasure to be here with you at the Represent Gateway Technical College. Just a year ago, I was preparing myself to graduate high school. Reflecting on those past four years was difficult, but it was my time to leave those things behind and start fresh. I didn't let those hardships and challenges define me as a person, but I will never forget how much it has allowed me to grow as a young woman. Student leadership was introduced to me very early on and it has been my safe place. It was a way to use my skills for a great purpose that will not only impact myself but those around me. Academically, I didn't feel confident. My GPA wasn't the highest it could have been. I did struggle with anxiety and depression and I spent my time comparing myself to others' accomplishments. Luckily, my senior year, I was able to turn that around. I earned better grades and I crossed that stage. Applying to colleges as a first generation student was a barrier I had to overcome, especially with having a single parent. Choosing a school that could accommodate to my personal needs was my priority and after being accepted to 13 colleges, I made my official decision to enroll at GTC. I just wasn't aware of how much my life would change after, just after attending a technical college. Walking on the campus, I only had the goal of being this individual who just wanted to aim better and beat high achieving. Nothing more. I accomplished that faster, way faster than I expected and it was much more that came my way. Within the past couple of months, I have learned and evolved by knowing the importance of diversity and using my voice as a black woman, trying and not being afraid of failure and not questioning what potential I have. Those things have helped me become a great leader and an advocate for my peers. Being encouraged to become a campus ambassador was something I was truly moved to do. It was a huge risk for me to take by new deep down that this opportunity could change my future for the better. Connecting with students of all cultures, backgrounds, and ages has made me more open minded to the idea that nothing is impossible unless you make it to be and success is only defined by you. No one else can hold that power. My high school self would never believe that I would be a 4.0 student. Being mentored and coached by successful individuals and accepting these big opportunities when this is only the kickstart to my journey and career. I would like to thank the Wisconsin Technical College system for allowing me to have this opportunity and those at Gateway who have helped and supported me on this journey, you all know who you are. Everything you do for your students never goes unnoticed and your impact is so great and you are the heart of the education system. You are the reason why we are all allowed to be here to share our stories and find our sense of belonging. Thank you for guiding us to our future success. From Lake Shore Technical College, Sandra Hyer. Good evening. First, I want to thank everyone here. Most importantly, my three children, two of which could make it, one of which could not. But that's okay. They're up in Eau Claire doing their thing. I also want to thank Baird. I want to thank the whole WTCS as a whole. But most importantly, the three that made it here tonight from Lake Shore, Rachel, Tanya, and Polly. And then especially the rest of the staff at Lake Shore Technical College and Dr. Carlson for choosing me for this position. I'm very honored. My grandmother taught me to never stop learning. Lake Shore Technical College, also known as LTC or Lakeshore, provides me for that, that for me and anyone seeking to expand their knowledge. My hope is that my experience as an LTC student will encourage others to attend LTC or another technical college near them. I chose LTC not only for its proximity to where I live, but also because of how affordable it is to attend classes here. When I think of the cost, I think of the students who need to explore a few different avenues before they find their chosen career. This is not as feasible at a four-year institution because of the significant cost difference. For example, I have a classmate who returned home after attending a four-year college that gave her a six- to eight-year graduation time frame. The reason is due to the limited number of people able to enroll in the program per year at that school. This was one of six reasons she chose to leave the program there and come to LTC. In addition to my classmate, I have a co-worker who would have chosen to attend here instead of a different year college. My co-worker obtained her degree from that school, but she also obtained a substantial amount of debt. I am thankful LTC is affordable to all due to the low-cost tuition, availability of financial aid and the scholarships that are available. As an ambassador, I hope to spread the word about the friendly and supportive staff and the many opportunities there are for their students. I feel happy, grateful, and blessed. I feel this way because of the serene atmosphere at LTC. It is based in a rural area. One thing I love seeing is the wild animals on campus. Not only do we see and hear the birds and the squirrels, but we also have the privilege to see some deer. I also enjoy the short walk over one of the two foot bridges on campus. These bridges lead us through the trees where we see the wildlife. As I walk across the bridge, I think of when I was raising my children and the stories we read together. I think of the many times we read Winnie the Pooh thanks to my son Asa and the Chronicles of Narnia when they were older. The reason why I think of these stories is not only for the nostalgia it brings to me for when my kids were close and always wanted to be close to the challenges that were a part of those stories and how the characters overcame the challenges and adversities they faced. As students anywhere, we all seek challenges, trials and tribulations and remembering stories like that is encouraging because anything can happen if you put your mind to it. This is such a wonderful and nostalgic moment for me and it brings me peace and a sense before I start my day or drive home after class. I'm currently a certified nurse aid at Rocking Oil Health Care Facility. It is an expansive facility in Sheboyne County. I feel a leadership role there by training new CNAs. I love to help new employees from any department, not just the nursing department because of the saying the team is as strong as its weakest link. I believe that every person in the building is important not one department or person that is more important than the rest. I reach out to new staff because the facility size can make a new employee feel lost and alone. I also hope that by doing so, I will have made the team stronger and new employees feel like they have someone there for them. I am enjoying my time at LTC and will share my experience wherever I go. As an ambassador for Lakeshore Technical College I look forward to expanding my leadership experience and advocacy. LTC is truly unique and wonderful place that everyone should know about. Thank you. From Madison College, Aubrey Capis. Hello, my name is Aubrey Capis. I'm the ambassador from Madison College. I've always been the person to be involved in many different things, whether that be athletics, clubs, committees, leadership positions within those said clubs or classes that push me towards my dreams. I'm always there to jump in and join. Technical colleges let me continue that lifestyle and allow my eagerness to flourish. I originally went to UW La Crosse for a semester because it really was my dream school. I was going for nuclear medicine technology. I was a freshman during fall of 2020 so it was very challenging pushing myself through courses when I was unable to make the connections with not only my classmates but my professors as well. Classes were large, tuition was expensive and the major just wasn't really looking good to me anymore. I made the tough decision to leave my friends, my school, and transfer to Madison College. My brother was in the radiography program at the time and I had heard such great things about the courses and professors that it just sounded right. I wanted to stay in medical imaging and this was the perfect opportunity for me. Since the spring of 2021 I joined at Madison College. I joined the volleyball team and met amazing people and athletes. I got into the radiography program the fall of 2022 and quickly realized I made the correct choice. With classes being smaller I know all my classmates. I know all the teachers and they know me. At Madison College I feel as though the professors take a connection and adapt to each student to incorporate how they learn best into the class work. Since the spring of 2021 I learned a few things about technical colleges. I know Madison College is able to give me what UWL could not. I'm able to make those connections to help me succeed. I'm able to excel by having that small classroom environment. You have such a diverse community at Madison College which allows me to meet many different types of people. Tuition is also dramatically less at technical colleges. Yet the education is just as good if not better than that four-year degree. Over the next few years we learn information and build relationships that will stick with us for a lifetime. Thank you to my parents for always believing in me and supporting me. My grandma for always listening to me ramble about my health care stories and for coming here tonight. And my instructor Darcy for nominating me for this position and helping me throughout the program. Also to all the other people from Madison College who are able to make it here tonight. I know I made the right decision choosing Madison College Thank you. From Midstate Technical College Olivia Schultz Hello my name is Olivia Schultz I prepare to speak tonight but after seeing all the staff that came to support me I was reminded the real reasons that I went to Midstate. I'm currently a second semester nursing student. Before I attended Midstate I knew I wanted to be a nurse after my OMA was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. We found out unfortunately later on that it has something to do with genetics. It is very rare and so they cannot really say if we will get it for sure in my family but I know that it's something I think about every day. When I was looking into Midstate my brother had poured his heart out to me after having a few too many beers on St. Patrick's Day. He told me about the great community that he had at Midstate and how even though he was in a program he wasn't that passionate about he had tons of people helping him out and encouraging him to find what he really was passionate for. When I came to Midstate I told them all how when I went with my OMA to her appointments for her oncology I interviewed 132 nurses. I asked them where they went to college if they regret where they went to college and how happy they were with where they currently ended up. Luckily I didn't really have to ask many of them if they regretted where they went because out of the 132 only one of them did not attend Midstate. That is a lot to our program so does the fact that we are the fourth highest program in the state. That is not just compared to technical colleges that's compared to universities as well. I often get asked when I'm going to attend a university after to get a real degree in nursing and I think that's a shame. The technical colleges are able to offer me such a personal experience I'm able to learn with people and go on every semester with them and they always help me study even when I don't want to. I meet amazing people like Vikram and Natasha who after years of joining in their little activities finally convinced me to be on Student Leadership Board which has led to me being here tonight. I couldn't be more grateful for them. I love playing bingo and bringing my mom to it as well. I love doing trivia even if I'm the only person to show up. But that's the thing about Midstate is they went and did it anyways. They invited my mom to play with me. And even though I'm the only one at trivia we still play it. Luckily I win and I usually get a prize. Midstate is not just a school. It is my family. And I'm passionate enough to tell anybody that wants to hear about it. I won't shut up. I used to think that I was going to come up here tonight and brag about Midstate itself. Which I will. I'm proud of the technical college in the system that I think it's just amazing what Wisconsin has to offer in general. Every single student ambassador here has their own story and they're proud to tell it. So I think that other people need to realize that technical colleges probably better than universities because they don't have all these students who will sit and talk about how great their school is. They don't invite their families to banquets to brag. They don't have people give them gift bags and say, hey, we care about you as students. And please come join this amazing opportunity in the Dalles just because we think you're awesome. That doesn't happen at those impersonal schools. But it happens in the Wisconsin technical college system because it is a family. So thank you to Midstate, to everyone who has thrown this event for us because it has been amazing. I have made so many friends and thank you to my family who have always supported me in what I went to school for. But they're even more supportive now that I'm going to be able to go out and help all of your families as well. I hope that I can return the favor of the great leadership skills you've all given me today. Thank you. Will our third group of ambassadors please come forward from Milwaukee Area Technical College Garrett Gropishman. Hello everybody. I'm Garrett Gropishman first to WTCS for inviting me here. It's been an amazing experience so far. And really to everybody in this room that came to see all of us ambassadors speak and to bear further generous scholarship offer. I'm going to start with something a little bit unconventional maybe unorthodox by polling the room on something. So if you have a smartphone here right now I'd like you to raise your hand. Okay that's pretty reasonable. Wait, oh I didn't say put them down. Keep them up. So if you have a smartphone and you also shop on Amazon keep your hand raised. You can lower it if you don't. Oh wow, that's a lot of people that shop on Amazon. Okay now of this group if you love to read keep your hand up. I'm going to turn my speech just tuck this one away in your back pocket and I'll get to it in a little bit. To be honest I feel a little out of my element dressed in formal wear. When I told my therapist I had a dress up for this event she told me that she doesn't think she's ever seen me in anything other than athletic shorts or sweatpants. The funny thing is she's not the first person to have told me something like this. If it were up to me I guess I'd just really love to be comfy but I do admit that I love an excuse to wear a nice tie. While my passion for music is why I decided to pursue a degree in audio production it certainly helped knowing that you can do the job in a t-shirt and sweatpants without anyone batting an eyelid. While some of my instructors dress airing on the side of formal most of them present themselves fairly casually and to be honest it puts me at ease while I'm learning. When I first met my instructors it occurred to me just how grateful I am for the tremendous value they provided to me through their teaching and perspective while attending MATC. When thinking about what a college education can provide it's easy to just consider the technical skills and academic merits it'll gain from the course material itself. While those are valuable in their own right seldom discussed or taught to young adults especially are the intangible benefits just beyond the scope of specific coursework that can only be found and distilled from an openness to new experiences a real willingness to learn and the genuine desire to build relationships with people who share a common passion. The domino effect of learning in combination with a growth mindset is cumulative and compounding and so much of what I've chosen to put my time and energy into recently has been either a direct result of my choice to go to college at MATC and my commitment to be fully present for anything my instructors have to share. I'm grateful beyond words for how enriched my life has become since enrolling there and for the wealth of opportunities afforded to me as a result. I've had the privilege to share my love for soccer by getting to play at the collegiate level last fall despite being frankly unfit at the time and having never played before in my life all because my coach Buddy Gentry liked my attitude and decided to take a chance on me. Fostering my relationship with him led to being offered to coach a kid's soccer team for his club, the AC Toros before I had even played the first game of my life. And playing for MATC led to a relationship with our school athletic trainer John Larson, whose wisdom and guidance has helped immeasurably in getting my body to move more optimally and safeguarding it from injury. Our fied teachers, Andy Solm, with his infectious positivity and enthusiasm, turned me on to the Huberman Lab podcast after having previously convinced myself that podcasts weren't for me. On the recommendation of one of my audio instructors, Aaron Horn, I became an avid listener of the six-figure creative podcast and their hosts, through my 100 plus and counting episode binge of their backlog over the past few months, inspired to finally start building my own freelance home studio business. This spring, I'm coaching two kid's soccer teams after a successful fall season, and now I'm here with you attending this banquet as a student ambassador for my school supported by my loving parents with an opportunity to share my school experience with you and getting to hear the perspective of other ambassadors from across the state. It blows my mind how fortunate I am to be in the privileged position of receiving innumerable benefits to my life from my education in the form of skills, relationships, wisdom and perspective, all without going into debt for it. Most shocking though, is acknowledging that all these things are a consequence of every decision I've made leading up to this moment. It's easy to convince myself that I've been lucky, or maybe that fortune has turned in my favor, but I don't think I would be here to make a commitment to personal growth, a refusal to settle for mediocrity and the willingness to face reality and do the hard work that is inherent to being a human being. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude has been a vital component in shifting my mindset away from fear and scarcity and towards love and abundance. This shift has opened myself up to and given me clarity to see the vast number of opportunities and resources available that are around all of us all the time. This moment is where I'm going to come back to the beginning where I've found that we have a lot of people that love reading, that shop on Amazon and have smart phones here and so I like you guys to just take one second and do a favor for me to open up Amazon in your phone and in the search bar type the go giver. When you find the product link it should look like a nice little red book. I like you to click on it and add it to your cart. I'm serious. I will not ask you to spend your money on it but I will ask you to put it in your cart so you don't forget that there's a chance that you might want to read this book. When you guys are done just give me a nice thumbs up or something. Nice. Everyone find it okay? It wasn't too hard to find that one right? Alright, I'll continue speaking. The key to success I've come to believe is well articulated in a book I read recently. A book that I have been highly recommended by the host of the Six Figure Creative Podcast and that I will highly recommend to you now The Go-Giver by Bob Berg and John David Mann. It's a parable that immediately became a favorite of mine that packs the five laws of stratospheric success into just 127 pages. This key to success, so the book says is giving. The first law of success which sums up nicely the essence of the book's message is the law of value which states your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. This has become a guiding principle in my life asking myself how I can be of value to everyone I meet and considering my choices from that perspective has been transformative. If it doesn't make sense to you now then you'll just have to read the book. I've experienced this firsthand with my school instructors they all have more to offer in value than they receive in payment and that value is there for anyone to take. I want anyone listening to feel empowered to make a change in their life and to invite in more abundance and fulfillment. In closing, I'll share a quote from the book in the hopes that my endorsement may provide some value to you, the listener. You get what you expect. Put another way, what you focus on is what you get. You've heard the expression go looking for trouble and that's what you'll find. It's true and it's not only about trouble. It's true about everything. Go looking for conflict, you'll find it. Go looking for people to take advantage of you and they generally will. See the world as a dog eat dog place and you'll always find a bigger dog looking at you as if you're his next meal. On the other hand, go looking for the best in people and you'll be amazed by the talent, ingenuity, empathy and good you'll find. Ultimately, the world treats you more or less the way you expect to be treated. I want you to leave here today knowing that this world is an abundant place and scarcity is an illusion. There is more than enough for everyone and the way to attract abundance into your life is be unapologetically yourself and use your unique talents, gifts and idiosyncrasies to serve others and to provide as much value as you can to as many people as you can you'll be shocked to see what a difference it makes. Thank you. From Moraine Park Technical College Malia Buck-Lightner Hello everyone. My name is Malia Buck-Lightner and I'm so thrilled to be representing Moraine Park as their district ambassador for the upcoming academic year. All of us have a unique story and I'm so excited to have this opportunity to share mine. Being an immigrant from Thailand who grew up in a single parent household I spent most of my childhood living in poverty. Since my mother never had a formal education I had always desired to have a formal education but my journey to higher education did not begin until about 10 years after high school. By then I had already gotten married had two children bought a house I also had a five year career and I decided I wanted better career opportunities I also wanted to be an example for my children that if their mom can go to college while balancing work sport schedules and everything else then they'll know one day they can do anything. Growing up in the 90s I always dreamed about creating my own game someday so studying software development was my way of turning that dream into a reality. In comparison to four year universities Maureen Park was able to offer that flexibility for me to do my classes online and it was also more affordable. I still however wanted to experience college life so I became actively involved in Beaver Dam Student Senate District Student Government Wisconsin Student Government and Phi Theta Kappa and it was through these extra curricular activities that I found greater happiness and more ambition as a student I started seeking out more leadership and volunteer opportunities a wise leader once told me that if you work hard and you treat people right the rest will come living by this philosophy has created countless opportunities for me. Realizing that life is short at the end of the day I would rather say I'm glad I did rather than I wish I did I owe my success to the love and support of my family and friends as well as the many teachers and staff at Maureen Park Thank you to Lisa and Lucas for the nomination I hope to inspire others to take that leap of faith and remember that if you work hard and you treat people right the rest will come Thank you. For Nicolette College Please forgive me if I mispronounce my words as I'm still learning Buju Induwe Maganaduk Anishnabeduk Badoewea Senokwe M'gizzi Nendodem Sekagonine Hello and good evening all my friends and relatives My name is Kimberly Soldier but they call me Badoewea Senokwe which means here you coming along ways lady very true my great-grandmother gave me the name it was hers from what I know Eagle is my clan and I'm from the Sekagon Chippewa community Please let me first think instructors and mentors Elizabeth DeVore and Ellen for the continued support throughout the last few years I know I could not have done this without the two of you as a mother of three beautiful adult children and a glamour of three even more beautiful grandchildren I'm very proud to represent Nicolet College in this way my babies are the reason I push myself so hard to reach my goals no matter how big or how small they are my babies are my humans and they give me strength to be my best I'm a recovering alcoholic and addict and a convicted felon for drunk driving from what I thought I was in my life's path at no time did I see that I would be continuing my education at my age my focus after finally deciding to make a positive change and live life in recovery was to be a better mother to my children a daughter to my mother and a sister to my siblings speaking of family my rocks and my biggest advocates are my mom forgive me my mom and my sister Kelly who are joining us tonight via livestream Kelly gives me the no holds barred truth I need to hear all the while cheer me on for me to see past the negative things in life that can sometimes weigh me down she is my driver my mom today is her birthday so I've got to give her a little shout out my mom has been the only constant parent in my life she's the ultimate role model and one day I hope to be a mother to my children as she is to me I have been attending Nicolay College since 2015 first started in the administrative professional field after taking about a year and a half off because life happens I along with my sister Kelly enrolled in Nicolay and took the Native American tribal management course that was being offered on our reservation and in our community in 2018 taking that course completing it and receiving my diploma for the very first time ever walking across the stage is why I decided to keep moving forward and to enroll in the business management course it was also the start of me advocating and promoting others in the community to continue their education because if I can do it so can they I encourage others to look past the stigma of how addicts are seen in life and how things are supposed to be so why not listen to my own words and look towards my future in education right with that goal in mind I started collaborating with the general manager and Nicolay College to host classes in leadership MS office business management to be held on site at the Malik casino lodge and conference center and giving back to my community and advocating for others like me who struggle with substance abuse mental health issues and those not having having the not so perfect past I became a member of the community coalition of forest county being a member of the past five years and the chairperson of the prevention week team I have the pleasure in collaborating with members of both tribal nations in our county the forest county sheriff's department the forest county EMS services all to plan week long events I'm also a part of the Native American tourism of Wisconsin and sit on the executive board as their secretary NATO is a group of representatives that work collectively on tribal tourism initiatives being a part of things like this is what helps me to stay on track in life with my own journey in recovery and in continuing my education tonight I am proud and beyond the moon because as of this past Saturday I have finally finished my associates degree in business management it is a super proud moment for me and it is sometimes hard to recognize my own accomplishments in life because all I thought all I thought was that I was never good enough or ever strong enough this fall I will continue to move forward and work towards a bachelor's degree in business through the Nicollet college transfer program I would like to give a huge thanks to Nicollet college and the Wisconsin technical college system and Baird for this great honor I will do my best to represent as the 2023 Nicollet college WTCS ambassador in closing if there is anything I would like for you to remember it is this goals are achievable you, like me are perfectly imperfect and that's okay love you, be you and most importantly do you like nobody's business my uncle Albert used to say true story and this is my true story I will be repping Nicollet all the way now from north-central sorry from north-central technical college Mason Nab good evening everyone for my icebreaker I just like everybody to know that this is now my second time I have been in front of a microphone the first time was earlier today my name is Mason Nab and I am a student at north-central technical college before I begin I am a graduating instructor James Eckerd for recognizing me for this amazing opportunity I would also like to thank my amazing girlfriend Grace for supporting me and helping me get my story out there finally I would like to thank my parents for all the years and advice the wife complained through the years because truly without any of these people I wouldn't be standing here today now I would like to ask for a show of hands if anyone here has attended college and either dropped out taken a semester off and returned later or transferred schools wow that is a lot more people than I expected think back do you regret it was it worth it so my story begins September of 2018 I walked through the doors my first semester at a four-year university I had my mindset on graduating with a degree in natural resource law enforcement I was proud and I was determined my passion for my field of interest started at the age of 13 when I became a Wisconsin state hunter safety instructor and I still do teach today I teach hunter safety to men women and children of varying ages anywhere from 11 to I've even taught 75-year-olds it's always been a truly wonderful experience I was confident that I knew where my life was going the first two years at the university were interesting to say the least out of hundreds if not thousands of students I had only made three close friends we had multiple classes together but we're all in different programs we had the same classes because during the first two years and into my third year we had only taken general education courses and it wasn't until my third year the middle of my third year that I had finally taken a class directly related to my field now please know I am by no means bashing my previous university it is a wonderful school with endless potential but the environment the school gave didn't really fit my learning needs nor my lifestyle so it was no surprise that by the time I had finally gotten to take a class directly related to my field of study I truly had just lost interest I wasn't doing well in classes I felt outnumbered I felt overpowered and unequal neither to say I was mentally and emotionally exhausted and I began to panic about my future one day in between classes I was eating lunch at a local park and I was leaned across the two front seats just chilling feet hanging out the window as a matter of fact I was enjoying the scenic views the park had to offer and I was thinking about where I was versus where I wanted to be and then it dawned on me I had taken a youth apprenticeship program that NTC had offered through diesel mechanics at my high school so I thought about it for a few minutes and I began or before the end of my break I had decided to reach out to an NTC rep who swiftly and effectively helped me get the ball rolling to a whole new future I had now shifted my aims to pursuing a degree in diesel mechanics mind you this was in the middle of a semester at the UW I had been working in the field for several years since my apprenticeship and I knew I was good at it and I love doing it now I'm not saying I'm the best at it but I love doing it so it just made sense and naturally when something makes sense people tend to gravitate towards it I dropped out of the university before the end of the semester and I took the following semester off of school completely to test my theory during that time I worked every day as a diesel mechanic and I was happy I was fully content with my decision so the beginning of the next semester I was a student at NTC and I knew exactly what I now wanted and what my new goals were however I was worried about what my peers would think of me and I thought I would be considerably older than most but what I learned was I couldn't have been more wrong what I found is I am not the only one here or at any of these technical colleges that are a little bit older than others the feeling of equality and teamwork in my opinion should really just be written on NTC's walls I honestly couldn't have asked for a better experience as well as the instructors who are easy to get along with easy to learn from and are more than willing to forge a relationship with you I believe that this is what makes NTC and all other technical colleges so powerful and so special instead of being a face in the crowd you are treated like an individual and are part of a hands on learning program we not only learn from our instructors but we also get to learn from each other as students we all have different life experiences and we all bring different skill sets to the classroom and there's never really been a day that I felt overwhelmed or out of balance if I had a question I would simply raise my hand and my instructor would call me out by name and help me understand whatever it is I needed assistance with it's obvious to me that switching to a technical college was one of the best decisions I could have ever made for myself I look forward to class every day and I challenge myself to learn as much as I can from who I can and I encourage anyone and everyone to never compromise on what makes or on what you want in life because sometimes all it takes is hanging your feet out of truck window taking in a scenic view while eating a fresh ham sandwich and your whole life can change thank you Will our final group of ambassadors please come forward Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Sue Lawer Good evening everyone My name is Sue Lawer I'm in the graphic design and print technology program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College I believe the universe works in a divine and wondrous way in how it shapes each of us through the journeys we travel and the choices we make Each journey we have traveled and about to travel defines the limitless possibilities of who we can become Tonight I'm honored to be here to be able to share a piece of who I am how my human experience brought me here and most of all to celebrate this moment with all my fellow Wisconsin Technical College system ambassadors and the audience during tonight's being quit I grew up caught between two cultures my paternal side from Thailand captured my birth and became the sign to the Hmong ethnic group and my maternal side America who gave the Hmong ethnic group a sign and a new beginning raised me at age 3 up until the age of 17 in the saddest city known as Oshkosh, Wisconsin I was raised in a Hmong culture and home with unrealistic expectations to carry on traditions without the influence of my maternal culture yet expected to be successful in a prestige career field to be considered good Hmong daughter I couldn't have a social life it was deemed inappropriate and frowned upon to escape being stuck at home I joined the student council club and sports throughout middle school when I had to be home I dreamt of my escape somewhere far far away from the walls sealed me close from the outside world that was supposed to keep me safe that somewhere far far away was in my imagination buried in books and literatures which were the closest to experiencing life I could get the Oshkosh public library became my second home as I frequented often and happiness and freedom meant flying from one genre wing to the next I was hungry to know everything so I explored poetry philosophy, science and anything I could get my hands on even dictionaries and how to prepare and come to expert dummies I felt pressure to contain myself in a cultural existence that reminded me I was a mere daughter who will become a wife, a mother and a daughter-in-law nothing less and nothing more however there was this part of me that knew and felt more than a daughter, more than a mother or a wife or daughter-in-law I neared my junior year of high school and at the age of 17 I felt the pressure to know what I want to do with my life and who I want to become so I dropped out of high school to explore outside the Little Rock I lived under and did some soul searching in California I got married at age 21 and the thought of starting a family crossed my mind I wanted to be able to set an example for my children and provide them with tours for success through leading by example with that in mind I knew I had to consider a career path that I am passionate about in 2015 I applied for my first associate degree in management at NWTC and I started my program that same year while attending school full time I was also working the nocturnal shift at Bell and Memorial Hospital as a part-time patient companion and I was an active member of the Asian American Student Association I was eager to achieve professional growth so I applied the many successful tools that resonated with me from college 101 which encouraged critical thinking and implementing textbook knowledge with hands on learning with that said I started to browse the college website to search for opportunities and came across the student ambassador page the essential functions of the role and the benefits of being a student ambassador aligned with the direction I wanted to head towards so I applied for the position and was offered the role in student involvement after taking on the student ambassador role for one year Joe Richter presently serves the supervisor role approached me with an opportunity I couldn't say no to I was shocked and filled with excitement to take the part-time position at the front desk as an office assistant with one more year of courses left to go I found out I was pregnant with my first child and continued to pursue my degree and May 2017 I graduated I found out I was pregnant with my second son in fall of 2017 and decided with the father of my boys to move out to California to be with his family excuse me life threw me a curve ball and there's a tissue when I needed life threw me a curve ball and I became a single parent to my boys ages five and six in 2021 as much as I am passionate about my initial intention to serve a community in the criminal justice field my boys were a priority and needed me more the changes led me to dig deep and find my passion my purpose and to know what my priorities are with that said I left my full-time job as a mental health technician and took a part-time job part-time position at the YWCA to meet my boys scheduling needs I saw an opportunity to pursue another degree that will align with who I have become and what I have discovered about myself through my human experience of 31 years in spring of 2021 I returned to NWTC to pursue my current degree before I was wise enough to find the silver lining that exists within all people places things and events I was unconsciously functioning on a victim mindset the hindering mindset of a victim that ruminates on the simple perspective of why did this happen to me rather than seeing that life happened through me for me kept my development sealed in a vacuum of turmoil and grief to find a place for cultural equilibrium there were days when my self-expectations got the best of me to overlook gratitude and to understand exactly where I need to be not where I want or think I should be when I say I am meant to be exactly where I'm supposed to be I experienced many mixed emotions as a high school dropout feeling inadequate if I was not a high school dropout life would have taken me on a completely different path and I would never cross and Northeast Wisconsin Technological College would have never crossed my path who I am today would have been a distant notion of a possibility I want to thank NWTC for extending profanity to the framework of my growth by the example they set in the workplace and the educational setting I can testify from the perspective of a part-time staff member and from a student's perspective I cultivate compassion empathy, connectedness and culture and diversity which brought my two halves that often felt irreconcilably different to find a common ground to coexist by sharing love of stories I commend NWTC for the persistent growth they foster to all who align with NWTC's vision of finding a cutting edge lifelong learning college that transforms strengthens and inspires I hope to inspire and instill a growth mindset as I lead by example and how I embody empathy, compassion, connectedness and understanding to everyone I serve and will be serving the ripple effect of life starts with inspiring change in one person and in one life at a time and in my final moment I will like to take the time to express my overdue gratitude to my manager in the Welcome Center and call center Kaley Trulie she's also president at tonight's banquet she nominated me and enabled this wonderful experience with heartfelt words that brought me many to tears when I read it during a challenging time as it reminded me of a grounded and progressive version of myself I forgot for a minute I appreciate the way you support me from the beginning of my professional start to this very moment your sincerity your compassion your professional versatility yet to remain true and self presence is unforeseen and admirable not to mention your emotion over all intelligence of the subtleness of all things is what makes you a paragon of all the values and WTC fosters thank you for seeing me and hearing me in my most of the days when words are unaudible thank you thank you everyone from Northwood Technical College Jamie Scott good evening everybody I'm so grateful to be here with everybody to add this to part of my story so my name is Jamie Scott and I am from Northwood Tech I'd like to begin by saying thank you to Baird and the Wisconsin Technical College System and so many others involved in putting together this fantastic event thank you to the staff at Northwood Technical College for bestowing upon me the honor to be their student ambassador I would also like to take a minute to recognize my amazing occupational therapy assistant instructors Kristen Rohl, Becky Micah, and Anna Polzin for going above and beyond every day and challenging me and my peers to be the best students that we can be and the best students that we can be and for fueling my passion for the field of occupational therapy last but certainly not least I would like to thank my husband Neil and my children Carter and Payton for supporting me cheering me on bringing me snacks when I'm studying doing all the chores that they hate like washing dishes and folding laundry and being excellent clients for me to practice and master my newly learned skills on after graduating high school in the year 2000 I continued my education at a four year university at that time I had no idea what I wanted to do but I went on to the four year university because I felt that was what was expected of me so fast forward five years five major changes and a large sum of student debt I still had no idea what I wanted to do after college I worked lots of jobs including some in the food and beverage service industry working as a special education paraprofessional in an elementary school and my latest profession of being a preschool teacher from the years 2008 to 2012 four of my five most important life events happened in this following order in 2008 I married my best friend in 2010 the birth of my son Carter in 2011 the birth of my daughter Payton and in 2012 when my son received his autism diagnosis at the age of two my son received his autism diagnosis this began my family's journey and fueled my passion for the field of occupational therapy I'm sorry through my son's therapies I was able to have a front row seat to the impact that occupational therapy has not only on the individual but also the families I've had the privilege of working and learning from many occupational therapy practitioners over the years including my son's current COTA who is a graduate of the same program at Northwood Tech on the same campus to be a part of Inderichmond for 11 years Inderichmond I drove by Northwood Tech daily bringing my children to school to their activities and to therapy appointments every time I passed it I thought to myself okay just enroll already because I knew that I wanted to be a part of the OTA program unfortunately there was a tiny little negative voice in my head telling me you're too old you're 41 you aren't smart enough and you're going to fail in March of 2022 I'm happy to say that I finally silenced the negative voice in my head and put in my application for the occupational therapy assistant program at Northwood Tech and was accepted on list number five on my list of important life events from the beginning of the process starting with admissions when I met Jodi and she was so wonderful all I could think was how amazing and supportive the Northwood Tech staff were it was nothing like the experience I had at my four year university which had been so unsupportive and so impersonal and I'm so happy to say that I'm having the experience now that I wish I would have had back then the campus environment at Northwood Tech is so positive and focused on helping each student succeed and achieve their goals while meeting them where they're at our class sizes are small and my hybrid program gives me the opportunity to connect with my peers in my program campuses so New Richmond, Rice Lake and Ashland I'm grateful with the support of my instructors, peers and family that I will be able to add number six to my list of important life events when I graduate in spring of 2024 thank you from Southwest Wisconsin Technical College Kyle Roche Hi everyone my name is Kyle Roche I'm a student state ambassador for Southwest Wisconsin Technical College I'm from Potosi, Wisconsin where I graduated high school in 2014 and then I attended Southwest Tech and graduated from the agri-business program in 2017 I have now returned for two more associate degrees Electromechanical Technology and Instrumentation and Power Controls all while working a full-time second shift job and working on my family's farm the coming back to school was an exciting decision for me to make I never would have guessed it would lead me to becoming a student state ambassador for the college starting out my academic career was not much to talk about at an early age I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder because of this I was held back up with the other children from there on throughout elementary school I was put in a special education program for assisted learning students it wasn't until sixth grade that I realized I had an important decision to make for myself one day for no particular reason I was watching another student get assistance with homework as well obviously not doing my own homework in that moment it occurred to me I was not going to be able to rely on somebody to help me throughout my academic career at all times it was then I asked to move out of the special education program and learn how to work independently on my goals through lots of trial and error I did just that eventually graduating and moving on to attend Southwest Tech fast forward to now I'm almost ready to graduate with my second and third associate degree at a 4.0 GPA and one of the most challenging things I've ever been through however I now have the realization that my a new realization about my academic career I realized that even though I'm the one in the class from doing the work I'm not achieving my goals without still being supported whether it be my family being patient and kind while I spend so much time working on school or my coworkers changing their schedules around so that I can attend events such as this or my friends cheering me on and motivating me and supporting me to keep working hard I now realize that I never really truly truly do things on my own although being self motivated and driven towards goals important is equally as important to surround yourself of people who can be there and make up for those times when you can't do things alone so I want to bring you back to a moment in time during my first semester at Southwest Tech on a class trip during that first semester we took a trip out to Idaho for a club I was a part of called post secondary ag students and one of the stops we made in bull Idaho was to visit this balancing rock it was a monument out there the group had to walk up a large hill to see this rock up close and get pictures with it and once at the topic became aware to us that our instructor Paul Cutting had become a little over exerted, dizzy he kind of just looked up and like he was seeing stars and instantly we went into action got him sat down, got him water got him calmed down again and after a few minutes he came back to us so with everybody gathered around Paul said this to us in the classroom we've talked about how the day we were born and the day we are a pastor two dates mentioned when our time is up and everything we do in life is summed up by a simple dash that sits in between them everyone's dash is different based on how they choose to live now in that moment when things got dizzy and I was light headed it came to me that all I could think about was where I was and the people I was spending that moment with and if this were my time to go what a way it would be to go surrounded by people who were spending their dash in life doing right by themselves and by others what a way to live I took that moment to heart and it's something I will never forget and it came from a Wisconsin technical college experience it wasn't in any curriculum it wasn't in any textbook just a teacher and his students learning about life and if there's one thing I made sure from then on it was to surround myself with people who are also fulfilling their dash in life to support themselves and others as well as I like to my other my fellow 15 state student ambassadors to my friends and family and to all those out here that have attended to support one another I feel as though I'm still living that less than I learned 8 years ago so my message is this being willing to take risks on yourself go after things that you might be unsure of whether or not you can achieve them surround yourself with a strong network of people who believe in you and will support you support others as well and give them the strength and motivation pushing toward success and make wise choices I want to thank everyone who has supported me to get to where I am today Southwest Tech Baird for sponsoring this event the Wisconsin technical college system my classmates, my coworkers friends, family and everybody in between thank you for being here tonight I'm so honored to represent Waukesha County Technical College as their district ambassador I'm an international student from Turkey unfortunately I don't have any family members living in United States and unfortunately my host family couldn't make it tonight but I have my family WCTC here thank you for being here tonight that means a lot to me so my journey at WCTC started with the English as a second language course before I came to the United States I was a school counselor at a private school my students were able to speak English but I wasn't this motivated me to learn English I started looking for opportunities to learn English and I found out about the O'Pair program where you take care of kids and learn English I got on a plane to the United States in November 2018 with a screenshot of Google Translate on my phone that screenshot said can I please have a cup of water that was how much English I knew I needed help with the water after four years here I am representing my college as the district ambassador also their first international student from Turkey and giving a speech in English thanks to the ESL course that I took at WCTC now I study my dream program graphic design I'm not only a student but also a student worker at WCTC before I started my current role as a student worker where I get to smell paper for free I love the smell of paper so much that's the right choice I work at the welcome center to improve my speaking and communication skills in English during my time there I welcomed visitors, students and instructors and directed them to the classrooms and offices they needed to go to a diverse student this was an amazing opportunity for me because I was able to practice my speaking while being exposed to diverse students from all backgrounds my goal was to create a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued, heard, included at WCTC I chose to study there for three reasons first it's affordable second it's a very supportive environment and lastly I received hands-on learning experience from my talented instructors I want to thank the Wisconsin Technical College System for organizing this amazing event my instructor Peggy Kraus who nominated me for this role my navigator Beth Saibold for her sport my boyfriend Max for his sport my host family my national student and my parents who are watching this live stream at 4am in Turkey right now I just want to thank them for always being on my side and if you don't mind they don't know English so I want to thank them in my native language in Turkish they will be watching this is this camera that one thank you thank you for always being on my side thank you from western technical college Xander Barr good evening everyone hi my name is Xander Barr I am honored to be here today to express my gratitude to western technical college and I would also like to say thank you to the Wisconsin Technical College System and Baird for this great celebration I am grateful for the education I am receiving at western which is preparing me for my future careers and giving me the tools I need to succeed in a career I appreciate the hard work and dedication of the faculty and staff who have guided me along the way now a little bit about me and my journey when I was a baby my mother left me with my father I lived with my biological father who was a large drug dealer with moral values who is still on the run today from police at the age of 7 I was put into foster care by Child Protective Services luckily my grandparents were able to take me in but I was worried all the time and didn't have a lot of friends this was attributed to my post-traumatic stress disorder the same year my grandmother died of cancer while I held her hand a few months later my grandfather's health declined and he couldn't take care of me anymore Child Protective Services then found a foster home who wanted to adopt me and that is when things got crazy and the journey of finding myself began at 10 years old I was adopted by a loving therapeutic family with 10 other adopted and birth children and that family brought me to find my value in life as I'm writing this speech my sweet loving mother and this isn't her words so wanted me to let you all know how great her personality is and how wonderful she is but this is true because of my parents I learned how to be a leader to care for others no matter who they are from always pushing myself to be better for them and me to make them proud of the person I am becoming as my high school career ended I needed to decide if I wanted to go to college but I didn't want to go at first because I was super scared like super scared I didn't know what to do until my mother had told me about western she had said what a great school it was and my mother had started college classes at western when she was a junior in high school after hearing about that I wanted to follow in my family's footsteps as I arrived at western I felt like I had already fit in the people there were kind and caring they were not just there to be there they really wanted to help and I wanted to do that too in the middle of my first semester my grades had started to go down and I got the courage to finally talk to my instructor James about what I was dealing with and he turned he told me, sorry he told me not to worry about it focus on the things that were most important to me first and he told me to turn it in when I was done with my missing work that's when I realized western was more than a college and that's when I wanted to do more for western as I was learning I was helping as much as I could around then my teacher James sent me an email asking if I could apply to be western's ambassador and I was more than happy to but enough about me I would like to thank western employees Kerry Rayburn Eric Jacobson and James Bushman for their dedication to my success this year they went above and beyond to make sure my first year at western went comfortably as a student here at western technical college I feel that it has become a second home to me a place where I formed lifelong friendships and memories I will always cherish the time I spent here and experiences I have had I am proud to be western's new ambassador I look forward to representing western in my own personal and professional lives as I reach my final year here at western I get asked where will it take you and I always respond with a smile and say a bright future in closing I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to western for all that it has done for me thank you for your support your guidance and commitment to my success so before I go down and take my pictures and whatever I was wondering because this is a really big moment for me and my family if I could just get a selfie with all you guys up here I'm going to take that as a yes so I'm going to count to three and then I want you guys to say technical colleges are the best can you guys do that sick I think that'll work one, two, three technical good evening everybody just wanted to let you all know we have had some people who's accessing the live stream so if that happens to be your family and friends we sincerely apologize but please know that we will be uploading the complete video immediately after this so they still will be able to see it right away they just may not have been able to watch it actually live but thank you very much can we please have one last round of applause for all of our 2023 ambassadors the CES planning team would like to recognize all of the college leaders and staff here in support of these 16 students including the college's ambassador coordinators those who nominated these students for this honor as well as the district system board members college presidents vice presidents and other leaders here in support to support these students in this program before we close I would like to give one huge thank you to the program I would like to give one huge thank you to Baird this program would not be possible without their support I would like to say how great for I was when I received my ambassador scholarship last year it really helped the struggling mother wife and student out as you guys heard a lot of us just need that extra support knowing that there's others that care about us and seeing all you guys here today it really inspires me to continue speaking and telling my story as well and I hope it inspires all the ambassadors here and it shows them that there's a lot of people out there that care about them Baird, thank you for supporting these students and supporting me as well in my journey it really it really sorry it makes me it makes me very happy and I'm able to show my kids as well that they're not alone even though we don't know everybody out in the world people still care about us people still want to help us, people still want us to succeed and I really want to say thank you thank you to everybody and finally it's hard to imagine these students would be where they are without love and support of family and friends please give a round of applause for the family members and the friends of the ambassadors including those who are here with us tonight and those who could not be here thank you all for being with us on this special night we hope you will join us again next year to honor the 2024 WTCS ambassadors April 18th please travel safely and have a great night