1994 – Fall ’20 Class Letter
LISA SPROSTON SUTTER ’94
(608) 347-6543 / [email protected]
Greetings, Class of 1994!
I hope this letter finds you all well. Since this is my first letter to you as a Class Agent, I’ll update you on my last 26 years…I have been teaching at the elementary level. This school year, I will begin my 27th year of teaching. My experience has all been at grades Kindergarten through second grade, with the majority of those years at first grade. I love it! Although, this is definitely a stressful time to be a teacher. None of us went into education to do it virtually. I teach in the Monona Grove School District. My husband, Paul, and I have two sons, Calvin (15) and Henry (12). We aren’t quite at the point of visiting college campuses, but I do dream that one of them will end up at Ripon College one day soon.
Since I only live slightly over an hour from Ripon, I return to campus fairly often. Sometimes it’s just for a visit to Roadhouse, or to shop the many cute shops that you can now find on Watson Street, and often it’s to watch a sporting event. If you haven’t been for a while, I highly recommend a visit! In fact, one day this summer I brought two friends with me for an entire day in Ripon. We are all teachers and needed an escape. So, one sweltering day, we toured the campus. They loved the intimate campus, the beautiful athletic facilities, and hearing my stroll down memory lane. They’re well into their fifties, but they jokingly inquired about enrolling.
One of the bright spots in this pandemic has been weekly Zoom meetings with many 1994 Alpha Chi Omega sisters. Sometimes there are just a small handful of friends and other times we’ve been in the teens, but it has been great catching up with friends. If you haven’t started this yet, I highly recommend connecting/reconnecting in this manner! You’ll probably find, as we did, whether it’s been a short period of time or more than twenty years, you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off with these friendships.
With “back to school” being front and center for me right now, I thought you’d like to read about Ripon’s plan for this fall. Here is the Reunite Ripon plan for the 2020-21 academic year.
CLASS NOTES:
TRACY RISCH ’94 of Frisco, Texas, became the Senior Vice President and Chief Information & Technology Officer in May for American Electric Power (AEP) based in Columbus, Ohio. She will lead technology initiatives across AEP including information technology, innovation, digital initiatives, and telecommunications.
LTC (RET) TODD J. JOHNSON ’94 and AMY CRAIG JOHNSON ’96 of Powell, Wyoming, write, “Amy is employed by Park County School District #1 as the Community Outreach Specialist and Technology Division Administrative Assistant.”
DENISE SHADRICK-OLSTINSKE ’94 was honored with the 2020 UW System Board of Regents Academic Staff Excellence Award. She is the Administrative Program Manager III in the College of Social Sciences and Professional Studies at UW-Parkside. These awards recognize exceptional service to the university and are the UW System’s highest recognition bestowed on members of its academic staff.
ERIC ATKISSON ’94 of Alexandra, VA, had two more essays published this year, “Point of Origin” in Entropy Magazine and “Noxious Animals” in The Hopper Magazine. Both can be found online. Eric still works at the Patent and Trademark Office, where he supervises all of the agency’s public and internal communications, and he recently agreed to serve on the Ripon College Alumni Association Board of Directors with CARRIE ROCA-DAWSON ’94 and JOY BORTZ SCHLEUSNER ’94 (also a new member).
I’d love to hear from you! Please send me an update for our next class letter. Your classmates and I are curious what you’ve been up to. Whether it’s job-related, family news, where you’re living, recent travel adventures, new pets, or alumni sightings. We’d love to catch up with you!
All the best,
Lisa
A Note from the Office of Constituent Engagement: Stay up-to-date with our latest news and information. Make sure that we have your most updated contact information including email and phone number by visitingte-co ripon.edu/updantact-info/ or emailing [email protected].