Life After Ripon – Madeline Poullette ’15

Chapter 3: Travel and Museum Plans

[Editor’s Note: Raymond Allen ’15, Karena Schroeder ’15, and Madeline Poullette ’15 are writing rotating monthly entries for the Ripon College Newsletter chronicling their post-graduation experiences. We hope you enjoy their perspectives on Life After Ripon!]

Happy March!

Since my last blog post, I finished my first semester of graduate school and had a relaxing few weeks of winter break. In January, I traveled to Argentina with my mom to visit the host family that I lived with for a year when I studied abroad during my last year of high school. It was amazing to see them after four years, and we had a great week with them. It was incredibly hot (over 100 degrees and 70 percent humidity level), so the majority of our time was spent in the pool. After visiting with them, my mom and I went to Iguazu Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world that sits on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The last week was spent in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Fortunately, we got the majority of our sightseeing done before I caught an awful bug. Other than that, the trip was everything I could have imagined and more, and now I get to show my host-dad and sister around Milwaukee when they are in town this month.

Now, after the trip, I am well into my second semester of graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and I’m pretty happy with my classes. I’m taking a normal course load of three classes: Techniques and Problems in Ethnography, Perspectives on Prehistory, and Administration and Organization of Museums. One project that I am especially excited about is working with the Museum of Beer and Brewing, a nonprofit organization that is working to build a physical museum. Our class is acting as consultants for the strategic planning process. We will produce three documents central to the strategic planning process: the environmental scan, the external assessment and the internal assessment. I am the team manager for the environmental scan group, so we will be exploring sociocultural, economic and political factors impacting the Milwaukee area and the Museum of Beer and Brewing. We have been busy conducting research and planning interviews to produce a document that identifies environmental issues that the museum should consider as their plans begin to take shape. At the end of the semester, we will present our reports to the representatives from the museum. As much time and effort as school takes up, I certainly enjoy the applied nature of the program and its pragmatic training for the work world.

In other news, my brother Sam ’13 and his fiancée Mara Jensen ’14 are tying the knot this May. I also get to sign a lease in June with my best friend, Jen Keller ’16, who will be graduating from Ripon this May and starting her master’s in public administration at UW-Milwaukee this coming fall. I will continue working as a recruitment and marketing assistant in the Graduate Office at UWM, giving campus tours to prospective graduate students and developing marketing material for social media platforms.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Madeline Poullette ’15

Posted March 15, 2016 in Alumni, Student.