{"id":11029,"date":"2024-06-25T09:57:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T14:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=11029"},"modified":"2024-06-25T09:57:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T14:57:23","slug":"uw-whitewater-safety-students-earn-national-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-whitewater-safety-students-earn-national-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Whitewater safety students earn national scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
The Occupational Health and Safetly internship fair is a great oppurtunity for students to meet companies looking to hire interns. CREDIT PHOTOS: UW-WHITEWATER PHOTO\/NICK POOK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two students from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater\u2019s\u00a0occupational and environmental safety and health (OESH) major<\/a>\u00a0were named recipients of the 2023 Qualified Academic Program Scholarship by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP).<\/p>\n

Christopher Gomez of Reeseville and James Groehler of Oconomowoc were among the\u00a040 students nationwide to earn the scholarship<\/a>, which was awarded to students at larger institutions including Michigan, Purdue, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very proud of Chris and James for winning this prestigious scholarship,\u201d said Alvaro Taveira, professor of OESH in the university\u2019s\u00a0College of Business and Economics<\/a>. \u201cI have enjoyed working with them in class and know their work ethic and passion for the profession.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese jobs are in high demand, and our program has an excellent placement rate, so I see a bright future ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BCSP is an accrediting body for the occupational safety profession, helping members earn credentials to help them advance their careers and protect the workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get their certification, and you\u2019re acknowledged by them,\u201d Groehler said. \u201cIt means the difference between a safety professional and someone who goes above and beyond just being a safety professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

James Groehler follows a familiar path<\/h3>\n
\"A
Occupational safety major James Groehler poses at a construction site for his current employer, Blattner Energy. (submitted photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the third of three brothers who studied occupational and environmental safety and health at UW-Whitewater, Groehler was already familiar with the program.<\/p>\n

Groehler\u2019s older brothers, Matthew and Luke, graduated in 2016 and 2021, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talked for miles about how much fun they had, how great the safety department was and how good the college is,\u201d Groehler said.<\/p>\n

As a 2020 graduate from Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha, Groehler\u2019s first experience on campus was during the height of the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n

Despite having remote classes and limited interaction with peer groups due to safety regulations, Groehler said he felt at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though all that stuff was going on, you could see the politeness in people and everyone was just excited to see each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Groehler has been a part of the Student Safety Organization at UW-Whitewater and has been a research assistant in the\u00a0Undergraduate Research Program<\/a>. He\u2019s spent each of the last three summers \u2014 one in Iowa, one in Oregon and one in Arizona \u2014 working for two renewable energy construction companies.<\/p>\n

Groehler is in Texas working on a solar project for Blattner Energy, where he\u2019ll have a full-time role following his graduation this May. He is also completing his safety capstone project, which includes weekly reflections, project notes and two case studies.<\/p>\n

He was excited to get the news of receiving the scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice getting the recognition of the hard work and dedication I put in through both my internships and my schoolwork to where I am now,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m getting acknowledgement that it was more than enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christopher Gomez finds his fit<\/h3>\n
\"Two
Occupational safety major and peer mentor Christopher Gomez, right, helps David Blankenburg, a freshman media arts and game development student on the UW-Whitewater campus on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. (UW-Whitewater photo\/Craig Schreiner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

A first-generation college student, Gomez started at UW-Whitewater with the intention of studying music education. He soon discovered that music was more of a hobby for him and not an area that he wanted to pursue professionally.<\/p>\n

After entering the business school, Gomez came to a \u201cfork in the road.\u201d After attending a Student Safety Organization meeting, he decided to pursue occupational safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found good success in it, it made sense to me, and it just clicked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prior to the 2022-23 academic year, Gomez was approached by faculty about running the Student Safety Organization. As president that year, he reimagined the group to build participation, focusing on creating monthly site visits around the region for members to gain exposure to different industries outside of the classroom.<\/p>\n

Gomez is very active on campus. He is currently a\u00a0resident assistant<\/a>\u00a0in Knilans Hall and a member of\u00a0Lambda Alpha Upsilon<\/a>, a Latino identity-focused fraternity, and the student organization\u00a0Latinos Unidos<\/a>. He remains a member of the Student Safety Organization and is a strong proponent of the major for students who may be undecided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like how interdisciplinary it is \u2014 it’s got a big science base to it, it\u2019s got a good side of communication, and there\u2019s a lot of law and regulation in it,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cYou learn from it the whole way. You never just stop. You\u2019re constantly working to be better, and it\u2019s doing better for other people even if you don\u2019t see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, Gomez has been a member of the men\u2019s rugby club team, a peer mentor, and a panelist at the university\u2019s Admitted Warhawk Days.<\/p>\n

He is waiting on final confirmation to do his safety capstone project this summer as an intern with the 128th Air Refueling Wing in Milwaukee. After earning his BBA, he plans to pursue an\u00a0MBA at UW-Whitewater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The BCSP scholarship will help Gomez get a head start on his career path.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets me in the network and connecting with people more now that I don\u2019t have to spend as much time of my week working to pay for school,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t just help me cover my financial bases \u2014 it helps me be able to put myself out there more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Chris Lindeke | Photos by Craig Schreiner, Nick Pook, Submitted<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/uww.edu\/news\/archive\/2024-04-safety-students-national-scholarship<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two students from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater\u2019s\u00a0occupational and environmental safety and health (OESH) major\u00a0were named recipients of the 2023 Qualified Academic Program Scholarship by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP). Christopher Gomez of Reeseville and James Groehler of Oconomowoc were among the\u00a040 students nationwide to earn the scholarship, which was awarded to students at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":11039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[84],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-11029","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-whitewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/11029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=11029"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=11029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}