The stories of four successful Winona State University alumni and how they are making a difference in Minnesota’s third largest city.

Doreen Frusti, RN, leads the nursing department for the world’s largest not-for-profit medical clinic. Angel Garcia works for the same healthcare group, but his task is to ensure that things run smoothly for the half million patients who visit each year. Neila Vele is looking forward to her first job as an accountant. And Jerry Williams runs one of the largest and most successful public school systems in the state.
 What do these four people have in common? Two things, in fact. All are proud alumni of Winona State University, and all live and work in the city of Rochester, Minnesota.
 Rochester, with about 97,000 residents, is consistently mentioned as one of America’s best small cities. Winona State University alumni certainly find this to be true. Over 4,300 graduates from both the Winona and Rochester Center campuses are helping shape the quality of life in the state’s third largest city.
 The four people profiled in this story represent a cross-section of the pathways to a degree at Winona State. Frusti finished two master’s degrees while continuing to work full-time. Garcia followed a traditional undergraduate program and played on the Warriors’ football team. Vele took advantage of the “2 + 2” transfer agreement with Rochester Community and Technical College and then completed a double major on the Rochester and Winona campuses. Williams, who already held undergraduate and graduate degrees, attended WSU to fulfill state licensure requirements.
 Winona State is noted for its strong, “traditional” undergraduate, graduate and professional programs as well as its flexible degree options geared towards non-traditional and working students. The Winona campus, with about 8,000 students, focuses on liberal arts and sciences education. Winona State University-Rochester Center, located about 45 miles from Winona, is particularly friendly to non-traditional students. It offers a variety of day and evening classes, non-residential and transfer options and programs designed in collaboration with Rochester area employers.
 The University has long-held ties with the city of Rochester. They were founded a few years apart, and as early as 1917 Winona State brought its courses west to the town on the banks of the Zumbro River. After first holding classes in local school buildings, the University established one of the first nursing degree programs in the area as the medical practice of the Mayo brothers expanded. Over the years, programs such as education and accounting were added in response to local needs, and Winona State’s presence grew in the Rochester area.
 In 1967, Winona State formed its first transfer agreement with what was then Rochester Community College. Almost 20 years later, the two schools began sharing the same campus, and, in 1994, Winona State and the renamed Rochester Community and Technical College, along with the University of Minnesota, moved to the newly constructed University Center Rochester campus on the southeastern edge of the city.
 More than 5,000 alumni have graduated from Winona State University-Rochester Center since it was established, and they form a considerable base for WSU alumni living in the area. But graduates of both campuses find Rochester an attractive place to settle down. The city’s size, diverse economy, quality of life and cosmopolitan air, drawn from the thousands of Mayo visitors from around the globe, create numerous opportunities for graduates.
 Winona State’s strong programs in nursing and health sciences, education and science and technology, align well with the engines of Rochester’s economy. The Mayo Clinic Rochester employs over 29,000 physicians, medical researchers, nurses and allied staff, creating a heavy demand for healthcare professionals. Across town, technology giant IBM develops and produces software and computing equipment. Rochester Public Schools is the sixth largest school district in the state, with 16,300 students and 1,100 teachers.
  How did the typical Rochester alumnus earn a WSU degree? What do they do? What makes them successful? The answers are as diverse as the city itself, so read on for the stories of four proud Winona State University graduates.
Angel Garcia
Systems & Procedures, Mayo Clinic
 When we’re sick, the last thing we think about is where we’ll park, how we’ll check in for our appointments, or the route our medical file took to the examination room. We just want to see a doctor and get on the road to recovery.
 But there are people who think deeply about patient visits, and Angel Garcia is one of them. Working with various departments Garcia tries to optimize current systems that are in place to make a patient’s interaction with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, a seamless episode of care.

Garcia earned a biology degree at Winona State in 1978, where he also played fullback on the football team. After graduating, Garcia began his career as a laboratory technician, first at Abbot Northwestern Hospital in the Twin Cities before moving to Mayo. He started managing projects as a clinical trial coordinator at Mayo, and eventually joined systems and procedures, an internal consulting group as an analyst.
 Over half a million unique patients travel to the Mayo Clinic every year, seeking what some call the best medical care in the world. In 2005 patients made over 2.2 million visits that included everything from a simple one-time appointment, to extended stays requiring diagnosis and treatment involving multiple departments. More than 1,700 physicians and medical researchers, supported by 28,000 allied health workers, are constantly developing new techniques and procedures to improve patient care.
 Garcia has the disciplined, buttoned-down bearing that you would expect from an athlete. He also displays the analytical mind of a scientist, a plus when you consider the metrics needed to analyze the operations of an organization as large and complex as Mayo.
 “Our group has to think about the patient experience from start to finish,” says Garcia in a quiet and measured voice. “That means where they’ll park if they drive here, where they sit while waiting to see the doctor, how quickly they’re seen, and where and when they need to go for their next appointment.”
 The kinds of things that Garcia has to think about can be as detailed as the number and type of waiting room chairs and where to place them, to large scope problems such as providing adequate parking and transportation for the nearly 29,000 Mayo staff members coming in to work each day. 
 “We want to develop the metrics and create the models so Mayo can make the best informed decisions on how to deliver the best services in the most efficient, effective and caring  way. We think about the patients and their families from start to finish, and their experience is always in the top of our mind.”
 “Our role is to make it all mesh,” says Garcia. Our primary value is “the needs of the patients come first”.

Doreen Frusti, RN
Chair, Department of Nursing, Mayo Clinic
If there’s one thing that Doreen Frusti, RN misses in her current position at the Mayo Clinic, it’s the day-to-day care and comfort she provided for her patients. But the leader of the prestigious clinic’s nurses feels that, while not as hands-on as she used to be, she is making a big difference for thousands of patients.
 Frusti is chair of the Department of Nursing at the Mayo Clinic. She heads Mayo’s largest department, employing 6,300 nurses, allied support staff and administrators. Frusti has worked in the field for 36 years, and she says her current role is “to assure an environment where nurses can practice in a professional, caring and respectful way, where they can provide the best patient care in the world.”                        
 Frusti earned two master’s degrees at Winona State, both on the Rochester Center campus. An interest in psychiatry and psychology prompted her to seek her first master’s in educational psychology and counseling. As she progressed into management at Mayo, Frusti enrolled in WSU’s graduate program in nursing, with a focus on nurse administration. The second master’s degree took her about five years to complete, and Frusti found herself writing her thesis at about the same time she was promoted to chair of the nursing department.
 Interrupting her career was never an option for Frusti. “I enjoyed my work immensely and wanted to continue doing patient care. I liked school, too, and knew that to practice advanced nursing, I needed an advanced level of education. Winona State was flexible and understanding enough to make it possible to do both at the same time,” says Frusti.
 “I was able to complete most of the degree requirements on the Rochester campus. Usually classes met on a single day, so it was easier to schedule work around school.”
 While Frusti attended Winona State, she recalls the understanding that many faculty members had for adult learners. “People like Rosemary Langston, Daniel Nichols and Marjorie Smith in nursing, Tim Hatfield in counselor education, respected your experience, integrated you into the academic dialogue and helped you push the envelope in your thinking. It was true learning; a freeing experience.”
 Even with a full schedule of administrative responsibilities, Frusti stays in touch with her roots in nursing by regularly attending patient care rounds. “Nursing gives us a purpose,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to make a real difference.”

Jerry Williams
Superintendent, Rochester Public Schools
 As Jerry Williams sits in his sun filled office, one of the first things you notice are the framed marathon posters hanging behind his desk. He’s completed several of the 26.2-mile races, and it’s obvious from his lean build that Williams a dedicated distance runner.
 The superintendent of the Rochester Public Schools, Williams hopes he’ll have more time for running when he retires. For now, training is on hold as he focuses on leading Minnesota’s seventh largest school district, and setting high standards for the system’s students and teachers.
 A career educator, Williams completed his bachelor’s degree at Hamline University and a graduate degree at St. Cloud State University. As he advanced from teaching into administration, Williams earned a certificate at Winona State University to fulfill state licensure requirements for principals and superintendents.
 The Rochester Public Schools mission is to “create an environment where lifelong learning is valued, excellence is expected, and improvement is continuous.” Williams talks passionately about growing the culture of continuous improvement among in the district.
 “We cannot do what we’ve always done. Rochester is a changing community, and to meet the needs of our students, we need to be flexible and make adjustments based on the data and constant, careful evaluation,” says Williams.
 To illustrate his point, Williams stands and pulls out a thick printout. The document is a detailed curriculum plan for Rochester’s elementary schools, listing learning objectives for each grade, for every week of the academic year.
 “Together we’ve planned the curriculum carefully, and each of our teachers knows what his or her teaching goals are. They have flexibility in how they teach, but the curriculum is clear.”
 Williams goes on to explain, “This doesn’t mean we’re afraid to adjust what we do. For example, if we see that test scores are low for second graders, we go back to assess what they might have missed in kindergarten or first grade. We’ll dig right in and make a mid-course adjustment.”
 One of the efforts Williams has continued as superintendent has been to use the Baldridge national quality framework to guide and assess the Rochester schools’ efforts towards continuous improvement. In 2005, the Minnesota Council for Quality awarded the system the Minnesota Quality Award in Education at the Achievement Level, the highest recognition the organization has ever given a school district.
 Williams cites the award as one his career highlights. “The award was affirmation that we’re aligned with our mission. Using the Baldridge criteria gives everyone in our district a common language, a laser-like focus, as we work together to do our best for our children.”
 Williams plans to retire from the superintendent’s position at the end of the academic year. That should give him time to turn his focus on a personal continuous improvement program:  putting in lots of time on the running trails and qualifying for the storied Boston Marathon.

Neila Vele
Accountant, Rochester Community and Technical College
 “Getting a college education here in Rochester was the only way I could do it,” says Neila Vele, who graduated last spring from Winona State University with degrees in accounting and finance.
 “My parents speak only a little English, so I needed to be close to home. It was their dream that my sister and I go to college, so Winona State worked for our family.”
 Just ten years ago, Vele and her family, who are Bosnian Muslims, were interned in a refugee camp, the victims of ethnic and religious conflicts rising from the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. They were allowed to leave only after the intervention of a relative, who had married a non-Muslim.
 The family had friends in Rochester, so they immigrated to the United States. “But we moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, which is close to Rochester, New York,” Vele laughs. The mistake is understandable considering the turmoil of refugee camps in a war-torn country, and that the Veles knew little about the U.S.
 They moved to what Vele calls “the real Rochester” a year later. She quickly settled into school and life in the Midwest. During her senior year at Century High School, she took all of her classes through the Post-Secondary Enrollment Option (PSEO), a state program that allows high school students to take courses at colleges and universities. After graduating with a full semester of college credits, Vele enrolled at Rochester Technical and Community College (RCTC).
 “My goal was always to earn a university degree,” says Vele. “Starting at RCTC and getting the basics was a good option, but I didn’t know I could finish my 4-year degree here in Rochester. When

I found out I could do it at WSU-Rochester it was the perfect solution.”
 Vele radiates optimism and energy and says she made many friends on the University Center Rochester campus. She credits Julie Beckel, who works in student support, with helping her learn about options at Winona State. Vele found her accounting courses challenging, but she drew from the inspiration of professors like Larry Sallee, who teaches on the Rochester campus.
 Beckel and Sallee also encouraged Vele to expand her career options by picking up a second major in finance. That meant that she had to venture to the Winona campus for a year. “That was a hard year, but a good year for me. I was married and needed to be away from my family a lot. But it was nice sometimes to see life as a student, do group projects with fellow students, do some things on campus,” says Vele.
 Vele left a lasting impression on the University Center Rochester campus. After graduating from Winona State, was quickly hired as an accountant at RCTC. The mother of a new baby boy, she expects to be back at her job early after the New Year.
 “I enjoy the school atmosphere. It’s friendly, they do good things. It feels like home to me,” says Vele.

Last Modified: Friday, September 21, 2007 11:47 by Heather Alt