UWGB Transformed Amanda and Marcus by…

…giving them the tools to give more than 2,000 animals a “happily ever after.”

In its 50-year history, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has been the home to countless siblings. Few siblings have accomplished as much with their UWGB education and contributed as much to the greater Green Bay area as dynamic brother-sister duo Marcus and Amanda Reitz.

From humble beginnings, the elder Marcus, says he was simply another face in the crowd in the early days of his UWGB education before discovering his path and flourishing.

“When I arrived at UW-Green Bay, I was in a similar position to many freshmen. I was undecided about what degree I would pursue,” Marcus says, “but once I learned of the Communication Processes degree with emphasis on Organizational Communication, I was intrigued,” Marcus explains.

Amanda found an almost  immediate educational fit with UWGB’s Phuture Phoenix program.

“I greatly loved and appreciated my opportunity to participate in UWGB’s Phuture Phoenix Program, which shows disadvantaged and underrepresented young people that post-secondary education is attainable,” Amanda says. “It was a chance to inspire young people within this community to follow their dreams and to always hold on tight to what they want to accomplish.”

However different their initial experiences, both Amanda and Marcus forged long-lasting relationships at UWGB that streamlined their educational careers. These relationships, Marcus says, made it very easy for him to become involved with the campus and the community despite being a commuter student, yet one relationship in particular was exceedingly memorable.

“Without question, I was most influenced by Professor Phil Clampitt,” Marcus begins. “As a student of Communication Processes with an emphasis in Organizational Communication, I spent the majority of my classroom hours in ‘Phil classes,’ which offered incredible opportunities for applied learning. Through everything I learned, it is Phil’s simple axioms that I come back to daily.”

For Amanda, her relationships with the UWGB Education, specifically with Professors Linda Tabers-Kwak and Scott Ashman, provided her with the direction she needed.

“They greatly impacted my time, life, and education while at UWGB,” Amanda asserts. “I was going to complete my degree in education, but I was going to be going down a little bit of a different path and starting a 501c3 organization. They continued to support me during this transition and transformation in my life.”

Amanda’s transformation was catalyzed by her volunteer experience at an animal shelter allowing her to connect her UWGB education to a critical community service.

“I wanted to help make change,” Amanda explains. “While I realized the importance of obtaining my education degree and had the support to do just that from my professors and fellow students, I needed to follow my heart. The community I was and still am a part of (UWGB and greater Green Bay) gave me the drive and support needed to pursue this dream.”

The dream that Amanda speaks of is her founding of “Happily Ever After,” a non-profit, “no-kill” animal sanctuary in 2006. It’s a passion and organization that she shares with her Marcus, and a bonding endeavor.

“Amanda and I have really grown as siblings through this venture, and Happily Ever After has seen tremendous growth and community commitment to their cause,” Marcus asserts. “HEA has adopted more than 2,200 animals into loving homes; spayed or neutered more than 2,000 animals through their low-cost spay and neuter programs; rehabilitated hundreds of companion animals that would have been destroyed in many other facilities; and educated our community on the importance of the no-kill philosophy.”

Marcus used his UWGB education to transition from college student to professional.

“I was pleasantly surprised as the success I experienced in the classroom translated into multiple job offers, and I was able to display immediate confidence in the work of my career following graduation,” Marcus says. “Once hired into my first opportunity, it did not take long for me to realize that nearly every business or organizational problem was a result of a communication breakdown.  This was exciting for me as I was immediately able to provide value to the organizations I worked for. My degree is used with tremendous regularity to enhance organizational, team, and team-member success by sharing what’s been shared with me. Not only have I transformed personally, but I’ve been able to transform others.”

Names: Amanda Reitz and Marcus Reitz
Grad Years: 2008 (Amanda) and 2003 (Marcus)
Amanda’s Major and Minor: Elementary Education and English
Marcus’ Major and Minor: Communication Processes and Business Administration

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We’ve asked alumni to either share stories of how their lives were transformed by the UWGB  experience or how they are making the world a better place with transformational work in their careers, homes, or volunteer experiences. As UWGB celebrates its 50th Anniversary, meet an alum each week who has experienced a “UW-Green Bay Transformation.” Stories were self-submitted and then edited by Zachary Taylor, a 2010 English Education graduate currently serving as Interim Associate Director of the Phuture Phoenix program.

 

UWGB Transformed Janet by…

…teaching her how to survive Pre-Med.

Janet Freedman began her academic career by attending a very competitive high school in New York City. She arrived in Green Bay when she was just 16. Her experience at UWGB calmed her, she said.

“Green Bay was nurturing, and UWGB was half the size of my high school: classes were small and professors’ offices were always open. Independent study was encouraged, design your own classes, major, et cetera. It was the days of Eco U,” Janet says.

After thoroughly enjoying the teaching and guidance of UWGB’s Thea Sager, Ron Starkey, and Charles Ihrke, Janet wanted to attend medical school and transferred to a University of California campus.

“Organic Chemistry was three hundred students in a lecture, the labs were locked except during your assigned lab time to prevent sabotage of the lab, and assigned readings were stolen out of the library: this was a common culture of premedical students,” Janet jokes. But halfway into her very first semester there, she realized it wasn’t for her and she dropped out.

“I moved back to Green Bay and enrolled again at UWGB,” Janet explains. “There were about four pre-med students and we studied together. Labs were open and available all day for us to do our work. Professors taught the labs. I would never have survived pre-med anywhere else.”

After her UWGB graduation, Janet found another niche at UW-Madison and is now a successful professional in the medical field, but UWGB seems to follow her wherever she goes.

“When I was in school in Madison, I would get together with friends from UWGB, and very quickly, our conversation would gravitate to UWGB memories. I still remember all of my Madison friends asking, ‘What is it with you UWGB people? It’s all you talk about!’”

Name: Janet Freedman
Grad Year: 1975
Major: Human Biology
Minor: Social Change and Development

Photo submitted by: Janet Freedman

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We’ve asked alumni to either share stories of how their lives were transformed by the UWGB  experience or how they are making the world a better place with transformational work in their careers, homes, or volunteer experiences. As UWGB celebrates its 50th Anniversary, meet an alum each week who has experienced a “UW-Green Bay Transformation.” Stories were self-submitted and then edited by Zachary Taylor, a 2010 English Education graduate currently serving as Interim Associate Director of the Phuture Phoenix program.

UWGB Transformed Ami by…

…helping her become more than she thought she could.

Creative Writing is Ami Irmen’s passion, yet her Creative Writing teachers at UWGB — Ryan Van Cleave, Bruce Stone, and Rebecca Meacham — taught her a set of critical lessons that have deeply affected her professional career.

When Ami first set foot on the grounds of the UWGB campus, she was a wide-eyed high school senior who was merely counting down the days to graduation. At first, Ami chose UWGB simply because it was “close enough” to home, and it was a place she could afford. However, UWGB proved to be much more than “tunnels, toilets, and trees,” and Ami asserts that UWGB “turned out to be the luckiest choice I have ever made. The four years that I spent at UWGB — a place that became more than just a great location and price tag, a place that became home — shaped who I am today.”

With her sights set on a career as a Creative Writing teacher, Ami vividly remembers her freshman year and Ryan Van Cleave’s “Introduction to Creative Writing” course, where Ami says Van Cleave “…loved his work and students so much that he took personal time out of his day for no other reason than to simply share that love of writing.” Flash forward to Bruce Stone’s Creative Writing workshop, a course that Ami says gave her a “safe space to take risks,” and she discovered that learning must be a two-way street. For example, Ami recalls a thank you letter penned by Stone, thanking his students for everything he’d learned throughout their time together. Undoubtedly, Ami learned that one must find the time and space to reflect upon one’s writing, a message later echoed by Rebecca Meacham, Ami’s English major advisor.

When it was time to declare her major, Ami says she still remembers the first time she met Prof. Meacham: “She had a real honest talk with me on that day about my prospects of finding a job as a Creative Writing instructor at the college level. The thing is, it was (and still is) an extremely competitive market, and this conversation was necessary. It is rare that advisors are so open and frank from the start, but Rebecca was.”

Prof. Meacham’s honesty never deterred Ami from her chosen path. The moment she committed to the degree, Ami says that Rebecca made the same commitment and did everything she could to ensure her success. Ami credits her professors for doing more than simply helping her dissect literature and learn to revise her work: they “fostered her love of learning and gave her the tools to ask questions, to explore, to ponder, to create, and much more.” Not surprisingly, Ami is now teaching writing at the college level, just as she always planned, asserting that her UWGB education informed what she does in her own classroom.

“It’s about more than just teaching a student how to write an essay,” Ami says, “it’s about giving people like me a chance to be more than what I thought I could be.”

Name: Ami Irmen
Grad Year: 2005
Major: Creative Writing and Human Development

Photo submitted by: Ami Irmen

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We’ve asked alumni to either share stories of how their lives were transformed by the UWGB  experience or how they are making the world a better place with transformational work in their careers, homes, or volunteer experiences. As UWGB celebrates its 50th Anniversary, meet an alum each week who has experienced a “UW-Green Bay Transformation.” Stories were self-submitted and then edited by Zachary Taylor, a 2010 English Education graduate currently serving as Interim Associate Director of the Phuture Phoenix program.