Course Providers - 2012

Aldo Leopold Nature Center's

naturalists are all experienced and well-trained experts in their field.  They offer year-round, hands-on nature experiences that include hikes, experimentation and crafts.  The Nature Center serves school groups, individuals (both adult and student), scouting groups and camps.  They plan each summer program with the appropriate age group in mind.

American Red Cross - Badger Chapter

serves Adams, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Grant, Iowa, Juneau, Lafayette, Richland and Sauk counties.  American Red Cross instructors teaching the Babysitter Training are certified through the American Red Cross and are enthusiastic, experienced educators.

Peter Bittner

an avid recreational bowler.  He has years of experience as a teacher and an after school and camp program supervisor.  He is excited to return to Middle School U to teach the bowling course this summer.

Marilaine Blair-Patrick

works in the food service department of Edgewood High School.  She is certified by the state of Wisconsin in food service sanitation and has completed Wilton cake decorating courses.  She makes party cakes and wedding cakes as gifts of love for family and friends.  While her three children were growing up, she worked and volunteered with middle school age students through Boy Scouts and at Blessed Sacrament School.  Marilaine enjoys quilting and is an avid reader.

Boulders Climbing Gym

has over 8,000 square feet of sculptured climbing walls with some of the most varied and creative angles.  Programs focus on teaching belay techniques, safety practices in climbing, climbing technique development, and possibly lead climbing.  Instructors have a strong background in outdoor climbing and have taught belay skills and climbing techniques as part of Boulder’s weekly course programs.  All instructors have American Red Cross First Aid certification and CPR training.

Dan Church

is a certified Hunter Education instructor for the Wisconsin DNR.  He has been teaching Hunter Education for 24 years and is also a Hunter Education instructor trainer.  He was recognized as instructor of the year in 2000.  Dan lives in Baraboo and is looking forward to working with the students at Middle School U.

Heather Clancy

is the Youth Program Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin, Dane County Extension Financial Education Center.  She is serving there as an Americorps volunteer and is excited to teach students valuable financial literacy skills this summer.

Karen Clark

is a stay-at-home-mom who has always had her hands in craft projects.  Seven years ago she started making her own greeting cards and creating scrap book pages to preserve her family memories.  She enjoys helping others tap into their personal creativity, so she has been teaching paper crafting classes from her home for the past six years.

Patrick Garvey

has many diverse talents and so has served and led Wisconsin Youth Company programs and participants in many different ways.  He has led biking courses for many summers as our biking unit director and instructor, as well an AFTER SCHOOL day camp specialist.  He has led Wander Wisconsin trips.  He has education and experience related to theatre and led our Video Production Immersion Camp along with WYOU last summer.  During the school year he is a substitute teacher in grades K-12.

Michael Graveen 

is the Summer Director of Middle School U where he has worked for several summers as both a youth leader and an instructor.  Since 2005, he has been working as a school year Site Supervisor at Leopold AFTER SCHOOL.  He is an experienced teacher of woodworking and billiards with Middle School U and enjoys sharing these hobbies with the students.  He attended UW-Madison, studying in Secondary Education - Math.

Casey Hopp

is a UW Madison graduate in elementary education and has been employed by the Madison Metropolitan School District since 2004.  He has been involved with the Middle School U program since 2003, including serving three years as an Assistant Director.  Additionally, he enjoys athletics and the outdoors and has been a boys’ cross country and track coach at Madison Memorial High School since 2003.  He looks forward to another fun and educational summer.

Shannon Jambard 

is the owner of Meant to Bead in Sun Prairie.  She has experience working with youth in the Sun Prairie recreation department's youth programs.  She is excited to share her beading talents and some of the supplies and resources from her store with students in her Beaded Jewelry course this summer.

Rose Johnson-Brown

is a professional photographer and a freelance photo journalist who has been published in local newspapers and magazines.  She led the Photojournalism Club for the middle school youth BOOST program and has completed photography coursework at UW-Memorial Union, MATC and the New York Institute of Photography.  Rose says, “I look at photography as a way to build community.”

Jessica Jones

is a graduate of Edgewood College with a B.A. in Art History and Art.  In January 2011, she received her Art Education certification and continues her work in the Madison school district.  Jessica has been teaching art with Middle School U since 2009.  Jessica is very excited to continue to teach and eager to make it a fun art-filled experience for all students.

Maya Kadakia

has been dancing her whole life.  She began dancing with her family doing Gujarati (Indian) and Jewish folk dances, then moved on to ballet, tap and jazz.  As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she was introduced to African dance and fell in love with it.  She is now a life-long student.  Maya is a vibrant performer and a patient instructor.  She continues to study, teach, and perform as much as possible.  Currently, she is a member of Limanya Drum and Dance Ensemble, a Madison-based African Drum and Dance group, and Kikeh Mato, an Afro-pop group, both under the direction of Mandjou Mara.

Stephanie Golightly Lowden

has two published books: Emily’s Sadhappy Season published by the Centering Corporation, a grief resource publisher, and Time of the Eagle, a historical fiction novel published by Blue Horse Books.  Time of the Eagle takes place 200 years ago among the Ojibwe Indians. “Eagle” was a finalist for the Book of the Year Award in the Juvenile Fiction category.  This is a national contest for independent-press books sponsored by Fore Word magazine.  “Eagle” also won Honorable Mention in the Arthur Tofte Juvenile Fiction category of the annual contest sponsored by the Council for Wisconsin Writers.  Stephanie also visits schools and shares her knowledge of writing with students.  She is also a docent at the Wisconsin Historical Museum and a substitute teacher in the Madison School District.

Madison Police Department

Officer Chanda Dolsen is excited to take part in educating the public on evolving technology and how it affects our youth.  Officer Kelly Beckett is interested in social networking sites, how they perpetuate risky behaviors, and how community education might mitigate some of these potentially criminal and dangerous acts.  Officer Julia Helbach worked in the computer field and she has continued to stay in touch with current trends. June Groehler is a Sergeant in the East District for the Madison Police Department.  She has a background in technology, training in data and email recovery, and also serves as computer instructor for Wisconsin Area Technical Colleges.

Madison Riding Academy at La Fleur Stables

is a full service five-star riding and training facility that specializes in American Saddle-bred horses.  They offer world-class horse training, professional Saddle Seat riding instruction, horse camps, and much more.  They pride themselves on providing their customers with enjoyable equestrian experiences from the first ride to competing at the World Championship Horse Show.

Madison School & Community Recreation (MSCR), department of the Madison Metropolitan School District, offers many recreation programs for all ages including aquatics.  MSCR has been a provider of recreation programs in Madison for 85 years and is a great community resource for trying new interests.

Mandjou Mara

native of Guinea, grew up drumming and singing.  In addition to being an engaging performer, Mandjou is a patient and skilled instructor with experience teaching Guineans, Europeans and Americans alike.  He has performed for groups around the world and has taught young and old the art of African drumming.  He is excited to continue sharing his knowledge of Guinean music and tradition.

Joe Monarski

is a certified teacher in the Stoughton School District and coach of the Stoughton Community Fencing Club.  In addition, he works as a tutor at Sylvan Learning in Madison.  Since the 1980s, Joe has spent his summers in youth programs including Middle School U sharing his interests in topics like fencing, board and role-playing games, and archeology.

Laurie Mullen (Turn Around Teen)

holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from UW-Whitewater and a Master of Education degree in Counseling from the University of New Hampshire. She is a licensed school counselor for grades K-12 in the state of Wisconsin and has 18 years of experience as a high school counselor and one year’s experience as a middle school counselor.  Also, she is the director of Turn Around Teen, Educational Counseling Services in Madison, as well as a counselor/consultant there.

National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP)

is designed to teach the lifetime sport of target archery to kids from fourth grade through high school.  Every student world wide uses the same equipment and is taught using the same curriculum.  This program is taught by a selection of trained Basic Archery Instructors and is designed to improve a student’s self-esteem, build self-confidence and improve communication and participation skills.

Sarah Newmister

has worked with youth as a coach, a tutor and Middle School U youth leader and is working on her teaching certificate in middle and high school science.  She is educated in the biological and zoological sciences and holds a masters degree in entomology.  Sarah is athletic and has trained for and participated in an Ironman Wisconsin competition.

Will O'Connell

is an engineering student at UW-Madison.  He grew up attending AFTER SCHOOL summer day camps and Middle School U and loved nothing more than playing team sports.  He also spent a summer as a day camp counselor-intraining, has taught golf lessons and volunteers as a tutor.  And now, he has returned to Middle School U to pass on all that he has learned and enjoyed growing up.  He has taught golf, net sports, basketball and other active sports courses in the past and is looking forward to another fun, active summer with the MSU students.

Liz Parker

is a certified personal trainer and track coach at Madison Memorial High School.  She has been an AFTER SCHOOL site supervisor and day camp director and has worked with youth for over 17 years.

Rutabaga Outdoor Programs

wants to get you excited about paddling.  It doesn’t matter if it’s on a local pond or stream, or in some tropical lagoon thousands of miles from Wisconsin. Rutabaga’s instructors are here to open doors to new adventures and to enrich the value of your experiences.  They hope to help you create new possibilities for yourself and your exploration of the world.  They look forward to another season of teaching, learning and paddling together as you discover the magic that exists out on the water.

Terry Schultz

has been teaching extra-curricular K-5 Spanish for the past 15 years, and has been with the AFTER SCHOOL World Language Program for the past nine years.  She also volunteers as an English tutor for an adult language learner.  She recently took her long-time love of making her own greeting cards and scrap booking and became an in-home demonstrator.

Liz Singer

is an experienced vocalist and musician who is currently competing in the Whitewater Idol competition.  This competition is a local version of the popular American Idol TV show.  Liz has worked with youth as an AFTER SCHOOL site supervisor and day camp specialist.  She is looking forward to having fun singing with her Glee students this summer!

Megan Soneberg

is currently an AFTER SCHOOL Site Supervisor in McFarland where she teaches her younger kids yoga weekly and they love it!  Megan also teaches yoga to adults.  She went to India in 2010 where she stayed at an Ashram and became certified to teach yoga.  In addition Megan enjoys athletics including soccer and running.  She is looking forward to her first summer with Middle School U.

Derek Stanley

is a wide receiver in the National Football League.  He grew up and played high school football in Verona and played college football with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  In 2007, he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams and is currently a free agent.  Derek has been involved as a leader and assistant coach with several youth football clinics and camps including his own weeklong football camp in Verona.

Sarah Tarpey

has an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts and has taught culinary skills to middle school and high school students.  She has done cooking, baking and catering at French and Italian restaurants.  Sarah was a site supervisor at AFTER SCHOOL and is returning as assistant director at Middle School U.  Sarah is pursuing a teaching degree and plans on teaching culinary classes at the high school level.

Tony Travis

is is the Youth Development Specialist for the Wisconsin Youth & Family Center.  Tony was introduced to hip hop at a young age and since then has been on a quest to become an M.C.  Tony moved out of the Chicago gang lifestyle to Madison in search of a fresh start and the pursuit of more positive life goals.  At the age of fifteen Tony had several freestyle hip-hop “battles” under his belt and decided to start his own company, H.U.G.E Family Entertainment.  He’s had the opportunity to open for acts likeBubba Sparxx, Method Man, Funk Master, Flexx and others.  With Tony’s life experience and knowledge of becoming a Hip Hop artist he has developed into a very respectable artist and teacher.

Maria Undraitis

was born in Russia and has lived in the U.S. for many years.  She earned her bachelor's in Education degree in Russia, and taught English as a second language in elementary and middle school grades.  Maria has worked with AFTER SCHOOL as a site supervisor at Thoreau and an assistant director at summer camps for five years.  Maria enjoys cooking and trying new recipes.  She encourages her students to value whole and healthy foods as well as cooking from scratch.  Maria likes to share little kitchen secrets and recipes from Eastern European cuisine that she learned from her mother and grandmother.  Maria is fascinated with handmade art and crafts and often challenges herself and her students with projects.  She believes it is important to expose students to new experiences providing them opportunities to discover their talents and experience the feeling of accomplishment after learning new skills.

University of Wisconsin Science Alliance

helps science outreach programs at UW-Madison to synergize their work and to make it easier for the public to find and use the people, facilities and other scientific resources on campus.  UW Visitor & Information Programs (VIP) serves as the central access point for visitors, students, faculty and staff for answering questions, locating information and navigating UW–Madison and the surrounding community.

The Vinery

is a teaching stained glass studio.  They offer classes in stained glass, glass mosaics, glass fusing, beadmaking, flameworking and art silver clay.  Over the last 25 years, the Vinery has taught thousands of students in all these areas.  In each of these areas they have many samples to inspire and help with design ideas.  They are committed to students learning and having fun!

Wander Wisconsin

is a division of Wisconsin Youth Company.  Wander Wisconsin has been leading unique adventures and camping experiences for youth since 1989.  In addition to our popular open enrollment trips, they have led trips for after school programs, youth groups, recreation departments, resident camps, day camps and other organizations serving youth.  American Camp Association accreditation marks their commitment to safety and quality.

Wild Rumpus Circus

got off the ground in 2001 when professional actor, clown, and juggler Jacob Mills and dancer, aerialist and stiltwalker Marcia Miquelon combined their talents to found the Wild Rumpus Circus, offering summer day camps for kids in Mazomanie and Madison.  Since then, they've taught hundreds of kids the joys of circus arts;  boosting kids' self esteem and giving them tools for developing focus, concentration and teamwork.  In 2009, the Wild Rumpus World Circus began touring internationally, and has delighted audiences in the Middle East and Europe by speaking the universal language of laughter and offering a hands-on experience which engages the imagination.

WYOU, Community Television Cable Channel 4

has a fully functional studio and control room that includes professional sound and video equipment.  Every week, in addition to audio and video mixing, multiple productions utilize animation, chroma-keying, and soundtrack music.  The WYOU staff has been teaching youth about television for years, from grade schoolers to college grads.