By Sydney Inks
Raised in a family with established conservative views,
Brian Young grew up assuming progressive beliefs were based on the desire for government “freebees.” His view began to change during his senior year of high school when he was introduced to social circumstances which eventually led him to re-evaluate his political and social views. Young came to realize the importance of an education in the liberal arts and sciences throughout his four years at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
“The fundamental mission of a liberal arts education is to ‘liberate’ the mind and open it to experiences, knowledge and skills to be used in being a professional and a contributing, socially minded citizen,” said Chris
Cirmo, dean of the College of Letters and Science.
COLS Assistant Dean/Liberal
Arts Essay representative
Dona Warren presents award to Brian Young.
“The Kindling of Thought,” an essay by Brian Young, was one of three essays picked in the annual UW
System Liberal Arts Essay
Scholarship Competition.
Young and two other recipients received
$2,000 each to help fund their remaining undergraduate education. The essay demonstrates Young’s transformation from his youth to his shifts from Republican, to
Democratic, to a not-so-left but not-so-right political stance. Young explains the relevance of education in his life and how it altered his thinking process in the essay.
Working at a local Green Bay restaurant gave Young a better understanding of the financial struggle some of his co-workers faced every day. It was this orientation to the real world, outside of homeschool, where Young began to realize progressive thinkers did not necessarily ask for handouts from the government; these assistances were aid provided to hardworking citizens who had no other options.
Experts discuss issues at the Civil Discourse
Initiative on Public Vaccination Policy and the First
Ammendment held on September 17.
Later, his educational experience at UW-Stevens Point opened Young’s mind to recognize that many arguments have a basis of merit. In time, his political views volleyed from Republican, to Democrat, to in-between, leaving him in the middle and appreciative of different ideas.
“…I can understand and appreciate the arguments on both sides and know that our justices are not necessarily evil and corrupt as I once thought merely because they held different viewpoints. Rather, they assign themselves a different interpretation of the law that has just as much merit and deserves just as much respect as my views do,”
Young said in “The Kindling of Thought.”
Throughout his education, Young developed critical thinking skills and an appreciation of differing views.
UW-Stevens Point is promoting critical thinking skills and respect for other views in the community with a new project called the Civil Discourse Initiative. The effort examines, refines, endorses, practices and disseminates focal issues in fruitful conversation about controversial topics so people with opposing views can come to an understanding of one another. The premiere Civil
Discourse event, “A Civil Discourse on Public Vaccination and the First Amendment,” was held on September
17, 2013, featuring a lively but civil discussion with two physicians from Marshfield Clinic, two representatives from the Libertarian party and a first amendment expert from UW-Madison.
As Young stated, “Issues are not black and white,” and his integration of personal experience and an education in the liberal arts and sciences allowed him to develop his individual views.

By: Sydney Inks
Menominee and Ho-Chunk elders tell their stories of
Wisconsin’s geographical evolution years before it became a state in an recently completed effort to preserve the region’s roots.
A 30-year research project, The
Menominee Place Names Map, has integrated new technology with oral history to produce a map of
Wisconsin with its indigenous names given by the Menominee and
Ho-Chunk.
The team consisted of Ray Reser, director of the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point Museum of Natural History, Mike Hoffman a
Menominee native speaking elder, and members of the UW-Stevens
Point Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) Center. The GIS
Center on campus uses computer hardware and software to collect, visualize and communicate spatial information to confront and solve geographical challenges such as urban development. The project
Mike Hoffman presents the
Menominee Place Names Map at a campus unveiling in August.
members created the map to preserve the vanishing native knowledge of the region. Only six fluent speakers of the native tongue remain today since the next generations speak little to none of their native language.
The map replicates the landscape of Wisconsin, but removes all current names and replaces them with the original names the Menominee and
Ho-Chunk gave to landforms, rivers and lakes. The elders provided stories of the meanings of the words, which Reser describes as “giving life” to each place.
Additionally, they provide descriptions of the last glacial impacts, whales in Lake Michigan, and animals such as elks and caribou that no longer exist in
Wisconsin.
The Menominee Place Names
Map re-establishes the heritage of the Wisconsinite natives, the
Menominee and Ho-Chunk people. UW-Stevens Point serves and supports the diverse cultures of its local and statewide community.
Missed mammograms represent missed opportunities for early breast cancer diagnosis. Marshfield Clinic and the UW-Stevens Point Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) Center teamed together to discover what causes missed mammograms and ultimately provide more accessible breast cancer screening services. Dr. Adedayo Onitilo , an oncologist/hematologist with the
Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation and his project team partnered with
Douglas Miskowiak from the GIS
Center to study patient and clinical characteristics associated with the use of mammography services.
Their research was published ahead of print in the prestigious this fall in
American
Journal of Roentgenology and in print
Rural and Remote Health characteristics that lead to missed
.
The study identified significant patient mammograms, including family history of breast cancer, number of medical encounters, and notably travel time to screening facilities. Network analyses conducted along a road network with geographic information systems (GIS) helped reveal that each additional minute of travel time decreased the odds of undergoing at least one mammographic examination in the
GIS Center Education Specialist
Douglas Miskowiak presents collaborative research conducted with Marshfield
Clinic.
five years before cancer diagnosis.
Women who missed five of their last five mammograms lived twice as far from the nearest mammogram facility as those who missed none.
The study shows that travel distance to the nearest mammography center is an important barrier to routine breast cancer screening. The project was funded by the Marshfield Clinic
Research Foundation.

With this issue of the COLS newsletter, we highlight the effects our faculty, students and programs are having on the regional community of Central Wisconsin and beyond. Our college has taken on an initiative in the promotion of civil discourse recently highlighted in a university forum that focused on alternative views of the role of public vaccination policy in public health. As part of a broader project to model the virtues of intellectual humility and confidence on campus, this project moves forward in special ways within the college, the university strategic plan, and in cooperation with the greater central Wisconsin community. Aspects of this move toward modeling civility and civil discourse are reflected in the award winning essay of our student Brian Young and in his UW System level award. Our GIS Center and Museum of
Natural History recently promoted our commitment to community engagement through the Menominee Place Names Map, and in work with the Marshfield Clinic on mapping out the demography of breast cancer diagnoses in northern Wisconsin. And the legacy of engagement is reflected in the work of Julie Ray, an alumnus working in Panama with the establishment of a key outreach facility, and overcoming personal hardships and disability in her work. I applaud the work of our students, staff and faculty in promoting the university as a center for “engagement with our community.” As I have often said in many forums, we must do more than simply “tell folks what we do…we must involve them in what we do.” I am proud of our accomplishments and invite you to share your stories with us for future newsletters.
By Sydney Inks
Julie Ray , a UW-Stevens Point 2000 alumnus in biology, proved that dreams come true with undeniable hard work and persistence. Being visually impaired did not discourage
Ray from pursuing her goal of establishing La MICA, a biological research station in the Omar Torrijos
National Park of Panama. animals and vegetation of the area.
Although funding is hard to come by, Ray and her team actively seek donations and grants to sustain their facilities and research efforts.
La MICA plans to place satellite laboratories in communities to make it possible for remote research.
Following the current project, their next goal is to raise money to expand the site with a kitchen and laboratory. bilingual book aimed to help local people, tourists and students assist with snake conservation and reduce incidental snakebites.
Ray recommends studying abroad to all students who are determined to expand skills in their area of study and have valuable life experiences.
Today, employing local residents of El Cope, the Coclé Province and the Republic of Panama, Ray conducts research to conserve the local environment, history and culture through education, research and global outreach.
La MICA, an acronym for La
Montana para Investigacion y Conservacion Ambiental, or
The Mountain for Research and
Environmental Conservation, pursues advancements in scientific data with both the knowledge and skills of the local people. Ray also conducts personal research of specific snake and frog species as well as other
La MICA is a teaching facility and encourages students, researchers and tourists to visit. The organization offers research opportunities, courses, seminars and tourism accommodations. The educational possibilities span from biology fields, cultural studies, photography, immersion Spanish, geology and more. Tourists are offered guides who are knowledgeable in the area and species of the forest.
Overcoming the hardship of starting
La MICA and continuing the project,
Ray simultaneously continues her research and recently published a
“The opportunity to study abroad in such an exotic place is an opportunity that literally changes your life. You become immersed in a different culture and language and in turn, learn to appreciate your own more,” said Ray. “The people skills you develop without even knowing it are something that would benefit any future employer and open up many more opportunities for careers. It is scary to pack up and move where you know no one and you don’t speak the language, but the experience is well worth it and something that cannot be replicated anywhere but abroad.”

Non-profit Org.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 19
STEVENS POINT
WI 54481
Elia Armacanqui-
Tipacti’s (Foreign
Languages) work as an active mentor, leader, professor and club adviser for minority ethnic groups, specifically Latin
Americans, earned her a UW
System Outstanding Women of Color
Award in Education. Armacanqui-
Tipacti also received the same award in 2006. She attended a ceremony at the University of
Wisconsin- Madison to accept her award.
Tony Romano has been named the Development
Director for the college.
He will advocate for and encourage philanthropy among COLS alumni and friends with the aim of promoting student success.
Romano is a 2005 graduate of UW-
Stevens Point and previously served as Development
Director for the College of Professional
Studies and then on the senior leadership team for the Athletic Department.
Dejan Kuzmanovic
(English) received the UW System P.B.
Poorman Award for Outstanding
Achievement. The award recognizes a UW System faculty, academic or classified staff member, or registered Univsersity of Wisconsin System student for his or her excellence in advocacy, research, training or service on behalf of the LGBTQ communities.
Kuzmanovic focuses on 19th-
20th century British literature, psychoanalysis, and theories of gender and sexuality.
Amy Boelk (Sociology and Social
Work) teamed with Marty Loy , dean of the College of Professional
Studies, to write Losing a Parent to Suicide (Routledge). The book focuses on cases of parent suicide and provides insight and strategies to cope with the resulting grief.
Robert P. Wolensky , emeritus professor of sociology and social work, co-authored Anthracite
Labor Wars: Tenancy, Italians, and
Organized Crime in the Coalfield of
Northeastern Pennsylvania 1897-
1959 (Canal History and Technology
Press). The book represents mineworkers’ history touching on the work culture, workplace relationships, participation in union movements and organized crime within the mines.
● December 10, 2013 – 6:30 p.m.
“From Saint Nick to Santa Claus: A
Christmas History”
Shanny Luft (Philosophy)
● February 11, 2014 – 6:30 p.m.
“Ultra-Sensitive Magnetic Microscopy of Individual Nanomagnets”
Palash Banerjee (Physics and Astronomy)
All lectures are held at the Portage
County Library (Pinery Room). For the entire schedule visit www.uwsp.edu/cols.
For information on creating a legacy at UW-Stevens Point or creating one for
Sydney Inks, Newsletter Editor a friend, mentor or loved one, please contact Tony Romano at
715-346-3406 or email tony.romano@uwsp.edu. Thank you for your consideration.
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution