2025–26 School Year Begins With New Dining Spaces

University School of Milwaukee opened its doors for the 2025–26 school year with its annual Opening Ceremony on the first day of school, Monday, Aug. 25. This was preceded by an outdoor reception with refreshments hosted by the Parents’ Association. This year, USM is excited to welcome 1,118 students from prekindergarten through 12th grade.

USM seniors kicked off the event by walking into and around the front circle with kindergarten students before Board of Trustees President Leslie Tector ’87 and Head of School Steve Hancock addressed the ceremony attendees. 

This year’s senior class prefects—Willy Art, Nikhil Lazzaro, Anastasia Marich, Davie Moalusi, Read Tuttle, and Zara Vaseem—followed with speeches on this year’s featured Common Trust value, trust. The ceremony concluded with the school’s longest-tenured full-time faculty member, Upper School Physical Education and Health Teacher Sue Baker, ringing the ceremonial first bell of the school year. 

Minutes later, two ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held for the brand-new, 1,500-square-foot Ming Ming Voo MDS’63 Dining Room, and the remodeled and expanded Harvey B. Sperling Hall. Watch a time-lapse progression of the spaces as they went from construction to reality over the last eight months.

The Voo Dining Room is specially designed for prekindergarten, junior kindergarten, and kindergarten students, and features right-sized furniture and a smaller, quieter space for USM’s youngest learners. Sperling Hall, meanwhile, will be utilized by Lower School and Middle School students. The remodeled, expanded space can accommodate more students, allowing USM to scale back from four to three lunch periods without compromising the overall length of the lunch periods. The reconfiguration of the dining room also provides flexible spaces that can be better leveraged for community gatherings. Families attending the Opening Ceremony were invited to tour both spaces, with additional refreshments offered in each location.

USM is incredibly grateful to the many individuals and families who supported these new dining spaces. Thanks to their generosity, the dining experience for Preschool, Lower School, and Middle School students has been substantially improved. The school would especially like to thank the following lead donors:

Voo Dining Room is a gift from:

• Fengchi Wu Chen: mother of Leona L. Chen, M.D. ’74, Albert L. Chen ’78
• Ming Ray “Lorraine” Wu Chang: mother of Angela Chang, Bonnie Chang, Cindy Chang
• Ta Tzu “Ben” Wu: father of Nancy Wu, Lawrence Wu, Melissa Wu
• Minghui “Emily” Woo Yuan: mother of Aileen Yuan, Arthur Yuan
• Ming Hsien Voo Wang: mother of Jessica Wang, Timothy Wang
• Ta Wei “David” Voo: father of Anthony Voo, Karen Voo, Jeffrey Voo, Kenneth Voo

Sperling Hall is a gift from:

• Julia ’68 and David ’67 Uihlein and Liza ’99 and David Sadoff. 

The Hauske Family Dining Room is a gift from:

• Kathy and Tom Hauske, Sarah and TJ ’08 Hauske, Grace ’08 and Andrew ’04 Robbins, Charlie Hauske ’12, and Harriette ’14 and Tommy Engel. 

The Gold Wing is a gift from:

• Linda and John A. MUS’56 Mellowes, R. Jan Pirozzolo-Mellowes and John W. ’91 Mellowes and family. 

The Blue Wing is a gift from: 

• The Culver family.

The Beverage Nook is a gift from:

• The Gilpin family: Julie and Brian, Jack ’25, Luke ’28, and Kate ’35.

“Thanks to the generosity of many, including several donors here today, we now have facilities that will serve students and faculty for generations to come,” said Steve Hancock, head of school, during his remarks on opening day. “When we look around campus, we see the legacy of those who believed in a USM education and in our mission. These dining rooms are the newest example of that legacy—spaces that honor the past while serving the present.”

Later in the morning, prior to the start of lunch, another special ceremony was held at the foot of the 8th grade stairs as the “seniors” of the Middle School formally started their school year. As part of the event, Steve Farwig ’75 spoke with 8th grade students about the history of the 8th grade stairs, because the Class of 1975 was the first 8th grade class to use the stairs exclusively.

Thank you to all of the USM community members who attended this year’s events.