By Tom Wilkowske
Ascendium Education Group

In Fall 2021 Ascendium Education Group will move its headquarters from its longtime Northside home on International Lane to the American Center Business Park near I-39/I-90 and U.S. Highway 151.

While our address will be different, one thing won’t change: Ascendium and its employees remain committed to supporting Northside community organizations.

In 2019 Ascendium named Vera Court Neighborhood Center as its “adopted” nonprofit organization, one that would receive extra, focused attention from its employee volunteer efforts. The relationship gives Ascendium employees who volunteer at Vera Court the opportunity to live out the education nonprofit’s mission — that of elevating opportunity for all — in a more direct way.

In 2020 despite the pandemic, Ascendium employees still donated hundreds of hours of support to Northside organizations. Ascendium also donated $55,000 for Vera Court’s programming, providing meals, after-school activities, academic support, family activities and more. But Ascendium’s ties to the Northside go back much further.

Ascendium’s forerunner organization, the Wisconsin Higher Education Corporation, moved its offices and 75 employees in 1985 from downtown Madison to the Northside at 2401 International Lane. In 1996 the growing organization, by then called Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, broke ground on a second office building at 2501 International Lane.

With Ascendium’s long history on the Northside, many of its employees over the years have ties to the Northside as well, including Dick George, Ascendium’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, who is a regular on Warner Park trails.

“Even though construction is well underway on our new headquarters, our heart is still here with the Northside. We look forward to continuing our presence here in 2021 and beyond,” George said.

It was only natural that employees would look close to home for their company volunteering efforts over the years. Ascendium employees have done everything from running free legal clinics at Vera Court to helping with outdoor projects, as well as reading to children and processing fundraising letters there. Elsewhere on the Northside, Ascendium employees have donated volunteer hours at The River Food Pantry and East Madison Community Center.

The Ascendium Cares employee volunteer program is gearing up for 2021, so stay safe and we’ll see you around the Northside.