Twenty years ago, Beth Borgen took a job as assistant director of alumni relations at Lakeland University that required a 40-minute commute. Her plan was to work there “maybe a year,” then find something closer to home. “And now it is our home,” she laughs.
Borgen’s unconventional path from alumni event planner to university president mirrors Lakeland’s own transformation into a workforce development engine with a statewide annual economic impact of $94 million — $24.3 million of that in Sheboygan County alone.
Last fall, Lakeland University was named co-winner of the 2025 Economic Driver of the Year Award by the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation.
“In our region, we’ve earned the reputation of being a problem solver,” says Borgen, a Campbellsport native. “If a company is stuck, whether it’s a talent problem or a training problem or a degree that needs to be created, we are very nimble and we respond. Strategic partnerships are what we love.”
At the core of Lakeland’s economic impact is its cooperative education program, which puts money in students’ pockets while creating a talent pipeline for employers. It allows students to complete up to 25% of their academic credits through paid work at more than 200 co-op partner companies such as Johnsonville, Bemis Manufacturing, Acuity Insurance and many small to medium-size organizations and nonprofits.
Earning the Economic Driver of the Year recognition was especially meaningful to Borgen, who was a key player in launching the co-op program — the only one of its kind in the Upper Midwest.
“Students are graduating with little or no debt, higher starting salaries, higher job placements and increased earning potential. They can contribute to the economy, which is exactly what we had hoped would happen when we launched it in 2018,” Borgen says. “And the employer also gets to test out talent and fit as well, so it’s been a win-win.”
In 2018, Borgen was serving as executive vice president under former Lakeland University President David Black.
“Dr. Black was a mentor of mine. He had the vision and when the co-op concept started to develop, I remember going into his office and saying, ‘Can I please take this and run with it?’” says Borgen, who was promoted to president in 2020. “It’s an amazing concept, an amazing idea, but we need to get all the right people to understand the concept to build it the right way.”
Building it the right way meant Borgen and her team studied other schools’ co-op programs and created one for Lakeland that reflected the needs of local businesses and students.
At Lakeland, students of any major — from accounting to food safety to history — can pursue the co-op option, which still allows students to graduate in four years. Some institutions with co-op programs require a fifth year to complete.
“The last thing we wanted to do was add another year, so we had to find a way to make it work,” Borgen says. “There’s no other Midwest college or university doing this for every single program. The variety we have to offer is very unique.”
Over the last eight years, Lakeland students have worked in more than 3,500 placements earning nearly 12,500 academic credits and working more than 668,000 hours. That’s an average of more than 35,000 hours per semester, and Lakeland students have earned a whopping $10 million in wages.
But challenges persist. Borgen herself pursued an MBA as a working mom to three kids and earned a doctorate in business administration in two and a half years while serving as Lakeland’s EVP. Yet she acknowledges there is waning public confidence in the value of advanced degrees that, coupled with changes in federal funding, are some of her biggest obstacles.
Still, Borgen views the shifting landscape as an invitation to rethink how higher education delivers value.
“We have such a history of innovation, and an open-mindedness to innovation, that we embrace the opportunity,” she says. “When we’re solving a problem, we get excited about coming up with a creative way to solve it.”
photograph by Shane Van Boxtel, Image Studios
The $90 barrier
Up until 2023, two-thirds of Sheboygan Area School District students taking dual enrollment courses weren’t earning college credit — not because of grades, but because their families couldn’t afford the $90 per-credit fee.
A partnership between Lakeland University and SASD, now in its third year of a three-year pilot, allows SASD students free access to Lakeland Concurrent Academic Progress Program courses, which provide high school and college credits simultaneously.
“In Sheboygan County, only about 40% of our students go on to a four‑year degree, which is much below the national average,” says Borgen. “We went from serving 450 students to serving 900 that first year. Just removing that $90 per-credit fee doubled the number of families who are benefiting from the program.”
In year one, students earned more than 5,000 college credits with a value of more than $2 million.
SASD saw the percentage of students taking dual-credit courses increase to 71% among all students and 92% among college-bound students. The average SASD student earned approximately 6 college credits, and nearly 100 students completed a full college semester or more.
“We look at those who have the grit, the desire and and want to put the hard work in and make sure there is a pathway for them,” Borgen says.
