News & Events

Each spring, Blackhawk Technical College’s welding program hosts JunkYard Wars, an event where high school students create art from junk. Literally. Teams from area high schools compete in person at BTC’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Center in Milton. After going through safety training, teams select pieces of metal from a large junk pile. From what appears to be ruins, the teams each create a masterpiece and compete for prizes donated by local manufacturers and suppliers.

When Ethan Dieckhoff began attending Blackhawk Technical college, his experience with virtual classes was more significant than most. As a graduate of Wisconsin Virtual Academy, a virtual K-12 school, he was used to logging in instead of driving in on a daily basis. He transitioned to virtual school in fifth grade for the reasons many students do, struggling to fit in with the social morays of public school. He also found that the curriculum at WIVA challenged him more than what he was getting in his local elementary school.

Shaun Budde was a long-time employee at Lear Seating in Janesville when the GM Plant closed, taking Lear with it. Finding himself without a job and an opportunity to go back to school, he took it. Picking BTC for the simple reason it was just down the road from his house, Shaun hoped to enter the x-ray tech program. When faced with having to take some prerequisites, he shifted to the Business Management Program, harboring a secret desire to open his own canoe rental business.

Blackhawk recently celebrated the graduation of its GED and HSED students. These programs are critical components of the college’s mission to help students build their future with a flexible education in a supportive environment.