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Fluid and purposeful trajectories

Kevin Miro, a third-year ������ýe student from Viroqua, carries himself with a controlled, vibrant, determined attitude. It’s hard not to see Miro’s college trajectory like a rocket ship — a fitting comparison, he thinks, since he started as a Launch student.

UW-Eau Claire – Barron County’s Launch Program is a one-year, invite-only program where incoming students live on the Eau Claire campus and take courses offered by faculty from the Barron County institution. It supports students at all academic levels, who step into their college journey with a strong foundation built through close connections between peers and common academic experiences.

Starting college as a Launch student, Miro explains, ignited his tenacity to join the Mark Stephen Cosby Honors College. He wanted to prove, both to those around him and to himself, that his passion could fuel his success.

“The Launch Program is basically for students who didn’t do the best in high school but have potential to excel in college. I was determined since my first semester to join honors.”

Launch students aren’t able to join the Cosby Honors College until exiting the program, Miro discovered, so he decided to explore every possible path of self-discovery on the way.

Course correction: A personalized flight path

While finishing the Launch Program, Miro met with his first signal light: the requirement to select a degree program. He debated previous majors in English, art history and communication, but when Miro joined UW-Eau Claire’s TV-10, the student-run entertainment, sports and news TV station, he settled on journalism, a balance between his natural curiosity and future professional prospects.

Right before making that decision official, Miro glanced over the university’s offered programs one last time, and an overlooked option caught his eye: integrated studies, a major of self-proposed, self-designed paths.

“When I saw integrated studies, I immediately thought, ‘I can do a lot more with this just because I don’t have to conform myself to a bunch of courses in journalism.’”

Miro’s integrated studies emphasis is culture and society, and he’s earning an additional Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate. Engineering his own major gave Miro the ability to build a degree program with groups of diverse classes that reflect his wide range of academic interests and career goals: history, anthropology, art and communication.

Mitigating turbulence with honors

When Miro met with Dr. Heather Fielding, director of the Cosby Honors College, to apply for admission to honors, he relied on that same intellectual curiosity and love of the interdisciplinary — hallmarks of the honors college at UW-Eau Claire.

It was at last, during a cold April day, Miro remembers, that he finally received his honors acceptance letter.

“I feel like I have the validation that I’m doing well and like I will be okay academically with honors. I come to the [honors] commons often, I talk and meet with the faculty often and because of that, I’ve been given opportunities to do things.”

New windows opened for him at UW-Eau Claire in part, Miro holds, because of his honors involvement. And he’s determined to pay it forward.

In-flight entertainment

Given his delay-filled college journey, Miro is determined to help new students enjoy smoother college beginnings — and because of his hard work, Miro was nominated to join the UW-Eau Claire Campus Ambassadors.

Campus Ambassadors primarily serve as tour guides for the university, welcoming prospective students and families to campus and showing them the best of UW-Eau Claire. But Ambassadors also engage in social activities, developmental projects and community-focused volunteering to help students make an impact. They’re stewards, both of campus and the community it serves.

“Joining the Ambassadors and working there has been a huge, huge accomplishment for me. It feels [like] not only a great honor, but also a duty to make sure that I uphold our image and representation here at UW-Eau Claire.”

Miro has much to share as an Ambassador, given his role in the Admissions Office as an Admissions intern, his work as a student staff member of the Blugold Marching Band, his study abroad experience in New Zealand and his membership of the Delta Tau Delta - Iota Phi fraternity. Those tours with prospective students and families, more than sightseeing, give Miro the space to share his journey with others, and to help them see there’s never only one flight path to college success.

Destinations and estimated arrival times

Miro expects to graduate in fall 2027, at which point he’ll set his sights again on the sky. His first professional aim is flight attendant training, with hopes of a home base in a metropolitan travel hub like Chicago, Illinois, or Charlotte, North Carolina. From integrated studies to honors to his TEFL certificate, Miro will carry on the perfect toolkit to build community across cultures.

Before departing, Miro wants to continue encouraging future students to expand their horizons. He recollects moments, especially in honors, when he felt pushed outside his comfort zone — but those are the moments he’s especially grateful for.

“Take those opportunities. Always say ‘yes,’ even if you don’t think that you may want to or it may not interest you. Take those opportunities to allow yourself to be open and put yourself out there. See what it’s all about.”

Written by Zoe Eineichner, a third-year junior at UW-Eau Claire double majoring in psychology and organizational communication and pursuing a graduate degree in industrial-organizational psychology. Her hometown is Mukwonago.