UW Stout: Engineering students benefit from scholarships

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Jerry Poling, Assistant Director of Communications
715-232-2384 | polingj@uwstout.edu



Educational gifts
Plastics engineering students benefit from scholarships

News link: www.uwstout.edu/news/articles/Plastics-engineering-students-benefit-from-scholarships.cfm

Menomonie, Wis. — The financial and educational value of receiving a scholarship hit home this fall for Travis Mullen, a sophomore majoring in plastics engineering at University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Mullen was one of two students who received the Charllotte and Bob Janeczko Endowed Scholarship during Stout University Foundation’s annual scholarship awards night. A total of 360 students received more than $680,000 in awards.

Mullen, of Bloomer, and Max Zamzow, of Byron, Minn., also majoring in plastics engineering, each received $7,500.

Because of the Janeczko scholarship, Mullen will be able to work fewer hours at his part-time job and focus more on his studies. “The financial pressure that is present with all college students has been relieved a great deal,” Mullen said.

Mullen and Zamzow met the Janeczkos, of West Des Moines, Iowa, who were on hand for the program.

“This has been an incredible honor,” Mullen said. “Getting the chance to meet and visit with both Charllotte and Bob was a great experience. They are both very passionate about UW-Stout and about furthering education.

“It is really cool to see alumni giving back, especially when they have had successful careers as a result of graduating from UW-Stout,” Mullen said.

A third UW-Stout plastics engineering student received a scholarship at the event. Gavin Borchardt, of Marathon, was awarded $1,000 as the Tim Crowell Memorial Scholarship winner. Donors Sharon Crowell and Courtney Crowell were on hand to present the scholarship, which was established in memory of a 1986 graduate who worked in plastics engineering at International Paper in Menomonee Falls.

Borchardt is president of the UW-Stout student chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers. The chapter has 52 members.

Janeczko scholarship began in 2010

In 2010, the Janeczkos pledged in excess of $1 million to be used in the form of scholarships for students majoring in plastics engineering. The first students began receiving scholarships that fall.

“This is a unique institution,” Bob said of UW-Stout, where he and Charllotte met.

The donation is their way of providing long-term support for UW-Stout and strengthening a growing career field, one that has been good to them. “If you’re successful, we believe you have an obligation to give back in a meaningful way,” said Bob, who graduated in 1963 with a degree in technology education.

The Janeczkos bought Innovative Injection Technologies, also known as i2tech, in 2003. The company engineers plastic components and subassemblies in West Des Moines. Bob is chairman of the company.

“We made our money in plastics, and we’re glad to be able to help young people with a career in this great industry,” said Bob, a Chicago native who also has been an executive with Morton Metalcraft and John Deere and a professor of industrial technology at Western Illinois University.

Charllotte, who graduated in 1965 in home economics education, is a retired teacher and homemaker. “We wanted to leave a legacy. It’s a positive way to be remembered,” said Charllotte, who grew up in Rosendale, near Fond du Lac.

The Janeczkos have continued to support UW-Stout plastics engineering students in other ways. Since 2011, students in the Society of Plastics Engineers have annually toured the Janeczkos’ i2tech injection molding facility. Since 2012, two UW-Stout students have had internships at i2tech and one of them, Clayton Barrix, of Tomah, was hired by i2tech after he graduated in 2014.

“Clayton has pioneered our 3D printing initiatives and joined our John Deere account team,” Bob Janeczko said. “i2tech has benefited from our relationship with UW-Stout’s plastics engineering program in many important ways.”

Careers in plastics engineering

Mullen hopes to begin his career in research and development of plastics products and components. He worked over the summer and this fall in R&D at a plastics firm as part of the Cooperative Education Program through UW-Stout’s Career Services.

“I have really enjoyed all of my work, and I know it is something I want to continue to do in the future,” Mullen said.

More than 80 students are majoring in the Bachelor of Science plastics engineering program at UW-Stout. The program began in 2008, with the first graduates in 2011. Since then, graduates have had 100 percent employment, with an average starting salary of nearly $58,000 over that span.

The plastics engineering program is one of two in the U.S., the other being at University of Massachusetts-Lowell, along with six plastics-related bachelor’s programs in the country, according to Associate Professor Adam Kramschuster, UW-Stout plastics engineering program director.

UW-Stout also has a third plastics engineering scholarship, the John Leon Abrams Memorial Endowed award, but it was not awarded this year. The scholarship has a military background requirement, and no students qualified. Abrams is a 1962 UW-Stout graduate who died in 1968 in Vietnam.

The Abrams scholarship was funded largely by his classmates and companies from the plastics industry.

To learn more about plastics engineering at UW-Stout, go to www.uwstout.edu/programs/bspe.