UWSP Foundation

How UWSP is Connecting Students

Carlos Castillo-ChavezThe Story of Carlos Castillo-Chavez ‘76

"I am extremely proud to be a Pointer."

Carlos Castillo-Chavez is not a typical graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. For that matter, no alumnus is typical. Each is unique. But Carlos Castillo-Chavez’s saga is a story of change. And that story is typical. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point changes lives, time and time again.

Carlos Castillo-Chavez is one example.

He grew up in Mexico, 55 miles southwest of Mexico City. The privileged lived in Mexico City. Carlos was 55 miles from privilege. It was a distance almost no one traveled. So Carlos Castillo-Chavez, like many others before him and many others since, went north. He was fifteen.

Carlos eventually settled in Merrill, WI. He found work in a cheese factory. It was not easy work, and his clothes brought the stench of the place home every night. Despite the hard work – and despite the dark winter skies when even the stars seemed to burn cold – he stayed. And he began to dream. He dreamed of learning.

So Carlos Castillo-Chavez moved again. He moved to Stevens Point. He became a college student. Here he was drawn to mathematics as if it were a destiny. He had begun to discover his true gifts. His life began to spiral in a direction that was unthinkable 55 miles southwest of Mexico City.

Graduating was not easy. Carlos entered his last year four hundred dollars short of the required tuition and fees. So he went to see Lee Sherman Dreyfus, who was known for getting things done. Dreyfus wanted to help.

At first the scholarship and aid office said there was nothing to be done. There was no more money for Carlos Castillo-Chavez.

"You don’t understand," said Dreyfus. "This is the chancellor. You will find four hundred dollars."

It was found. And eight months later, Chancellor Dreyfus shook hands with a young man from Mexico and presented him with a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. As that young man walked back to his seat, he knew his life had changed forever.

"I am extremely proud to be a Pointer," Castillo-Chavez said when he accepted a Distinguished Alumnus Award from UWSP in 1999. "Stevens Point made me believe in myself."

Today, Professor Castillo-Chavez has a tenured chair in biomathematics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute at Cornell. In 1992, he was one of thirty scientists to receive the first Presidential Faculty Fellowships, which included a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant. In 1997, he was sole recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

In the summer of 1999, a UWSP student, Damon McDuffy, worked as an intern in his Cornell laboratory. Damon is a computer science major from Milwaukee’s north side. Another life is changing.

The story goes on.

 

"I support UWSP because I know I would not be the same person I am today if I hadn’t attended UWSP. My experience at UWSP gave me all the tools I needed to be successful, both personally and professionally. UWSP has earned my gratitude and support."

David Worth, ’74
Owner, The Worth Company

 

At Stevens Point, changing lives is no accident. It is the result of a teaching and learning environment that is like no other in the world.

That environment is formed by four core Colleges, a commitment to personal attention to students, advanced technology and three distinctive community values – environmental awareness, leadership and wellness.

  1. The Academic Core: The College of Letters & Science is the foundation of the university curriculum. In addition to training its own majors, L&S provides math, science and English education for all professional programs offered in the other three UWSP Colleges. The College of Fine Arts and Communication has an outstanding record in introducing students to the vital role the arts and communication disciplines play in creating reasonable, intelligent and sensitive societies. The College of Natural Resources provides a curriculum which combines Wisconsin’s pioneering land ethic with strong science – and graduates more environmental managers than any other undergraduate program in the country. The College of Professional Studies continues to be the essential resource for elementary and secondary school districts in Central and Northern Wisconsin – and for other licensed professions, including communicative disorders, dietetics, medical technology, interior architecture and military science.
  2. Personal Attention to Students: Faculty members committed to teaching as their primary function are the foundation of the commitment to personal attention made by this community. But the effort goes beyond the classroom. It includes Freshman Interest Groups, strong career counseling from day one, superior child-care services and an intense focus on student success and retention.
  3. Advanced Technology: Leadership in educational technology has been characteristic of UWSP for more than a decade. Features of UWSP’s technology environment today include: Universal wiring, tying all campus buildings together with fiber-optic cables E-mail, which is used by faculty more often at UWSP than any other comprehensive UW campus Computer labs across campus, including 300 workstations in public labs, 250 in discipline-specific labs and 150 in residence halls Resnet, which makes access to the campus network available in every residence hall room Talking Books is a program under development which uses speech recognition and new vision technologies to provide access to the campus’s learning technologies for students with disabilities.
  4. Environmental Awareness is one of fourteen skills and knowledges expected of all UWSP graduates. This emphasis rises from the history of the University. UWSP offered the first conservation major in the country, which evolved into the College of Natural Resources. But it is also rooted in a concern for environmental issues which now cuts across academic disciplines and creates a campus-wide focus on an issue of global importance.
  5. Leadership: The programs sponsored by Melvin R. Laird are the symbolic centerpiece of the University’s commitment to leadership education. Training in leadership, however, can be found in the curriculum of all four UWSP colleges and is central to the co-curricular experience. Every UWSP student has the opportunity to study leadership and to apply its lessons in campus activities, residential life and work experiences. Graduates who take advantage of these opportunities are well equipped to function effectively in today’s organizational cultures, which place a premium on cooperation and leadership.
  6. Wellness is another of the major skills and understandings toward which teaching and learning at Point aim. The field also has a distinguished history here. (The first undergraduate curriculum in health promotion and wellness was developed at UWSP.) And, like environmental awareness, wellness is a concern that has escaped its original place in the curriculum and now saturates campus life. As a result, Stevens Point is addressing an issue of national importance as comprehensively as any college or university in the country. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is a unique – and uniquely valuable – university.

 


"This is a great university."

Lawrence Eagleburger ’52
Former United States Secretary of State

 

The major challenge the University faces today is how to protect – and selectively improve – its quality.

Over the course of the twentieth century, the state of Wisconsin built a public university system as good as any in the world. Over the last twenty-six years, the state’s support of that system, including the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has steadily declined as a percentage of the budget. Today, public funds represent less than forty percent of the University’s budget. That percentage is unlikely to grow.

As a result, growth in private support is essential to improving the quality of teaching and learning at Stevens Point.

At UWSP, endowment is the most useful kind of gift. Gifts of endowment can be directed to priorities in any of the four Colleges, departments within those Colleges or to selected university-wide programs. Those priorities help people see how giving to Stevens Point can both assist students and advance the donor’s own charitable values.

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and UWSP Foundation share one goal. It is to broaden the community that supports its ability to change lives.

Greatness is not found in visibility or acclaim (though both may follow great work). Greatness is finding a purpose of true importance and pursuing that purpose so effectively that lives are changed.

This is a great university. It is a privilege to participate in it – as a student, as an employee and as a donor.

If you would like further information on the teaching and learning mission of the University or university-wide priorities, please contact: Chancellor Linda Bunnell at (715) 346-2123.

If you would like further information on UWSP Colleges or college priorities, please call:

  • Joan North, dean, College of Professional Studies at (715) 346-2947
  • Jeff Morin, dean, College of Fine Arts & Communication at (715) 346-4920
  • Lance Grahn, dean, College of Letters & Science at (715) 346-4224
  • Christine Thomas, dean, College of Natural Resources at (715) 346-4617

If you would like further information on giving to UWSP, please contact: