Feature Stories

Acoustic/punk rock musician and political candidate Walt Hamburger is just as goofy and charismatic as his name. I met him while working at a pizza place in my hometown of Appleton. Hamburger’s music career came to a sudden halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he’s emerging from this treacherous year more content with life than […]

Taylor Wilcox is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee taking 18 credits, performing lab research on campus, and working at Froedtert Health. Wilcox is 20 years old and grew up in Campbellsport, Wis. She is working toward her undergraduate Biochemistry degree and hopes to become a thoracic surgeon. Q-Micaela Luehring: What has been the […]

A Year of Fear Upends the Life of an Artist Nursing Student: Covid “Opened My Eyes” Basic Training, Pandemic-Style Moving Home in a Strange Year To Get Through Covid, Just Be a Little Nicer The Pandemic as Teaching Tool Musician Makes it Through Worst Year Back in the Gym Lessons Learned in 2020

Born in Grafton, Wisconsin, Sam Bulgrin, 19, studies criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He enlisted in the Wisconsin Army National Guard in December of 2020. In the first few months of quarantine, Sam went to basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Q-Sonnet Bayer: What was your first reaction to COVID-19? A-Sam […]

Kimberlynn Vergara is a nursing student at MATC and is employed as a certified nursing assistant. Every day she witnesses the struggles of patients and families that have to deal with heartache and tragedy with the pandemic and the fight for social justice. Observing such pain has forced her to reevaluate herself, her priorities and […]

Anna Bromberger, 21, is taking a gap year from UW-Milwaukee. She is currently a daycare teacher in Hartland, Wisconsin. With the break in her college education, a move home and a change in jobs, the pandemic has influenced her life in many ways. However, her main focus has been appreciating her loved ones and making […]

Ryann Eberle, 22, is finishing her last year at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee amidst the global pandemic that took the world by storm. The student and photography major shares her academic struggle and experience with Covid-19 as vaccine distribution finally surges. Q-Emily Prochaska: How did you first hear about Covid? A: Well, I heard something […]

The Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed the way that college students learn and attend classes in the past year. Many students struggle with mental health and the adjustment to online learning; especially for those in majors and programs that normally have lab and studio classes, where work is completed in the classroom and learned hands-on. […]

Born and raised in Chicago, Tiara Badie graduated from Howard University, a historically black college, with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Criminology. She is currently attending Marquette University Law School where she is secretary of the Black Law Student Association, a member of the Intellectual Property Law Society, and part of the […]

In Milwaukee, Krystle Stagman, 35, owns a small metaphysical store on S. Kinnickinnic Avenue called Altered State of Mind. On the outside, a heavy glass door is set back under a shallow awning, a large window with a logo and above that a flat sign with the store name printed on it. Inside, guests enter […]

At the main entrance to Mequon Nature Preserve, wind spins a turbine and sunlight reaches a solar panel array, helping to power an education center. A short trail to the right opens up to a children’s play area, and a winding trail to the left leads to an observation tower. A view from the top […]

COVID-19 has affected musicians across the state of Wisconsin. Media Milwaukee reporter Sam Dehring brings us a closer look at the struggles these local musicians are facing.