Education

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been recognized for a long time as a top American University. The campus spans 933 acres along Lake Mendota and can trace its roots to a clause in the Wisconsin Constitution which decreed that the state have a prominent public university. In 1848, Wisconsin’s first governor signed the act that formally created the university. Its first class had 17 students and met in a Madison school building early in 1849.

UW-Madison ranks as one of the most prolific research universities in the world. The university actually places third among American public institutions for research expenditures. Driven by a desire to explore new worlds and apply new ideas to real world problems, research at UW-Madison isn’t conducted only by faculty, staff and graduate students. Undergraduate research opportunities are also fostered, making research a campus wide enter undertaking.

Wisconsin biologist James Thomson reported the first isolation and culturing of human embryonic stem cells in 1998. UW-Madison is an international leader in

stem cell research and has nearly 80 faculty members in a range of disciplines who study them. In 2011, UW-Madison researchers turned embryonic and induced cells into astrocytes, the most common cell in the brain, affording a window to study cells implicated in a host of conditions ranging from headaches to dementia.

Recent years have seen major expansion projects at UW-Madison, including Union South, with its theater, recreational facilities, restaurants and meeting areas completed in 2011; an 81,000 square foot addition to the Chazen Museum of Art; the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery for public and private biomedical research which opened in 2010; and a renovation and addition to the 108,000 square foot Education Building in 2010. The NCAA Division I UW-Wisconsin Badgers compete in the Big Ten Conference.

Each year, students from about 40 states and 40 countries choose the University of Wisconsin Whitewater in Walworth County to earn their degrees. The university’s programs have won recognition for recruiting minority students and empowering them to succeed. UW-Whitewater has a mission to serve students with disabilities and is proactive in meeting the educational needs of veterans through flexible programming.

UW-Whitewater’s faculty and staff from all four colleges – Arts and Communication, Letters and Sciences, Education and Professional Studies, and Business and Economics – blend research with classroom experiences. UW-Whitewater is and has been a national leader in undergraduate research. Timothy J Hyland Hall houses the College of Business and

Economics and includes a 400-seat auditorium, 38 high tech classrooms, a trading floor, and a four story glass atrium. In the 2010-2011 school year, student organizations took home first place honors and national business conferences, and their faculty advisers won recognition as well.

A new center of research and job creation is taking shape at the million Innovation Center in Whitewater University Technology Park. This park is part of an effort between UW-Whitewater, the city, and the Whitewater Community Development Authority. The Innovation Center is a nurturing business startup incubator for new technology, where inventors and entrepreneurs will get the opportunity to advance their ideas. Besides serving as a regional think tank, the Innovation center helps to attract and retain talented graduates. The Innovation Center also contains a wet lab, dry lab, and office space that can be rented out to local businesses or startups by the square foot.

UW-Milwaukee is Southeast Wisconsin’s largest university that provides students with a wide range of research projects and many ways to broaden their education. The University’s location in the state’s business center also means many opportunities to both students and regional businesses. Today’s UWM is placed among the top 102 public doctoral research institutions in the country. UWM is quite divers with more than 180 majors and degree programs. The university also has dozens of graduate programs ranging from accounting to zoology.

Marquette University is an academic community with a 130-year history of leadership in Catholic, Jesuit higher education. The university’s 11 colleges and schools, including Wisconsin’s only School of Dentistry and one of only two law schools in the state, enroll nearly 12,000 students. These students travel to Marquette’s campus in Milwaukee from every state and nearly 70 foreign countries.

Research at Marquette identifies responses to critical issues throughout the world such as water shortages in developing countries, better care for children with orthopedic diseases, new treatments for neurological disorders and addictions, and more. Students here work with businesses in the area through a large number of internships and service learning programs. A new engineering building on Wisconsin Avenue will prepare graduate students and work in and around the community to create leaders in technology and innovation on the global stage.

George Williams College is a subsidiary of Aurora University. Aurora University has two distinctive campuses and one educational center: a 32-acre campus in Aurora, Illinois, the 133-acre George Williams College Campus on the shores of Geneva Lake, and the Woodstock Center located in downtown Woodstock, Illinois. The George Williams College campus offers primarily graduate and Doctoral programs ranging from Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction to Doctor of Social Work. Aurora University is deeply committed to the local community. The university has forged partnerships to benefit students, the university, and local community as a whole.