La Follette Students Earn Honors and Support Community Through Career and Technical Student Organizations

MADISON, Wis.—Students at the Madison Metropolitan School District’s (MMSD) Robert M. La Follette High School are celebrating a strong semester of achievement in Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), highlighting the growing impact of career and technical education (CTE) programs across the district.

Senior Ethan Powell earned first place in the Automotive Service Technology competition at the school’s first SkillsUSA event of the year. Powell has been active in CTE courses throughout his time at La Follette and plans to continue competing in the months ahead. 

“Ethan has grown tremendously over the past several years,” said Ben Charles, La Follette CTE teacher. “His work ethic, curiosity and commitment to improving his craft stand out. We are proud of the leader he has become and excited to see how far he will go.”

Beyond individual competition, La Follette students also channel their skills and dedication into service and leadership through DECA, the school’s business and marketing CTSO. This October, the chapter celebrated the school’s annual service month with two major community initiatives:

• Color a Smile: With participation from the entire school community, students created more than 1,500 coloring sheets for Color a Smile, a nonprofit that delivers artwork to individuals in hospice care, memory care, military service and anyone in need of a morale boost. Though final results will not be announced until February, La Follette completed more than 1,500 sheets, besting its 1,100 last year, which was second-most statewide.
• Trick-or-Can: In response to increased need and reduced federal food assistance, La Follette DECA collected more than 500 food items to help stock the school’s City Center Pantry. This effort will support students and families directly within the building.

“We could not be more proud of the hard work, generosity and leadership our DECA students show,” Kurtis Nelsen, La Follette marketing and business education teacher and DECA advisor, said. “They compete academically, they give back and they grow into thoughtful, community-minded young adults. Their dedication reflects what it means to be a Lancer.”

Across MMSD, students participate in a variety of CTSOs, including DECA, SkillsUSA, HOSA, FFA, FBLA and others. These organizations provide hands-on learning opportunities that build real-world skills in areas such as business, healthcare, engineering, agriculture and skilled trades.

“CTE and CTSOs give students the chance to explore their interests, gain confidence and prepare for life after high school,” Meg Filkins, MMSD director of pathways and CTE, said. “We are proud of the success at La Follette and across the district, and we are committed to expanding high-quality career pathways for all students.”

La Follette’s recent achievements come as MMSD continues to strengthen its career and technical education offerings through expanded coursework, stronger industry partnerships and increased opportunities for students to earn professional experience and recognition.

For more information about CTE programs and CTSO opportunities across MMSD, visit the district’s website. For questions and partnership opportunities/inquiries, please reach out via Let’s Talk.

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About the Madison Metropolitan School District

The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) is the second-largest school district in Wisconsin, serving more than 25,000 students across 52 schools. The district’s vision is that every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate ready for college, career and community. With more than 6,000 teachers and staff, MMSD is committed to ensuring the district’s goals and core values are held at the center of its efforts, so students can learn, belong and thrive. For more information, visit mmsd.org.

Vierbicher Unveils New Logo Reflecting Growth and the Future of the Firm

REEDSBURG, WI – Vierbicher, a leading planning, engineering, landscape architecture, and surveying firm, today announced the debut of its new logo and refreshed visual identity. The updated look reflects the firm’s continued growth, evolving services, and deep commitment to long-term client partnerships as it approaches its 50th anniversary.

The new logo is the centerpiece of a broader brand refresh developed in collaboration with KennedyC, Vierbicher’s media and branding agency. The updated design modernizes the firm’s visual presence while honoring its established history and reputation.

“As we approached this milestone, we wanted a brand that not only acknowledged where we’ve been, but clearly expressed who we are today and where we’re headed,” said Rod Zubella, CEO. “Our new logo reflects the trust our clients place in us as advisors, the technical expertise of our engineers and surveyors, and the forward-looking mindset that guides every project we take on.”

As part of the brand work, Vierbicher also refined the way it describes its business. The firm’s new descriptor, “Advisors / Engineers / Surveyors,” better captures the full scope of its services and the way clients experience working with the firm.

While planning and community development remains a core component of Vierbicher’s work, clients increasingly rely on the firm as a strategic partner—one that helps navigate complex challenges, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, and bring long-term visions to life.

“Our clients don’t just see us as planners or designers,” said Andy Kurtz, Planning & Community Development Manager. “They see us as trusted advisors who help them solve problems, anticipate challenges, and deliver projects that stand the test of time. The updated language is a subtle but important shift that reflects the relationships we’ve built and the value we provide.”

“Brand updates don’t happen often, and we approached this one with intention,” added Suzanne Doody, Marketing Manager. “Our goal was to create a visual identity that we can confidently stand behind for many years to come—one that looks as strong on a jobsite vest as it does on a proposal cover or presentation.”

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Founded in 1976, Vierbicher provides integrated services in planning, civil engineering, landscape architecture, and surveying from five offices across Wisconsin and he Upper Midwest. For nearly 50 years, the firm has partnered with clients to plan, design, and deliver projects that strengthen communities and support long-term growth.

With services spanning advisory, engineering, surveying, and related disciplines, Vierbicher brings together technical expertise, practical experience, and a collaborative approach to help clients move from vision to reality.

For more information, visit vierbicher.com.

 

Dupaco empowers members with Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub  

DUBUQUE, Iowa— For more than 77 years, Dupaco Credit Union has helped its members build a life worth loving—through education, personalized service and deep commitment to innovation. The financial cooperative’s commitment to well-being continues with its evolved Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub. What began as a credit monitoring tool for its members in 2016, has now grown into an innovative, all-in-one digital resource that empowers members to take control of their finances with confidence, clarity and ease.  

Dupaco’s Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub is a no-cost, member-exclusive tool available through the credit union’s Shine online and mobile banking platforms. It’s designed to simplify money management, offering personalized insights, real-time alerts and smart tracking features that help members save, spend and plan more effectively.  

“We know life doesn’t always happen inside a branch,” said Kevin Lex, digital banking product manager at Dupaco. “Bright Track gives members the power to manage their finances anytime, anywhere—with tools that are intuitive, personalized and free.”  

Lex said the online and mobile banking tool was designed to help members stay informed to make smarter decisions without stress or complexity. 

Key features of Dupaco’s Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub:  

• Real-time alerts for account activity, sign-ins, merchant refunds and more  
• Subscription tracking to spot overlapping services, price changes, and post-trial charges  
• Personalized tips to help members stretch every dollar  
• Credit score monitoring with alerts for changes or anomalies  
• Calendar view of upcoming payments and deposits to avoid surprises  

“In today’s subscription-driven economy, it’s easy to lose track of the subscriptions we’re paying for,” says Lex. “Bright Track now helps members monitor those charges—spotting duplicate or hidden subscription fees before they add up. Ironically, most consumers have to subscribe to this type of service just to get this type of insight. At Dupaco, it’s a no-cost benefit that helps our members save more and stress less.”  

In 2024, more than 60,233 Dupaco members used the credit union’s Bright Track credit monitoring tool to take charge of their credit. Over 81.54% improved or maintained their credit score range through consistent use.  

Now, as the product has evolved into a comprehensive Financial Wellness Hub, the innovative tool is part of Dupaco’s broader strategy to deliver meaningful value through digital tools that support financial wellness. Whether members are saving for the holidays, managing subscriptions or planning for their future, Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub helps make every dollar count.  

“We’re constantly evolving to meet our members where they are,” added Lex. “Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub is just one example of how we’re using technology to make financial wellness more accessible, intuitive and impactful.”  

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ABOUT DUPACO COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION  

Dupaco Community Credit Union is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative headquartered in Dubuque, Iowa. It is dedicated to the financial well-being of its members, and specializes in personalized financial counseling, money advice and education. It offers savings, loans, investments, insurance and wealth management products for individuals and businesses. Dupaco serves residents in 118 counties throughout Iowa, northwest Illinois and southwest Wisconsin. Founded in 1948 by ten Dubuque Packing Company employees, membership has grown to more than 176,000 with assets exceeding $3.6 billion. It has over 600 employees and 23 branch office locations. Learn more at www.dupaco.com.  

Carnelian Art Gallery to Host “Surrealism” Holiday Reception

Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday, Nov. 17 – Carnelian Art Gallery, located at 221 King St., Suite 102, in downtown Madison, is pleased to announce its last art exhibition of the year, titled “Surrealism,” whose theme is centered around the weird, strange and bizarre. The art in this show takes on a dreamlike and uncanny quality. Some works are two-dimensional, while others are three-dimensional.

Participating artists include Kimberly Burnett, Rachael Hunter, Samantha Jane Mullen, Helen Klebesadel and Natalie Jo Wright.

At 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, Carnelian Art Gallery will host a holiday reception for Surrealism to close out another successful year of exhibitions. Light refreshments will be served until 8 p.m., when the event ends, and admission is free. 

At 6 p.m. that same evening, Klebesadel will deliver an artist talk regarding her works in Surrealism, as well as her comeuppance as an artist in the Madison area. This is a talk you won’t want to miss. 

Klebesadel, who has a graduate degree in fine arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a visual artist, born and raised in rural Wisconsin near Spring Green. Klebesadel is known for her watercolors focused on environmental and feminist woman-centered themes.

An artist, activist and educator for four decades, Klebesadel’s watercolors push the traditional boundaries in scale, content, and technique. Her paintings are exhibited nationally and internationally. They are also represented in numerous public and private art collections.

Klebesadel was previously a university educator for more than 30 years. Her contributions to the larger arts community included serving as a member of the Wisconsin Arts Board and as the national president of the Women’s Caucus for Art, the nation’s oldest organization of women artists and art historians.She maintains an art studio in Madison, where she continues to grow her artistic vision, build a creative community and support others to do the same by mentoring emerging artists.

Burnett is a self-taught artist from North Carolina. Her art is inspired by her childhood love of the old masters of Europe. She taught herself oil paints by studying books on their works and then copying her favorite masterpieces. Today, her works mostly feature lone figures in interior spaces and surreal landscapes with a focus on colors.

She has been painting full time since 2020, when she moved to Milwaukee. In Burnett’s free time, she enjoys gardening, hiking, baking, learning languages and searching for insects.

Wright was born in central Illinois in 1977. She received her undergraduate degree in fine arts from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 1999 and her graduate degree in fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008.

Her current series, “Four Eyed Cats in MidCentury Spaces,” grew out of memory, imagination and a lifelong love for mid-century design. Wright’s family (on her mother’s side) owned a furniture store for 50 years in the small town where she grew up. As a child, she spent countless hours wandering its rooms and paging through design catalogues. Years later, rediscovering those same books sparked this series.

The paintings combine nostalgia with playful surrealism: Wright’s two cats, depicted with a “four-eyed” twist, inhabit richly detailed interiors drawn from catalogues, memory, and her own home. Handmade “meat pillows” from an earlier body of work and vintage lamps from her collection collapse past and present, blurring the boundary between real and imagined environments. Originally conceived as an immersive installation, the series still carries that spirit—paintings that feel as though the spaces could spill off the wall and into the viewer’s world.

Wright currently works with water-soluble oils, a medium that has shifted her practice from large-scale portraiture toward finely detailed interiors. Her work reflects both a devotion to mid-century design and a desire to invite viewers into spaces that appear familiar at first glance, but reveal something more curious and uncanny the longer you look.

Mullen is mostly a sculptor, sometimes a writer and always a curious creature who currently exists in Madison, Wisconsin. Self-taught, Mullen uses polymer clay, paper clay and various other mediums to create playful, yet shocking, narrative sculptures which focus on our connection to the land, society, childhood and  monsters. Her work delves into the weird and the curious, the parts of ourselves we correct and mask and the perceived failures that act as building blocks for the walls we build between ourselves, our community and our planet. Each piece is a love letter to the panic attack, the shame shadowed, the glittering and tired, the imagination driven dragon seekers and monster lovers, the playful, hopeful, damned but kind.

Mullen strives to build a mythology within her work that invokes a magical realm in which we are all little monsters exploring the unknown together, inviting the beasts within like wolves to the fire and giving them a little treat.Hunter is a painter based in Madison, Wisconsin. Growing up in Minnesota as an only child, she spent much of her time alone playing make-believe. She continues this practice today by creating paintings that inhabit a world parallel to ours, entirely her own.

Her focus is on creating ambiguous and unsettling narratives that invite viewers to create their own meaning. She works primarily with vibrant oil, acrylic and Flashe paints on alternative surfaces. Wood planks found on the side of the road are intuitively carved into blobs, and bedsheets sourced from second-hand stores, friends, or even her own bed become her canvas.

A key influence in Hunter’s artistic journey is the legacy of the magical realists of the Midwest, such as Sylvia Fein and John Wilde. Like these artists, Rachael uses her paintings to explore and understand an increasingly horrifying reality. With fascism on the rise and a small group of people attempting to control every aspect of daily life, she paints to keep it together and find meaning in it all.  

“We are so thrilled to showcase the works of these talented artists,” said Carnelian Art Gallery owner and head curator Evan Bradbury. “This show is all about allowing oneself to be weird and have fun.”

MMSD Takes Steps to Save Trees at Referendum Project Sites

MADISON, Wis.—The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) has relocated a number of trees at its Phase 1 facilities referendum sites, preserving valued natural assets at Sherman Middle/Malcolm Shabazz City High and Samuel Gompers Elementary/Black Hawk Middle schools.

The work, which took place last week, was made possible through the volunteer efforts of Adam Alves, a Dane County forestry specialist and Madison College instructor. Alves donated both his time, on behalf of the Dane County Tree Canopy Collaborative, and equipment, including the use of a 44-inch tree spade, to carefully uproot and replant trees that would otherwise have been removed during construction. 

“Trees are part of a school’s identity and a community’s memory,” Alves said. “I’m grateful I could help MMSD preserve these ones, so they can continue to grow alongside the students and families who care about them.”

At Gompers/Black Hawk, three orchard trees were relocated to a hillside near the school’s new community garden. At Sherman/Shabazz, Alves worked to move many of the trees that form the early stages of the schools’ student-planted forest. These trees were relocated to the west side of the property to protect them from upcoming construction. The orchard at the site will remain in place and be protected throughout the project, and several mature oaks are also planned for preservation.

“MMSD is committed to protecting our natural spaces, and we heard clearly from families and neighbors how much these trees mean to them,” Bryanna Krekeler, MMSD sustainability manager, said. “Thanks to Adam’s expertise and generosity, we were able to save trees that hold history, meaning and educational value.”

The effort required significant planning and coordination, including scheduling around utilities and working with licensed archeologists because of an uncategorized burial site located at Sherman/Shabazz. Through this collaboration, a substantial number of trees were moved safely. Final totals will be confirmed after assessments are complete, though early estimates suggest between a dozen and two dozen trees were relocated across both sites.

The tree relocation project is part of MMSD’s Phase 1 facilities referendum work, which includes upgrades to learning environments, improved outdoor spaces and long-term planning centered on sustainability, safety and community needs.

This project also highlights the powerful role volunteers play in supporting schools. Community members regularly contribute their time and expertise in classrooms, outdoor spaces and programs across the district. MMSD encourages anyone interested in making a difference for students and school communities to explore the many ways they can get involved by becoming a district volunteer.

For more information regarding the 2024 referenda, please visit the MMSD website. For questions, please reach out via Let’s Talk.

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About the Madison Metropolitan School District

The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) is the second-largest school district in Wisconsin, serving more than 25,000 students across 52 schools. The district’s vision is that every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate ready for college, career and community. With more than 6,000 teachers and staff, MMSD is committed to ensuring the district’s goals and core values are held at the center of its efforts, so students can learn, belong and thrive. For more information, visit mmsd.org.