The Influence of Leadership

Little did Andrea Harkins ’70 know that agreeing to help with a Founders’ Day in her home community of Marshfield, Wisconsin, would turn into more than 20 years of volunteer activity.

“We had an active alumni chapter here back in the forties through the early part of the sixties,” says Andrea, a pharmacist at the Marshfield Clinic. “Then, it faded away. Around 1980, a local UW graduate approached Reed Hall ’70, executive director of the Marshfield Clinic, and me about the possibility of starting up again. The three of us did a Founders’ Day, and the modern Marshfield chapter began to blossom.”

Andrea soon took over the role of raising scholarships to send local students to UW-Madison. In the last two decades, she says, “we’ve helped a lot of Marshfield students with thousands of dollars and matching funds.”

Harkins believes that the work she does with her local chapter not only helps her neighborhood, but the whole state as well. “Our scholarships encourage our top students from this area to go to UW-Madison. It goes back to the Wisconsin Idea, which is that the university is a big part of our lives here in Marshfield and in communities all over the state. From improvements in farming to medical advances, the university helps everyone living in Wisconsin — even in the world. The quality of UW-Madison professors is extremely high, and I think we need to remind our legislators that we need to keep it that way.”

Last spring, in recognition of her continuing role in the Marshfield chapter, Andrea was presented with a 2005 Badger of the Year award. “I received scholarships when I was a poor, college kid, and it was really meaningful,” she says. “It gives you incentive to know that somebody cares.”