Brett Barker, PhD,  is Chair of the Department of History and International Studies at UW-Stevens Point where he is a Professor of US history. Two hundred and fifty years ago, American colonists declared their independence. Yet we often forget that they had been at war with Great Britain for over a year. In the period between the out break of war in the spring of 1775 and July 4, 1776, no other leader, battle, speech, or pamphlet did more to persuade a majority of colonists to declare independence than did Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense. Prof. Barker explains the arguments and genius contained in those 47pages, and explores how they helped create the United States.​

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Program sponsors - Kate and Mark Saunders

Titus Selheimer, PhD, is the Fisheries Outreach Specialist with the Wisconsin Sea Grant Advisory Services Team and is based in Manitowoc. Commercial fishing has been an important coastal industry for centuries and it continues to be important today. Learn about the state of the fishery and dig into an applied research project on a Lake Michigan fishing boat.​

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Program sponsors - Dr. Christopher and Marcia Sands

What is civic engagement and what does this look like for younger people?

Historically, voter participation amongst our youngest voting population has lagged the overall population. Voting, however, is one metric of overall civic engagement in our society.The focus of this presentation is to highlight the many opportunities that youth have to be civically involved. You will hear from our youth panel who have taken advantage of these opportunities in civic engagement and leadership and used these to further their participation in society.

Our panel includes: Henry Fries, a Waupaca High School alumnus and current UW-Madison student as well as a Dane County Supervisor;  Morgan Naylor who is a junior at Lake Mills High School; and Jillian Trzebiatowski, a Waupaca High School student. With introductions by Winchester Academy Trustee Dan Naylor, the panel discussion will be facilitated by Cory Nagel, Waupaca High School social studies teacher and Alderperson for the City of Waupaca, and Joe Janssen, retired social studies teacher. Joe was the advisor for the Waupaca School District Youth on Board program for 20 years.

Please join us in learning more about the many local and state opportunities that are available to our youth and the impact that these have.​

Program sponsors - Dan and Mary Naylor