Post-Crescent: An unfinished house has been a classroom for a group of Appleton high school students for the past few months.

But in about a month, a local family in need of a place to live will be moving in.

The house was built by 22 students, mostly juniors and seniors from all three Appleton high schools who worked at the site on South Pierce Avenue for a two-hour, two-credit class this past semester as part of the school district’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

Marcus McGuire, a teacher at Appleton West who runs the class, said he was glad students were involved in the project because the experience could help them find careers in construction.

The students took part in the build every step of the way, McGuire said, and worked directly with contractors to do more specialized work, such as plumbing or wiring.

“My goal is to mimic an actual job site as much as possible,” he said.

Read the complete article on student Habitat for Humanity project.

Post-Crescent: It used to be that only very large employers could afford to offer the “perks” of a dedicated employee health clinic. However, programming by Greg Biese of Associated Benefits and Risk Consulting and ThedaCare At Work broke with tradition last fall. They worked together to establish a shared clinic specifically for eligible employees and families of the Appleton Area School District and the City of Appleton.

The near-site clinic, a term that describes a mutually convenient location for partner-employers but is not actually on-site at any one of their workplaces, is housed on the campus of ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Appleton.

The staff at the Connecting Care Clinic, as it is called, includes a nurse practitioner, physician assistant, registered nurse, and two medical assistants. Hours are set to coincide with the schedules of school district and city employees, including two days a week when the clinic opens at 5:30 a.m. for shift and school-day staffers.

Julie King, chief human resources officer for AASD, and Sandy Matz, director of human resources for the City of Appleton, both worked with Biese and ThedaCare At Work to develop the custom clinic format.

Read the complete article on Appleton’s shared clinic.