Even before she graduates, Alyssa Molinski already has experience juggling two demanding jobs.<\/p>\n
She is a student in the School of Education\u2019s Early Childhood Education program and has also served as the Student Association president for 2018-2019.<\/p>\n
Molinski, who grew up in Menomonee Falls, says her family inspired her to go into education.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come from a family of educators, so that\u2019s what made me choose teaching. Also, I\u2019m the oldest of four children. Growing up, we always played school and naturally I had to be the teacher. I would never allow anybody else to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She chose 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s program because of its affordability, and also because it allowed her to live at home.\u00a0 \u201cI was able to commute my first two years and saved a lot of money that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molinski always enjoyed babysitting, and a job at the Children\u2019s Learning Center on campus cemented her interest in working with the youngest learners. Those experiences helped prepare her for teaching first grade at 95th\u00a0<\/sup>Street School during her first field placement.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve always had a passion for caring for and teaching the younger ones. They just make me so happy, and I love being able to have the opportunity to have a great impact on an important stage in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Faculty members Professor Nancy File and Lynn Sedivy, a senior lecturer, inspired her to add a certificate in English as a second language. Even though she\u2019s busy in student government, she puts a great deal of time and energy into her class work. \u00a0\u201cI just love the School of Education here. I truly feel connected to all of the faculty and staff that I\u2019ve worked with.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019d served on the student council in high school and knew students could make a difference, so she wanted to become involved in student government. \u201cI wanted to be a leader, and I wanted to help others find their path,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really get involved until the end of my freshman year,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d had a lot of trouble connecting to campus, and I feel like that because I was a commuter and I worked at a shoe store back home, I would just come to campus for class and then I\u2019d have to leave to go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n But when a seat opened for a senator from the School of Education at the end of her freshman year, Molinski applied for it. She represented the school during sophomore year and then Academic Affairs her junior year, serving as Student Association vice president. In the spring of 2018, she ran for president and was elected.<\/p>\n Two key planks in her platform were encouraging students to register and vote and helping eliminate food insecurity among students.<\/p>\n \u201cThe elections really impact students. For example, at the state level,\u00a0 the budget cuts we\u2019ve received in recent years and the politics of the UW System really affect students here at UW-Milwaukee.\u201d Having 51ÁÔÆæ chosen as an early voting site during the fall midterm elections helped in efforts to raise student awareness of the importance of voting, Molinski said.<\/p>\n Planning for a food center and pantry began in 2016 as a result of surveys that showed up to half of 51ÁÔÆæ students had experienced food insecurity within the previous few months. The Student Association, with support from the Dean of Students office and other campus organizations, took the lead in getting the pantry set up on the third floor of the 51ÁÔÆæ Student Union. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to be something that just the Student Association did, but I want it to besomething the whole campus is proud of,\u201d says Molinski.<\/p>\n The 51ÁÔÆæ Food Center and Pantry opened in the spring semester of 2017, and by the end of the 2018 year had had more than 500 visits.\u00a0 \u201cI just want to make the food pantry so much part of who we are that students feel comfortable accessing it,\u201d Molinski said. \u201cOne of my goals was to eliminate the stigma associated with food pantries so students can safely and comfortably get the resources they need.\u201d The food center and pantry received the UW Regents\u2019 Diversity Award in February 2019 for its work to support all students.<\/p>\n Shortly before she became involved in the Student Association as a sophomore, student government had been through some challenging times with two rival student governments wrangling over control of funds and making accusations of a lack of transparency. Molinski says she was proud to have been part of a transformation in student governance since then. \u00a0In speaking about 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Guiding Value of ethical behavior recently, she said: \u201cWe have professional and legal standards we have to meet when it comes to posting the agenda and the public meeting notices. Our budget is transparent and easily accessible. I think it is important in rebuilding the trust the Student Association lost a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Molinski is planning to graduate after at the end of the fall semester 2019.<\/p>\n After graduation, she would like to be an English as a second language teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools, she said. Eventually, she added, she\u2019d like to go on to graduate school and work toward a career in school administration.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing the president of the Student Association has truly taught me a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if I ended up running for office someday, but for now my focus is on educating.\u201d<\/p>\n Faculty members and advisors in the School of Education are proud of Molinski\u2019s success.<\/p>\n “Alyssa\u00a0is a shining star.\u00a0 We always encourage our students to get involved on the campus, and she obviously took that to heart,\u201d said Robert Longwell-Grice. \u201cI was so impressed with her efforts getting the Food Pantry started, that I nominated her for one of 51ÁÔÆæ’s Entrepreneurship Scholarships.\u00a0 Most of the time these awards go to a student who created some sort of a computer app, or something in the business field that makes money.\u00a0 In this case the committee saw that she was truly an entrepreneur in her own right when she took the creation of the Food Bank on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing that\u2019s been interesting to me is watching Alyssa grow in her skills in advocacy and making a difference, said Nancy File, professor of education. She noted that she has talked over the years with Molinski about educational issues, and added the student association president will likely be applying those leadership and advocacy skills she learned at 51ÁÔÆæ within her profession. \u201cIt will be interesting to see how she can apply what she likes to do\u00a0 within a field that she\u2019s becoming a member of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even before graduating, Alyssa Molinski already has had experience juggling two demanding jobs. She is an early childhood education student and has also served as Student Association president for 2018-2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":70678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[250],"section":[246,259],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-70677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-student-success","section-business-world-affairs","section-education","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section"],"yoast_head":"\nGetting involved<\/h3>\n
Meeting challenges<\/h3>\n
‘A shining star’<\/h3>\n