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 fiscal year. The Scholarship Banquet made some significant changes to the program with regards to the students that went very well and will be repeated for next year. To qualify for scholarships students must now provide volunteer hours to either the Department or Foundation and are required to attend the Banquet. Tables were set up so that students had a chance to sit with their donors, and they were able to get photos taken with the students who were awarded their scholarships. While this took significant work on Angie’s part these changes were very well received.

This year the Department hosted a Career Fair on September 26 dedicated to the PS&ChE students only. With 30 companies registered, we had a very full event. Interviews were scheduled for the following day. We look to repeat this event next year and will expand the venue to meet industry needs.

Please consider paying it forward to the students coming into our school. It would be a great way to recognize the financial success you enjoy today, and to help us address the lack of engineers graduating from schools across the country by making this program more attractive to incoming students.  Enclosed in the annual report is an individual donation form, please use it to support the students, the University, and the industry.

Thank you again for your support!

“A Foundation and Program to be Proud of.”

The mission of the Foundation is to support the Paper Science and Chemical Engineering Program at UWSP by raising philanthropic donations that fund Student Scholarships, professor growth, and the pilot machine.  This past year the Foundation raised $268,000 versus a plan of $200,000 and distributed $89,000 in scholarships.  The Foundation purchased a much-needed formation tester with funds from Mead-Witter and Little Rapids Paper Company.  Support was also given to students and faculty, most notably was the student trip to PaperCon in Atlanta.

 The Foundation has much to celebrate:

-         The golf fundraiser was held at the Stevens Point Country Club and has become such a popular event with alumni and industry professionals totaling 36 teams­­­—it felt like a class reunion.

-         The Career Fair was full of companies looking to hire co-ops and full-time engineers.  The consensus from companies is there are open positions, and they are hiring.

-         The Annual Scholarship Banquet was a model of success and professionalism! The evening was highlighted by guest speaker Tom Baugnet, new Board Member and Operations Manager at Georgia Pacific, who shared information about the new Board Machine in Green Bay, his career path and personal life.  His words were impactful, especially to the students and parents.

 Starting with the 2023 fall scholarships the maximum scholarship was increased by 22%.  There has not been a change in the scholarship amount for over 15 years.  The scholarship program is evaluated each year and voted on by the board of directors.  Students must continue to meet the rigorous standards of the program to receive a scholarship.  In the last seven years the enrollment at the program has been stable, but the demand for our engineers has grown. The Foundation investments have rebounded, and we have moved our target fund raising to $225,000/year.  This move will support the added scholarships and continue to invest for the future.

 In 2022-2023 fiscal year 31 companies and 67 individuals contributed.  We continue to need this support to satisfy the needs of the program and the industry.  We also need new contributors—the annual report goes to all alumni—please give us your support. 

 Again, I thank all the Foundation Contributors - companies, industry professionals, alumni, university professors, and friends.  This past year has been successful, and I wish you the best in 2024.

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 really slowed down.

Let’s begin with the Academic Advisory Committee meeting in May. The Paper Science and Engineering seniors presented their projects using PowerPoint and received many questions and great feedback. The Chemical Engineering majors spoke about their projects using posters, allowing attendees to have in-depth conversations with the students. The room buzzed with discussions during the presentations! Attendance was again up from last year, and the discussion of the senior projects was as engaging as always. We also posed some specific topics for discussion related to the curriculum and gathered some valuable feedback.

The Foundation Golf Outing was a great success, completely filling the Stevens Point Country Club with two teams on every hole on a beautiful day. Under the direction of Angie Hauer, many students volunteered their time to help the event run smoothly.

The annual Scholarship Banquet was held on campus in the Dreyfus University Center. Several students volunteered their time at this event as well. It was an evening of socializing with scholarship winners and their parents as well as the representatives from the sponsors of those scholarships. A new seating arrangement this year had students sitting at dinner with the sponsors of their scholarships. This was universally well received.

Thirty-six companies attended our Career Fair at the end of September, which returned to a focus on our majors. The companies were pleased with the event overall, and students have been busy with interviews. Next year the event will move to a larger room…more space for more companies!

Recruiting students is a very high priority for the department. Our total enrollment continues to increase with both first-year and transfer students joining the program. 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, six PS&E juniors attended TAPPICon in Atlanta. One of these students received a Couch Pit University scholarship at their banquet.

·     Two students attended the Society of Women Engineers Annual Conference in Los Angeles in October. This conference attracted ~17,000 attendees from around the world.

·     Eight students traveled to Orlando to attend the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Student Conference in November.

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!