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Focus Magazine

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Tuesday | December 9, 2025

Growing Together: How an FVTC Apprenticeship Helped Brynn Drexler Find Her Calling

When Brynn Drexler walks into the toddler room at Fox Valley Technical College’s Parent Child Center, a dozen tiny faces light up. As an Assistant Teacher, she spends her days with one-year-olds eager to learn, play and grow. “I love watching them grow every single day,” she says. “Seeing them pick up something new—it’s amazing

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Monday | October 6, 2025

Five Decades of Fire Protection Training

When Dave McFadden came to Fox Valley Technical College in 1974, he did not know he was about to spend the next 50-plus years helping shape one of the most respected fire protection programs in the Midwest. At the time, FVTC’s fire protection training was just getting started, “We had almost nothing,” Dave explains. “We

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Wednesday | September 17, 2025

Reborn in Tech

With the support of his family, the FVTC Clintonville Regional Center and his instructors, Gary Crawford not only earned his high school diploma, but he is also pursuing an IT career and is already employed in his field while he finishes his degree.

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Monday | August 11, 2025

Alumni Spotlight: Q&A with Madelyn Sonn

To address a workforce gap, Fox Valley Technical College launched a Surgical Technology associate degree program in the fall of 2022. When the first class graduated in the spring of 2024, Madelyn Sonn was proud to be a part of this historic moment. Less than one year in the workforce, Madelyn is a huge contributor to

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Monday | July 28, 2025

Easing the Toolbox Price Tag

It’s all about the tools. As an Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics student, Kaiza Shepard will master more than 100 tools essential for inspecting and maintaining aircraft. “With tooling, you have to be super precise,” Kaiza offers. “We have tools that are calibrated at least yearly. We have tools called micrometers that are so specific that

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Monday | July 7, 2025

A Toolbox of Knowledge

Growing up in Pulaski, Lilly Dorn’s fascination with aviation was ignited by her uncle Mike. Flying with him in his Cessna 177B Cardinal introduced Lilly to a world of possibilities and sparked her passion for aviation mechanics. Kaiza Shepard of Appleton credits a family of pilots with stirring her interest in airplanes. Her grandfather and

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Monday | June 9, 2025

Foundation Golf Outing Funds Student Success

Students Divinia Cosio and Henry Letsa are just two of the recipients of the annual FVTC Foundation Golf Outing.

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Tuesday | May 20, 2025

Paramedic Training Comes to the Workplace

In response to the ongoing paramedic shortage, Fox Valley Technical College has teamed up with several first responder agencies to create a new training program to address the workforce gap.

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Monday | April 7, 2025

Bringing Ideas to Life

Sean Petit loves to figure out what makes things tick. “I’ve always been interested in the process of mechanical design… how if one part moves, it makes another part move, and so on throughout the whole mechanism,” he says. So when Sean retired from the Army after a 20-year career, he decided to enroll in