IN THE SPOTLIGHT continued
THERING-HEDRICK
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LECTURE SERIES
Amber Heidenreich’s love of sports initially brought her to UW-Superior. While she’s built a solid resume as a two-sport Yellowjacket athlete, it’s been her experiences in the classroom and community that have brought the biggest prize. Heidenreich is a member of the Yellowjacket track and field team and a forward for the hockey team, which, in her first three years on the women's hockey team, she has 16 goals and 23 assists in 80 games. During Heidenreich’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) project, she was able to work with Judge Jill Eichenwald from the Minnesota Sixth Judicial District for research on the local Adult Drug Treatment Court. Heidenreich credit’s Judge Eichenwald’s willingness to provide her with information, reports, and past research on their treatment court, which allowed her research project to be even more in-depth and successful than she thought was possible.
T he UW-Superior Foundation is pleased to announce an amazing and generous gift that will benefit students, faculty and staff, and the greater region in perpetuity. The Dr. Lydia C. Thering and Ms. Joan L. Hedrick Fund for Academic Enrichment and Excellence was established to provide free lecture and learning opportunities that will enhance the visibility of the university while benefiting the university community and Twin Ports region. Topics will focus on health, wellness, and community development. Thering taught physical education at UW-Superior for 40 years, from 1955-1994. In addition to teaching, she coached softball, women’s tennis, track and field and volleyball. Thering served as the director of women’s athletics for 16 years and was the department chair for physical education and the health and human performance department. She was also responsible for the creation of a physical education major. In recognition of her dedicated career, Thering was inducted into the UWS Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (WIAC) Hall of Fame in 2015. The Dr. Lydia C. Thering Field House located in the Marcovich Wellness Center is named after her. Hedrick taught physical education at UWS for three decades from 1964-1994, and was informally known as the swimming pool keeper. While carrying a full teaching load, Hedrick also served as the director of intramurals and aquatics, assistant volleyball coach, and coached competitive and synchronized swimming, badminton and square dancing. In 2015, the UW-Superior community held a dedication ceremony to name the swimming pool the Joan L. Hedrick Swimming Pool. Hedrick passed away in 2014, but her legacy continues to live on. Thering and Hedrick were both strong advocates for women’s sports and were pioneers in paving the way for them to reach varsity status. They contributed to the creation of the Arrowhead Officiating Association and personally officiated at women’s sporting events for free. In fact, they often had to pay to get to games because they so strongly believed in providing opportunities to young women in athletics. Their innovative work went beyond women’s sports. They coordinated the HHP 102 wellness program, a class that replaced the traditional phys-ed class in the liberal arts offerings, which was decades before its time. They also started a corporate wellness program and other initiatives that brought health and wellness related topics to the forefront at the university and out to the broader region. “Creating this endowed lecture fund was something Joan and I talked about for many years,” said Thering. “Building awareness of health and wellness issues in order to develop knowledge and skills that will affect positive change have always been personal and professional passions for both of us.”
Lydia C. Thering
injustice to address and work toward positive change. This hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed by her instructors. “Amber is a unique student,” said LaCoursiere, senior lecturer in the legal studies and criminal justice programs. “She is driven, talented, kind, empathetic and supportive of all those around her. She puts service to others first. She will be an incredibly formidable advocate. She is sincere and authentic, and given her level of preparation for my classes, she will be an attorney I would not wish to cross in the courtroom within the next ten years.” Heidenreich has also been involved with several activities that have taken her off campus and throughout the Twin Ports and beyond. “I was supposed to present my summer research project that I conducted through SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships) at a national undergraduate research conference in March, but it was canceled due to COVID-19,” she said. “I am planning to do a presentation on my internship work and experience with Duluth’s DWI Court, along with those I have worked with at the St. Louis County Health and Human Services Conference in October.”
Many of the opportunities Heidenreich found so invaluable are made possible through the UW-Superior Foundation and the generosity of alumni and friends, beginning with the Marcovich Family, Yellowjacket and Roberts scholarships she received to help offset the cost of attending. “I don’t believe that I would be nearly as successful both inside and outside the classroom without the support that UWS has given me,” she said. “We have just as many resources and connections as those going to bigger schools, plus you get to form closer relationships with your instructors. I am so grateful to all of the people who give to the UW-Superior Foundation and make the scholarships and programs I’ve benefited from possible. Your support has made all the difference for me.” With even more in store at UW-Superior for Heidenreich, she has quickly become a champion of everything a small but mighty university can provide. “I would tell [future students] that going to a small school is not a bad thing,” she said. “We have just as many resources and connections as those going to bigger schools, plus you get to form relationships with your instructors. Everything seems more personalized and you will have all the support you need, which is sometimes harder to find when attending a larger university.”
Joan L. Hedrick
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