Dear Alumni, Friends, and Corporate Sponsors, 

We held several events this year, starting with our Spring Annual Meeting held May 18, during which Dr. Biasca recapped Senior projects that will help the department build facility maintenance and repair plans. Our annual Golf event was held September 18, fortunately the weather was sunny and clear. A full complement of attendees meant we had two sets of teams on each hole! Thank you to all sponsors and attendees for making this such a wonderful event.

Our Fall Annual Meeting and Banquet held on September 25 had nearly 100% attendance at the Board Meeting and approved a more generous scholarship program for our students as well as generated significant interest in aiding the Department in developing safety culture support for the students. Don Guay also announced an additional $50,000 transfer to Commonfund for this firegistered, we had a very full 

As I work through my first year as President of the Paper Science & Chemical Engineering Foundation at UWSP, I am extremely proud to part of a wonderful organization with a storied past, present and future.  The Foundation just celebrated its 50th year of supporting the Paper Science & Chemical Engineering Program at UWSP.  I want to convey my deepest thank you to all of the wonderful Staff, Students and Directors of the Foundation who have grown this partnership from $12,000 in assets in 1974 to over $5 million in assets today.  The Foundation has awarded approximately $2 million in scholarships to well deserving students over 50 years and additional support for Faculty and Staff of the Paper Science& Engineering Program. 

This year with enrollment in the program back to over 100 students, we plan to award $120,000 in scholarships to the Paper Science & Chemical Engineering students.  The program is doing wonderful, and industry and alumni support has been stepping up to the plate with increased donations to support higher numbers of students.  Total Contributions this year far exceeded our budget of $225,000 at $296,000. Industry and alumni support allows the Foundation to support students at a rate of about 50% of the tuition costs.

Paper Science & Chemical Engineering Foundation events have been very well attended, including the recent golf outing which featured 28 teams this year playing at the Stevens Point Country Club.  This event raised over $12,000 for the Foundation and has become a yearly alumni reunion for many.  The awards banquet this fall celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Foundation was attended by over 100 people.  We will be hosting our first ever spring fundraiser “The Kraft Liquor Krawl” on February 1, 2025.  I encourage you all to check out this event and join if you are able. 

As an alumnus of this program (1996) I am honored to be representing the Paper Science & Chemical Engineering Foundation at UWSP.  The Board of Directors are working hard to increase resources to support the Paper Science & Engineering program.  Please continue your support and if you have not supported the Foundation in the past, it is never too late to start. 

Hello again from Stevens Point! This academic year is off to a great start. A busy September started us off, and the pace hasn’t slowed down at all.

The Academic Advisory Committee meeting in May was a wonderful event, connecting industry representatives with the graduating seniors. The Paper Science and Engineering seniors presented their design projects, which primarily were completed in the Fall 2023 semester. The projects challenged them to find solutions to basis weight variability and formation issues. Both design groups provided good presentations that generated questions and discussion. The Chemical Engineering majors spoke about their ethylbenzene design projects using posters, allowing attendees to have in-depth conversations with the students. The room buzzed with discussions during the poster presentations! We posed some specific topics to attendees for discussion related to the curriculum and gathered valuable feedback.

The Scholarship Banquet celebrating the Foundation’s 50th Anniversary was held on campus in the Dreyfus University Center. The “keynote” address was delivered by six speakers, one from each decade, and was very entertaining. It was an evening of socializing with scholarship winners and their parents as well as the representatives from the sponsors of those scholarships.

Forty-two companies attended our Career Fair in September, which included a scavenger hunt to help students engage with the recruiting companies. The companies were pleased with the event overall, and students have been busy with interviews.

Recruiting students is a very high priority for the department. Our total enrollment is now over 100 students for the first time in many years. We remain focused on preparing students to begin their careers in process engineering; we are committed to providing the technical talent needed for paper and chemical companies to thrive.

The scholarships these students receive from the Foundation are crucial to our recruiting process. In addition, the Foundation’s support of our student organizations (TAPPI, AIChE, and SWE) helps keep these students engaged once they are here. The Foundation supported the following student trips:

·     In April, eleven PS&E juniors attended TAPPICon in Cleveland.

·     Four students attended the Society of Women Engineers Annual Conference in Chicago in October. This conference attracted ~20,000 attendees from around the world.

All of these students returned to campus with renewed energy and enthusiasm after attending these professional events. These educational experiences would have put a significant financial burden on these students without Foundation support.

As always, thank you so very much for your support of our students and academic programs. We would not have this level of success without you!