April 18, 2012<\/p>\n
Winona State\u2019s Light the Way campaign surpasses its goal with more than $14 million. Light the Way, Winona State\u2019s first comprehensive capital campaign, has successfully concluded by surpassing its original $10 million goal. With more than 32,000 gifts \u2013 large and small, from every corner of the community \u2013 the campaign raised a total of $14,522,570 to date. by Brett Ayers \u201cThat\u2019s rare in today\u2019s economy,\u201d said Flaherty, a vocal music education major.<\/p>\n The average Winona State student leaves school with a debt burden of about $27,000, largely due to precipitously declining state support for public education. Today, just 23 percent of the entire university budget is funded by the state.<\/p>\n That not only dims students\u2019 prospects after they graduate, it also forces them to work more and more to finance their education while they\u2019re in school.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving been helped so much along the way, I don\u2019t take my responsibility lightly to be a good steward with the opportunity I\u2019ve been given,\u201d said Flaherty, who looks forward to a career as choir teacher. \u201cSupport from scholarships plus what I save from work each summer has allowed me to participate fully in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to excelling in the classroom and additional studies in voice and piano, Flaherty has pursued a number of leadership and service opportunities at Winona State. She\u2019s an officer in several clubs, including president of the National Association for Music Educators and vice president of the American Choral Directors Association. She also volunteers at an after school program and for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Winona.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are just a few of the experiences that have made me who I am today,\u201d said Flaherty. \u201cWhen I graduate, I look forward to carrying on the tradition of giving to the community in any way that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n by Andrea Mikkelsen \u201cMinnesota is cutting edge in terms of child protection training. In Winona County we\u2019re very fortunate to have the child protection center located right here,\u201d said Davenport, noting that people come from all over the United States and the world to take part in the training offered by the NCPTC, housed on the Winona State University campus.<\/p>\n Davenport herself participated in the ChildFirst forensic interviewing training program in November 2011 as part of an initiative to train every attorney in the Winona County office.<\/p>\n Child abuse remains a \u201chuge issue,\u201d said Davenport, and the more resources directed toward assisting child protection professionals, the better.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important for people to support the National Child Protection Training Center because of the invaluable service that they provide,\u201d said Davenport. \u201cThe knowledge and the resources [they provide] are so incredibly important to advancing child protection issues. It\u2019s more than just education. It\u2019s about making an impact in the community, across the country, and I believe also the world to really help protect children who aren\u2019t able to protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Davenport, \u201cIt really does give every person\u2014regardless of their background, their education, what occupation they\u2019re in\u2014the opportunity to invest in the protection and the future of children by helping the professionals in this area to become equipped to really advocate for these children and to bring their abusers to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n by Mollee Sheehan \u201cIt always felt like we were in an old classroom, which made it harder to feel at ease, \u201c she said.<\/p>\n Sollie, now a graduate assistant at the Integrated Wellness Complex, said that health and wellness services at the IWC \u201clooks like and feels like a clinic, because it is a clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n The new structure along with the integrated approach to wellness has helped transform student perception, awareness, and participation on campus. \u201cNow, no one knows if you are here to get a flu shot or to see a counselor, so students no longer need to worry about the stigma of seeking counseling.\u201d<\/p>\n The IWC\u2019s vision is not only to integrate services, but also to create culture of wellness throughout the community. Sollie is on the frontlines. April 18, 2012 Winona State\u2019s Light the Way campaign surpasses its goal with more than $14 million. Thanks to 13,364 shining lights the future is much, much brighter for Winona State University and tens of thousands of people in our community. Light the Way, Winona State\u2019s first comprehensive capital campaign, has successfully concluded by surpassing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,2],"tags":[580,579,583,581,570,577,560,578,85,584,582,268,7,8],"class_list":["post-1014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-wsu-magazine","tag-andrea-mikkelsen","tag-brett-ayers","tag-christina-davenport","tag-christina-flaherty","tag-integrated-wellness-complex","tag-iwc","tag-light-the-way","tag-mollee-sheehan","tag-national-child-protection-training-center","tag-ncptc","tag-samantha-sollie","tag-scholarships","tag-winona-state-university","tag-wsu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PQMT-gm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1015,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions\/1015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>
\nThanks to 13,364 shining lights the future is much, much brighter for Winona State University and tens of thousands of people in our community.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s heartening that those who gave included 7,364 alumni, 2,664 parents of students, 1,676 friends of WSU, and 546 faculty and staff members. Nearly 4,500 of those \u201cshining lights\u201d were first-time donors. Each of those gifts shows your commitment to enhancing educational opportunities for our students, and reaffirms your belief that Winona State improves the world.
\nAnd how is your overwhelming generosity being put to use? These stories demonstrate how Light the Way is changing the lives of deserving students, creating the tools to protect children from neglect and abuse, and building a culture of health and well-being for all members of our community.<\/p>\n200 New Scholarships<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nThe recipient of several scholarships, Christina Flaherty is the unusual Winona State student who will graduate debt free.<\/p>\n50,000 Child Protection Professionals Trained<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nAssistant Winona County Attorney Christina Davenport may be only one of the 14,293 child protection professionals trained by the National Child Protection Training Center (NCPTC) in 2011, but she joins a legion of professionals across the world who are making the future of children a priority.<\/p>\n3,000 Integrated Wellness Complex Visitors Each Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nSamantha Sollie remembers in 2010 working as an undergraduate student in Health Services at the old Wabasha Hall, a little-known building two blocks from campus. Although Sollie and the other Health Services staff did their best to make patients comfortable in the converted former junior high school, it wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMost freshman come to college thinking they are here to eventually get a job,\u201d Sollie said. But we are teaching them early on \u201cyou can\u2019t do well if you are not well.\u201d Students are learning that all-important life lesson that \u201cin order to be successful, you have to take care of yourself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"