UW Regents visit wraps up with business panel in Eau Claire

Oct. 2—EAU CLAIRE — To do the research needed to establish an Eau Claire version of a young adult leadership program, Jen McHugh went back to her alma matter to tap the minds of her target audience.

The vice president of community engagement at Royal Credit Union posed the program as a research project for a group of marketing students at UW-Eau Claire.

A week ago, the fruits of that work launched as the pilot session of Grow.Impact.Lead, a free six-week program that includes guest speakers, community service projects, financial education and helps foster leadership skills among the 10 undergraduates in its inaugural class.

"It was a program built for students by students with Royal Credit Union as the catalyst for it," McHugh said Friday morning during a panel presentation at the UW System Board of Regents meeting.

Last week was the Regents' first time holding its meetings at UW-Eau Claire in six years. The governing board of the UW System frequently holds its monthly meetings in Madison or Milwaukee, but also visits other campuses in the state on a rotating basis.

Friday's six-member panel discussed relationships between the region's public universities — UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, UW-River Falls and UW-Superior — and businesses situated along the Interstate-94 corridor in this part of the state.

In addition to occasionally tapping local student researchers to help study a problem or issue, McHugh said the Eau Claire-based credit union also frequently hires from the local universities.

There are over 100 employees alone who graduated from UW-Eau Claire out of the credit union's more than 750 workers, she said. And there are about a dozen internships there as well.

"You are making a huge impact on our workforce and it is essential," McHugh told the UW System leaders.

Aside from universities being a source for their regular workforces, employers on the panel also spoke about their use of interns.

Jeffrey J. Cernohous, chief operating officer of River Falls-area advanced materials and engineering firm Interfacial, talked about how college interns at his company get involved in its work.

Of seven interns working at Interfacial, he said two have their names on patents for the company's recent inventions. That wasn't just because they were present at the time, he said, but really doing a part of the work that made those breakthroughs happen.

"That's what we want — them contributing," he said.

Pete Koenig, program manager at Nolato Contour, a Baldwin company that's part of a larger medical device business, features a two-year internship program.

During the first year, students get to sample different jobs and shadow multiple employees on the manufacturing floor. That way when they come back the second year, they are assigned to a specific engineering team that fits what they found they were interested in.

"When they complete that, they're really ready to enter the workforce," Koenig said.

Some of the companies represented on the panel spoke about how being located near a UW System campus allows their employees to further their education and utilize a company benefit at the same time.

Xcel Energy pays a portion of employees' tuition for continuing education, which is easier for workers to utilize with campuses nearby, said Brian Elwood, the power company's general manager of customer and community service.

"Having these universities in our backyard is critical to retaining talent," he said.

McHugh also spoke about the credit union having locations in communities with campuses where employees can use the company's tuition reimbursement program.

As the panel presentation came to a close, the Regents sought advice from the employers on what the UW System could do to help out Wisconsin businesses.

"I would say you're doing a lot right now," Elwood responded, citing the numerous graduates from Wisconsin public universities who now work at Xcel Energy.

Cernohous did have a challenge for the Regents: Create truly innovative educational opportunities to set the UW System apart from many other colleges advertising themselves to Wisconsin's high school students.

"Anybody can put a billboard up on I-94," he said. "We have to up our game. We have to make creative programs to keep our students."