TV Spot Features Students in Program Started with FSPE Grant

Some of the University of Wisconsin’s (UW) television spots broadcast during halftime of last season’s basketball games showed UW students volunteering to provide healthcare services. The students were participating in a program started from a grant from the Wisconsin Idea Undergraduate Fellowship (WIF) program, says Kenneth Shapiro, associate dean, International Agricultural Programs at UW-Madison. WIF received its start from a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food Systems Professions Education (FSPE) grant. Since 1999 WIF has provided opportunities for UW-Madison students to reach out, share their expertise, serve the community and learn outside the classroom. The fellowships support innovative projects where undergraduate students, faculty/ instructional staff and community organizations collaborate in service activities and/or research designed to meet a community need while enhancing student learning. The program was so successful that the UW’s Provost office picked up the funding for it after the grant ended, and it is now a sustainable program in it’s sixth year. Eleven projects were awarded funding for 2004-2005. They include: “The Stories of Rural Health in Wisconsin,” and “Building a Dialogue Between Farmers and Agricultural Pest Researchers.” For more about the program, visit www.morgridge.wisc.edu/wif.html