The computer sciences courses Driver and Nasgowitz took at UW–Madison taught them to figure out solutions without a road map. Lila Aryan

Longtime best friends T. J. Driver ’22 and Zach Nasgowitz ’21 experienced a problem endemic to their generation: their smartphones ruled their lives. They couldn’t escape the constant distractions — the apps, games, emails, and notifications all clamoring for their attention. Driver tried using a flip phone but found it too limiting and impractical, not allowing him to access information he needed. The built-in blockers on their iPhones were too easy to override. So the pair of engineers set out to create their own solution.

They didn’t really know what they were doing, developing a new product and starting a business, but the computer sciences courses they took at UW–Madison taught them to dive in and figure out solutions without a road map. “You learn some amount of confidence in solving problems that is very applicable to entrepreneurship,” Nasgowitz says.

The result of their efforts was the Brick, a small, square device (about half the size of a deck of cards) that you tap with your phone to block selected apps. You cannot access those apps until you tap the Brick with your phone again. The extra effort — or actually storing the Brick someplace separate from a work or study location — eliminates distractions.

The device solved their immediate problem, allowing them to focus, but they found it also delivered an ancillary benefit. Freed from distractions, they felt more present with friends and family or whatever task was before them. “It’s so liberating,” Driver says. “You don’t have to fight off the temptation every time you pick up your phone because you’ve already made that decision. The temptation doesn’t exist anymore because there’s no way to get into the distracting apps.”

Both alums are builders at heart, but Nasgowitz is more of a visionary. In the early days, he focused mostly on design and marketing while Driver, who is more detail-oriented, handled the engineering and operations.

They launched the Brick in 2023, selling it for $59 on Getbrick.app. The product has generated some media buzz, including in New York magazine, and the company is looking to add more employees to its Chicago office.

“We measure success by the number of people who benefit from the Brick,” Driver says. “The people buying this are coming back to us and saying, ‘This has improved my relationship with my phone and genuinely improved my life.’ That has been very fulfilling.”

Siegert, Boehmer, and Connors devised a way to notify users when a nearby shop or restaurant has surplus food it’s willing to unload at a steep discount. Courtesy of Goodie Bag

Who doesn’t love a good surprise, especially when it comes in the form of affordable food? That’s the concept behind Goodie Bag, an app that notifies users when a nearby shop or restaurant has surplus food it’s willing to unload at a steep discount — say, $18 worth of pizza, pastries, or produce for $9. The model keeps food out of landfills, draws new customers to restaurants, and provides an affordable food option.

Briana Boehmer ’02 — whose background was building tech-based businesses around health, wellness, and fitness — was smitten by the Goodie Bag concept when she first heard about it in 2023. “One of the things I loved about this opportunity was trying to create something that connected community with a well-being focus,” she says.

Cofounders Luke Siegert and Eddy Connors had developed the app to the viable product stage and secured funds to bring it to market, but they lacked the resources to pay themselves. Boehmer thought she could help. Soon after meeting the two, Boehmer quit her job as chief operations officer for a fitness tech company to sign on as the third cofounder and COO of Goodie Bag.

Her instincts paid off. Not only did she and her partners launch the app, but by mid-2024, they’d raised enough money to start paying themselves full salaries, and they’ve now grown to 10 employees. After starting out in Boulder, Colorado, they’ve expanded to Fort Collins, Denver, and Colorado Springs in their home state, as well as Charlotte, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Madison; Milwaukee; and most recently, New York City. They also started a pilot project with UW–Madison to offer Goodie Bags at the Badger Markets at Union South and Memorial Union, and they’re hoping to expand to other campus sites — and eventually, to other universities.

“I measure success by the feedback we’re getting,” Boehmer says. “We’re on the right track when we’re getting messages from businesses letting us know that their shops are staying open because they’ve been able to implement our services — and from customers saying that they’re visiting places they would never have visited because they found them through Goodie Bag. I know this might sound cheesy, but it really is true we are changing things for the better.

“That sense of being a part of something bigger than yourself and contributing to your community — I learned that at Wisconsin.”

Pancholia was a much-loved Badger whose vibrant spirit and intellectual curiosity left a lasting impression on all who knew him. Courtesy of Sushmeta Pancholia

A scholarship launched in fall 2024 will aid students of the new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

The Arun Pancholia ’23 Scholarship honors a much-loved Badger whose vibrant spirit and intellectual curiosity left a lasting impression on all who knew him. Pancholia’s passion for math, music, cars, and helping others was matched only by his warmth and wit. His family’s decision to create this commemorative fund ensures that his light continues to shine through the achievements of others and celebrates his enduring impact.

Each year, the UW selects four Arun Pancholia scholars who demonstrate financial need, with a preference for students who study entrepreneurship or mathematics and who have experienced living in India, the United Arab Emirates, Southeast Asia, or the United States.

“Arun had always wanted to start a nonprofit organization supporting education,” says Pancholia’s mother, Sushmeta. “Fulfilling our beloved Arun’s dream of creating equal opportunities where possible was one of the main motivations behind this scholarship.”

One of the four 2025 recipients is Alysia Chou x’27, a junior from Taiwan studying computer and data sciences with a certificate in business. Her work ranges from building a chatbot for Spectacle Health to analyzing nonprofit engagement data through Biokind Analytics.

“[This scholarship] motivates me to preserve Arun’s legacy of kindness, excellence, and curiosity,” Chou wrote to Pancholia’s parents. “I will carry this gift with me as I work toward my goals, and I hope to one day pay it forward, just as you have done for me.”

Another recipient, Yashwanth Ranjan Singaravel x’26, is a senior from Chennai, India, double majoring in computer and data sciences and mathematics. As a student technical trainer and software engineer, Singaravel leads workshops and develops AI-powered research tools.

“This scholarship encourages me to embody generosity and excellence,” he says. “I am committed to carrying Arun’s light forward.”

Pancholia chose UW–Madison for its strong academic programs and vibrant campus life. Initially a biochemistry major, he became increasingly interested in data science during the pandemic, leading him to pursue a field that integrates several disciplines and drives meaningful innovation. Through this fund, Pancholia’s family aims to inspire students to pursue their passions, overcome challenges, and make a positive impact.

“Donor gifts have the power to transform lives,” Sushmeta says. “It’s more than a donation — it’s a legacy of opportunity, compassion, and achievement.”

Frautschi has enriched the lives of countless Madison residents and UW–Madison students.

Jerome “Jerry” Frautschi ’56, who died in January, was a giant in a family of giants in terms of contributions to the UW and its surrounding community. After serving in the Navy during the Korean War, Frautschi returned to Madison and joined the family’s printing business, Webcrafters, which he ran alongside his brother, John Frautschi, for 42 years. Jerry’s father, Walter Frautschi 1924, had been prominent in UW and civic concerns, serving as president of the Wisconsin Alumni Association and as a leader for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) for decades.

Jerry followed in his footsteps. Among Jerry’s many gifts to the campus community, one of the most cherished is Frautschi Point — formerly Second Point on Lake Mendota — which he and John donated to the UW in the late 1980s. This 17-acre parcel, with 1,600 feet of shoreline, was preserved in its natural state, extending the Lakeshore Path and protecting a vital piece of Madison’s landscape. In recent years, Jerry gave nearly $17 million to the UW–Madison Lakeshore Nature Preserve to build the Frautschi Center, a visitor building at the entrance to Picnic Point. Construction is slated to begin later this year.

“Thanks to his vision and foresight, tens of thousands of Badgers and Madisonians have enjoyed the beauty of the iconic Lakeshore Nature Preserve, Picnic Point, and Frautschi Point,” says UW–Madison chancellor Jennifer Mnookin. “Many more will soon experience the Frautschi Center when it opens as a brand-new front door to these cherished spaces.”

Jerry Frautschi’s most transformative contribution came in 1998, when he gave a landmark $205 million to build Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts. Designed by renowned architect César Pelli, the Overture Center spans an entire city block and includes a 2,100-seat concert hall, a restored 1927 theater, a theater-in-the-round, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (see “State Street, That Great Street”).

Frautschi continued to invest in the UW’s future. A generous contribution helped create Alumni Park, which opened in fall 2017. This celebratory space shares the story of what it means to be a Badger through inspiring sculptures, inscriptions, statues, and a striking fountain. He was also an avid supporter of the Hamel Music Center, which opened in 2019.

Frautschi was joined in his philanthropy by his wife, Pleasant Rowland, founder of the American Girl brand. Their vision has left an indelible mark on Madison, enriching the lives of countless residents, students, and visitors.

Spelsberg’s most notable moment occurred in Season 49, when one of the contestants was bitten by a poisonous snake. Courtesy of Sarah Spelsberg

As a UW–Madison undergrad, Sarah Spelsberg ’95 — a psychology major who’d been told by an adviser that she’d never get into medical school — began to feel a deep pull toward the magic of the wild. After graduating, she moved to Telluride, Colorado, where she planned to work for one year in a ski lodge.

Instead, Spelsberg joined the local search-and-rescue team, and her one-year mountain adventure turned into nearly a decade of tracking down missing people and rescuing them from swift-water accidents, avalanches, rockslides, and much more.

Spelsberg eventually earned a master’s degree and became an orthopedic surgery physician assistant at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. She then traveled to Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands to work in emergency medicine before returning to medical school and an emergency medicine residency at UNC Health Southeastern. Now, she’s the director of U.S. operations for World Extreme Medicine, which trains health professionals to work in challenging environments. Patients include wilderness adventurers, explorers in hostile climates, and victims of war and natural disasters.

But the highlight of her career came last year when she served as a physician for Seasons 49 and 50 of the TV show Survivor. Spelsberg had actually been invited to be a contestant on the first season of the show but ultimately decided against it. However, she loved every minute of her behind-the-scenes role as a health care provider.

“It was really fun to work with people who are at the top of their game and aren’t afraid to adapt in remote areas,” she says. “Everyone there had a can-do attitude. If every corporation, hospital, city, and country ran the way they run themselves, the world would be a better place.” Spelsberg describes longtime host Jeff Probst as “one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

She spent a lot of her time helping to care for the production crew, which encompassed more than 800 people. “It takes a lot of people to pull together a production of that caliber,” she explains. Perhaps the most notable moment occurred in Season 49, when one of the contestants was bitten by a banded sea krait, a snake with venom that can render one bite fatal. Fortunately, it turned out to be a “dry bite,” which does not include venom.

Spelsberg would go back to Fiji in a heartbeat. “If there’s something you want to do, find a way to do it,” she advises. “Don’t ever feel stagnant. Don’t feel like a caged lion in your life or career. It is never too late to achieve your dreams.”

Miller: “I knew I wanted to finish in Madison, because it’s such a special place for me.” Courtesy of Todd Miller

When Todd Miller ’83 crossed the finish line at the Midwest Financial Group Madison Mini Marathon in August, it was the end of a 12-year quest to run a half or full marathon in all 50 states. The Madison finale was fitting for Miller, a hardcore Badger who currently lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

A lifelong athlete, Miller wasn’t always a serious runner. “In my early 50s, I joined an early morning exercise boot camp,” he says. “It was a fitness community with other runners, and they were very encouraging.”

After completing marathons in Washington, DC, and Philadelphia in 2013, it was off to the races with 49 to go. The pace was grueling. “You’re either getting ready to run, running, or recovering from running,” Miller says. The feeling of accomplishment was powerful, but pounding that much pavement also gave him a sense of “the slow destruction” of his body.

Muscle soreness aside, every race had memorable moments. While running with his brother and fellow Green Bay Packers fan, Jamie Miller ’86, the pair outran former Packer quarterback Brett Favre in a Mississippi race near Favre’s hometown. And locals were generally supportive. After a Waffle House bathroom stop during the same race, Miller received a round of applause from diners.

Miller almost missed the Newport (Rhode Island) Half Marathon after locking his keys in a rental car. “I tried to break the car window with a metal rod outside my inn near Newport,” he recalls. “Miraculously, after about 20 minutes, a young couple came out from the inn, and I asked them if I could have a ride to the starting line. The guy said, ‘Sure, but can you put down that rod?’ They were definitely weirded out.”

Miller spent more than 15 years in management at Fannie Mae before joining the cryptocurrency industry. He currently serves as managing director of Phlomis Finance, a global advisory company focused on digital assets and blockchain technologies.

Juggling a busy career with planning and logistics for each run was complicated, but one decision was a no-brainer. “I knew I wanted to finish in Madison, because it’s such a special place for me,” he says.

Running by Bascom Hill as a 64-year-old triggered a flashback to Miller’s first day of classes. “It was a warm September day in 1979 when I walked up Bascom and saw the pink flamingos set up by Leon Varjian x’83 and his Pail and Shovel [student government] party. I knew I had picked the right college!”

Shirley Krsinich MS’76, one of WAA’s most frequent travelers, has signed up for 20 trips. Krsinich says that one big draw for her is the friendliness of Wisconsin travelers.

“I have traveled with my husband, with my friends, and with my nieces, and all were warmly welcomed. And I have traveled by myself, and I was warmly welcomed and felt included, which can be a fear for many first-time single travelers. I’ve always appreciated my fellow Badgers for being so hospitable.”

Madison physician Christopher Harkin ’84, MD’89, who took the Egypt and the Eternal Nile trip with his wife, Jacquelynn Arbuckle ’91, MD’95, says their trip was “so much better than we could’ve imagined. The educational value was just a much higher level than any other professional tour because our group was educated at the University of Wisconsin. … We are always going to take our future tours through WAA.”

Some of the program’s most popular trips include European river cruises, with a Dutch water-ways tour to Holland and Belgium during tulip season taking first place.

Other favorites are ocean cruises to ports of call such as Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, and the Mediterranean. Popular land options include African safaris, Italy, Japan, and Iceland. Every other year, adventures in Antarctica, Southeast Asia, and the Galápagos Islands are on offer.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of all trips in 2020 and many in 2021, travel director Amy Klus ’05 says the program quickly bounced back in 2022, with the only difference being that more travelers now opt for travel insurance.

According to Chief Alumni Officer and Executive Director Sarah Schutt, “The WAA travel program plays an important role in our efforts to connect alumni and friends. For more than 60 years, alumni have shared memorable moments around the world and have created lasting friendships by traveling with other Badgers. The wonders of travel are taken to a higher level in the company of those with whom you share a special UW bond.”

As a first-generation college student from a working-class family, Cauley learned to think critically on the Madison campus. Mindy Tucker

Kashana Cauley ’02 majored in economics and political science at UW–Madison and graduated from Columbia law school, but she credits X (formerly Twitter) with the education that forged her career. Unhappy with the hours and stress of practicing antitrust law for a Manhattan firm, Cauley started writing jokes on the social media platform. She kept tinkering with her style until she found her now-characteristic acerbic wit. “It was a good medium,” Cauley says. “You had to be short and punchy— say something funny in just 140 characters — and you could see what worked live and what didn’t.”

X also delivered her unexpected career break. After putting her jokes out there and writing an essay for the Atlantic about how becoming a mom converted her from an early anti-vaxxer stance, she received a message asking her to write for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

“It was a Saturday at 3 a.m. — it was so obviously fake,” she said of her initial reaction. But the offer turned out to be real. That led to the fulfillment of her childhood dreams to be a writer and to do comedy. She’s followed that up writing for The Great North and Pod Save America. She’s also written for the New York Times, Esquire, the New Yorker, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. Now she’s writing novels.

Her debut, The Survivalists — a dark comedy about a young Black lawyer risking her career and conscience to move in with her doomsday-prepper boyfriend — made multiple best-of-2023 lists, including Marie Claire’s and Ms. magazine’s.

This past summer, she published The Payback, described by the New York Times as “a novel that takes on our absurd, predatory student loan system with a zany sense of humor.”

Cauley jokes that she was able to draw upon her personal experience with higher education in writing about student loans. “The UW was responsible for making some of that debt possible.”

Seriously, though, she says she’s indebted to the university for more than student loans. As a first-generation college student from a working-class family, Cauley learned to think critically on the Madison campus. “It made me the thinker I am today,” she says.

Cauley is at work on another novel and says she’d welcome the chance to write for TV again, employing her characteristic biting satire to address the systemic injustices that trouble her. “You can lecture people,” she says, “but if you put jokes in there, they’ll be laughing and maybe realize they have learned something, too.”

Crowfoot: “The idea that we can use government to improve society — that’s at the core of everything I do.” Courtesy of California Natural Resources Agency

Wade Crowfoot 96’s passion for natural spaces started on the banks of Loon Lake in Ontario, Canada, when he was a boy. There, at his family’s cabin, he’d pick blueberries and fish for bass, perch, and catfish.

More than three decades later, Crowfoot’s love of the outdoors extends 2,500 miles west to California, where in 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed him secretary of natural resources.

In that cabinet-level role, Crowfoot manages 25,000 employees who steward state forests, natural lands, and waterways. He also advises Newsom on natural resources and the environment.

For Crowfoot, defending public lands isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s a democratic one. “These are lands that you can enjoy whether you’re rich or poor, regardless of your background,” he says. “Public lands are uniquely American. They are our heritage.”

Additionally, under Crowfoot’s leadership, California has become a national model for tribal partnerships. (Crowfoot’s English surname is often mistaken as Native American.) More than 100,000 acres of ancestral land have been returned to Native communities, and more than half of the state’s park land acreage is now comanaged with tribal nations.

At UW–Madison, Crowfoot majored in political science and quickly immersed himself in state government. He found a mentor in Dennis Dresang ’64, professor emeritus of public affairs and political science. The mentorship led to a page position at the state capitol, and eventually to an honors project on public-private partnerships.

Crowfoot’s turning point came during his sophomore year, when he and a friend took a semester off to drive across the country in a Volkswagen van. They camped their way through the national parks and ultimately arrived in the Bay Area. En route, Crowfoot was enchanted by the starkness of the eastern Sierra Nevada and the sublimity of Big Sur’s precipitous coastal cliffs. After studying abroad in Costa Rica, he returned to Madison to finish his degree, and then he moved west.

Crowfoot has witnessed how Californians across the political spectrum rally around wild spaces: “They’re a connector in a time of great political division.” Despite growing environmental threats — and political opposition in some quarters — Crowfoot remains relentlessly hopeful. His work is animated by a belief in the Progressive tradition, one he traces back to Wisconsin’s political history. “The idea that we can use government to improve society — that’s at the core of everything I do.”

The van Meurers want to to give back to people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to go to UW–Madison. Madison Bess

An alumni couple in their early 30s are one of the youngest ever to create an estate plan benefiting UW–Madison.

Grace ’16 and Michael van Meurer ’15 ran cross country and track as students, but they didn’t meet until they attended an end-of-season party and both arrived on time to find they were the first ones there. They joke that they still pride themselves on punctuality.

Perhaps that’s why they are thinking ahead with estate planning. “It comes down to it’s such an easy thing to do,” says Michael. “It’s also something I don’t have to think about for a very long time. It’s a really easy way to make a lasting legacy at Wisconsin.”

Grace adds, “We don’t have ties to a church or many other organizations, and Wisconsin really is where our lives kind of took off. We owe our education and our careers to Wisconsin, and we also met each other there. It’s extra special to us.”

The plan calls for the couple to give $1 million to the UW upon their deaths.

Michael believes that younger alums might think that an estate plan is beyond their reach. But, he says, “this is the time in many young people’s lives when they’re thinking about starting a family and protecting them, but you can very easily leverage your life insurance coverage for the things that you care about outside of your immediate family.” Life insurance forms a portion of the van Meurers’ plan.

Michael is in technical sales with Snowflake, a cloud-based data-storage company, and Grace is an art director for Alloy Marketing. On the side, they also run Studio van M, a graphic design company focused on the interior design and luxury hospitality industry. The business takes its name from a combination of their last names — in 2017, Michael Van Voorhis and Grace Meurer legally changed their surnames to combine the two.

They have decided to direct their planned gift toward endowed scholarships that they set up this year, with one for each of their respective majors — engineering for Michael and art for Grace. Grace says that an art degree might be especially hard to justify for students with financial need, but that a scholarship can make it possible.

“A big part of it is wanting to give back to people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to even go to Wisconsin,” says Michael.