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Eight years ago, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College faced a crisis. An accreditation agency had placed the Grant County community college on probation for shortcomings in using evidence to advance student learning. 

Without improvements the college risked losing its accreditation, which would have affected the roughly 3,700 students near the Iowa border training for careers as mechanics, midwives, farmers and more. Without Southwest Tech, many would have to travel farther, pay more or forfeit their plans.

The news jolted the college into action.

“We had some issues that we had to address,” Holly Clendenen, chief student services officer, recalled. “That really brought the campus together to find the best way to improve our assessment work and ensure students were learning.”

The efforts paid off and then some. Last month, Clendenen walked across a Washington, D.C., stage to accept an award in a competition former President Barack Obama once called “the Oscars of great community colleges.”

Organized every two years by the nonprofit Aspen Institute, the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence recognizes schools setting an example in their field. It awards a total of $1 million to the top handful of institutions and publicizes their best practices for serving students. 

Southwest Tech took home the top prize: $700,000 for revamping its curriculum and counseling to better position students for higher-earning careers after graduation. It cut majors that often led to low-paying jobs and added training for industry certifications that garner premium pay. To practice what they preached, campus leaders raised pay for some of the college’s own workers, then urged other local employers to do the same.

Southwest Tech alums five years after graduation now earn $14,000 more a year than other newly hired workers in their area, the Aspen Institute found. 

Community colleges educate about two in five U.S. college students. But they don’t always set up those students for family-supporting careers, said Joshua Wyner, who oversees the Aspen Prize.

Community colleges have been underperforming for years, Wyner said. “If we are going to enable economic mobility and achieve the talent that we need for the economy, for democracy, etc., community colleges, frankly, just have to do better.”

On that front, Wyner said, Southwest Tech stood out. “This commitment to making sure every program leads to a living-wage job, and to actually confront programs that lead to low-wage work, is really unusual.”

Precision agronomy yields higher wages 

Jamin Crapp, 19, already knew plenty about farming when he enrolled in Southwest Tech’s agribusiness management program last fall. Growing up on his family’s farm just outside of nearby Lancaster, he learned to tend dairy and beef cattle and use basic equipment. 

But when he got a job at a farm in Rockville, he encountered a tractor he didn’t know how to drive. The newer model, which steers itself using GPS, was just one example of the kind of “precision farming” tools farmers are increasingly using to boost efficiency.  

Crapp was in luck. Southwest Tech had begun shifting to precision agriculture as part of its broader effort to set up graduates for higher wages. 

Two years ago, college leaders categorized academic programs by graduates’ average earnings: Programs leading to hourly wages of $16.50 or less were considered low-wage. Programs yielding at least $25 an hour were designated high-wage. A medium-wage category covered those in between.

Then the college set out to raise pay in every low-wage program. 

First, college officials turned to local employers. “We met with all of our partners to find out: Why aren’t these students making more money?” college spokesperson Katie Glass said. 

Agronomy was one low-wage program at the time. Local agriculture businesses, it turned out,  needed workers who could fly drones or apply pesticides — training Southwest Tech didn’t offer.  

“If our graduates could do those things, they could pay them more, because they could reorganize their business somehow,” Glass said.

So the college added that training. 

Southwest Tech agronomy graduates can now raise their starting hourly pay by up to $2 with drone and pesticide certification, the college said.

This fall the agronomy program will be completely reshaped and renamed precision agronomy, focusing on using technology to measure and analyze data to inform farming decisions. The college spent $1.3 million to purchase 85 acres of farmland to provide space for students to maneuver drones and gather the data they need.

‘Oh, that’s how you run that’

Agriculture instructor Andrew Dal Santo, who will lead the new program, likens the agronomy overhaul to switching from an analog clock to digital. 

On a sunny May afternoon, he led agribusiness management students as they filled compartments of an industrial planter with one soybean variety after another. The students took turns driving a tractor that recorded data throughout the drive. Students would later take those data back to the classroom.

“We can read everything from how many seeds per inch to how much pressure we’re putting into the ground, so the seed’s at the right depth,” Dal Santo said. “Instead of coming out here for five hours and collecting all that data, it’s right at your hands.”

One of the busy students was Crapp, who learned to operate an auto-steer tractor in another of Dal Santo’s classes — a lesson he brought to his job in Rockville.

“The next time I went to that farm, I said, ‘Oh, that’s how you run that,’” Crapp said.

He’s still weighing post-graduation plans, but he expects his new knowledge of precision techniques will help whether he’s running his own farm or writing loans for other farmers. 

“With my degree, I believe I can do almost anything,” Crapp said.

Changes to the agronomy program have already elevated it to the medium-wage category, Glass said. Six other previously low-wage programs made the same jump, while two more moved from medium-wage to high-wage. 

The college also added a new radiography program, training students to use medical imaging equipment like X-rays and CT scanners. That profession promises a median wage of around $38 an hour nationally, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The overhaul at Southwest Tech drew criticism from some business leaders, including a few members of its advisory boards, Glass said.

“They built a business model off of paying our graduates lower wages, and we asked them to step down from our advisory board,” she added. “That’s not the direction that we’re going.”

Creative solutions to grow child care wages

Some programs weren’t worth saving, campus leaders found. Culinary arts and culinary management — programs considered successful by other measures — got the ax when the college couldn’t find ways to raise graduates’ wages.

“If our graduates don’t make family-sustaining wages, we’re not going to offer the program anymore,” Glass said. “Our degrees have to have value.” 

But some low-wage majors proved too important to cut, such as pathways for certified nursing assistants and child care workers. 

While many parents pay more for day care than they would for in-state university tuition, child care workers in Wisconsin earn an average of just around $14.50 an hour, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. 

The state needs more people to fill these low-wage jobs: With waitlists for child care often months or years long, more than half of Wisconsin providers say they could serve more kids — if only they could find the staff. Without adequate child care, advocates say, many potential workers leave the workforce, worsening economy-wide labor shortages.

“Child care is so essential to our area that we can’t entertain the idea of not having the program anymore,” Glass said. “We have to find all the other avenues for what we can do to raise wages.”

Elementary school teachers, also high in demand, earn more than child care teachers. To set Southwest Tech graduates on a higher-earning path, the college revised the early childhood education curriculum to ease transfers to teacher training programs at Wisconsin’s four-year colleges. Faculty began talking “early and often” about that option, said Renae Blaschke, an early childhood education instructor. 

To improve immediate job prospects, the college began offering substitute teacher training, along with in-demand nonviolent crisis intervention training.

The school also helped students qualify for the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association’s TEACH scholarship, which supports Wisconsin students studying early childhood education. To be eligible, students must work at least 25 hours a week in a child care job. Southwest Tech students regularly perform such work to gain required field experience, but they struggle to find jobs that meet the scholarship requirements.

To help, the college created two substitute teacher jobs paying $19 an hour at its on-campus child care center. To set an example for other area child care providers, the college raised full-time staff salaries at the center to $40,000 a year, and it urged other local providers to raise wages too. According to the Aspen Institute, the center is now the region’s highest-paying child care provider.

Second-year early childhood education student Autum Butler, 20, who has worked at the on-campus center since 2023, is now a substitute in a toddler room. At Blaschke’s recommendation, she applied for a TEACH scholarship, which covered 90% of her school tuition this year and provided additional stipends for certain materials and technology.

Butler hopes to continue working with toddlers after graduation and possibly open her own day care.

Leaders vow to keep improving

Southwest Tech’s recognition comes during a tumultuous time for Wisconsin community colleges, several of which have recently closed amid declining enrollment.

Nationwide, college enrollment is down since the COVID-19 pandemic, with many students questioning whether the benefits of a degree are worth the growing cost. Community colleges with the biggest drops during the pandemic experienced bigger jumps than other types of colleges this year, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Southwest Tech isn’t the only Wisconsin community college earning kudos. The Aspen Institute, which analyzes data on about 1,100 U.S. community colleges, included seven others from Wisconsin on a list of 150 top institutions invited to apply for an Aspen Prize. 

One of those schools — Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay — joined Southwest Tech as one of 10 finalists for the top prize, with judges citing dual enrollment opportunities for high schoolers and engagement with local employers to help more students learn on the job.

Southwest Tech prevailed after judges visited each finalist’s campus and compared data on how many of the students go on to transfer to four-year colleges or earn bachelor’s degrees — along with post-graduation earnings.

More than half of the college’s full-time students graduate within three years, far above the 35% national average. The school wants to raise that rate to 70%.

Other colleges could learn plenty from Southwest Tech, Aspen Institute judges said. Rural students often struggle to gain relevant work experience during school due to limited jobs and internships in smaller communities. But Southwest Tech leaders filled the gap by creating relevant work opportunities on campus.

Construction students now build student housing. A recent class completed an eight-bedroom duplex in just two semesters. Across campus, graphic design students create brochures and billboards advertising the college. 

Staff provide hands-on support outside of the classroom, including directing students to child care, mental health and food pantry services. They also help students draw up budgets that incorporate their income, financial aid, rent and school costs. 

“It’s a very sophisticated way of thinking about supporting students,” Wyner of the Aspen Institute said. “Other colleges often have lots of services that they offer, but it’s not tied to a particular sense of what students’ budgets are.”

Southwest Tech even won high marks for how it assesses student learning — the very worry of accreditors eight years ago. The college, which has since returned to good standing, now continually evaluates whether students are learning what instructors intended. When they don’t, faculty must create course improvement plans that everyone in the college can see, something Wyner calls “radical accountability.”

Looking back, Clendenen said the bad 2016 accreditation review was instrumental in bringing the college where it is today — rolling “a snowball that started us on this continuous improvement path.”  

“This prize is not the finish line,” Clendenen told the Aspen Prize crowd. “It’s also fuel for the road ahead. We accept this honor not just as recognition of our past success, but as a challenge to keep growing, innovating, leading and serving our community.”

• The U.S. Women’s Open returns to Wisconsin for the third time, hosted at Erin Hills.
• Blackwolf Run in Kohler previously hosted the tournament in 1998 and 2012.
• Se Ri Pak won the 1998 tournament in a dramatic sudden-death playoff.

Major golf championships are back on Wisconsin soil.

The state will host the 80th United States Women’s Open this week at Erin Hills, the third time that major has been in Wisconsin.

Here is a look back at the previous two, which were both played at Blackwolf Run in Kohler.

1998: Se Ri Pak’s dramatic U.S. Women’s Open victory at Blackwolf Run

When was it? It was scheduled from July 2-5, 1998, but then needed another day.

What happened? Well, only one of the most tension-filled finishes ever in a golf major. The gallery of 8,000 fans at Blackwolf Run in Kohler got to see Se Ri Pak and Jenny Chuasiriporn − both 20 years old − battle in an 18-hole playoff and then two sudden-death extra holes. So with the 72 holes during the first four days, the duo were on the course for 92.

Pak became the youngest U.S. Women’s Open winner when she knocked in a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 11. It was the first sudden-death playoff in U.S. Women’s Open history.

Inbee Park (2008) and Yuka Saso (2021) have since become the youngest U.S. Women’s Open winners − interestingly both at 19 years, 11 months and 17 days.

How much did Pak win? She claimed $267,500 of the $1.5 million purse. Chuasiriporn did not receive any prize money as an amateur. She was a golfer at Duke University.

According to the USGA, the 2025 purse is $12 million, the highest in women’s golf.

What they said: “I really had a sixth-sense feeling she was going to make it,” Chuasiriporn said about watching Pak line up the winning putt.

It was Pak’s second major that year after winning the LPGA McDonald’s Championship.

“I want to win every tournament,” she said.

Memorable moments: Take your pick of many with this tournament.

On the 18th playoff hole, with both golfers at 1-over, Pak pulled a drive that rolled on the edge of a water hazard. She took off her socks and shoes to get in the water and hit a shot that gave her life. Chuasiriporn then missed a par putt that would have given her the victory, leading to the sudden-death playoff.

Perhaps lost in all the other big shots, Chuasiriporn had a 40-foot putt on No. 18 in the final round that allowed her to catch Pak and force the 18-hole playoff.

Face in the crowd: Former U.S. President George Bush followed the twosome over their final few holes.

Postscript: Pak was on the LPGA tour until 2016. She won 25 times on the tour and claimed five major titles. The dramatic victory at Blackwolf Run is credited with starting the Korean women’s golf boom.

Chuasiriporn’s story is interesting. She led Duke to the 1999 NCAA golf title and finished college as a four-time All-American. She struggled on mini-tours as a professional and then walked away from the sport after a few years. When the U.S. Women’s Open returned in Blackwolf Run in 2012, Chuasiriporn was found by the Journal Sentinel working happily as a registered nurse in Virginia.

2012: Na Yeon Choi wins in return of U.S. Women’s Open to Blackwolf Run

When was it: July 5-8, 2012.

What happened? Na Yeon Choi bared down on the back nine of the final round to pull away for a four-shot victory over fellow Korean Amy Yang. They were the only two golfers to finish under par.

Pak, then 34 and one of 10 golfers who competed in both the 1998 and 2012 at Blackwolf Run, finished tied for ninth despite a shoulder injury that hampered her that year.

How much did Choi win? She claimed $550,000 of the $3.25 million purse.

What they said: “I really want to say to all the fans and crowd out there they really did a good job,” Choi said. “And one more thing: I think I was really calm out there. I think I am really proud of myself, too.”

Memorable moment: Choi was teetering on No. 10 in the final round. She hit her tee shot into a hazard and finished with a triple-bogey 8. That cut her lead from five strokes to two.

But the 24-year-old bounced back with a birdie on the next hole and cruised from there.

Interesting tidbit: At the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open, fans were allowed to bring cell phones onto the grounds for the first time at a USGA event.

Postscript: This was Choi’s lone major win, though she did have nine victories on the LPGA tour. Now 37, Choi still pops up at golf events.