I attended UW-Milwaukee (and later, UW-Eau Claire). As I am working on getting my businesses off the ground, I have decided to give those colleges one last chance to help me out through their alumni publications. When you think about the numbers, those publications reach many people, and those people all have college degrees, which means they know how to spend money. Therefore, I REALLY hope the following letters (letter as of first publishing) make it into the alumni publications.

TO UW-MILWAUKEE

"Hello,

A lot has happened in my life recently. I am hoping that other UWM graduates will be interested. After being laid off this year from teaching high school English, I decided to go into business for myself. However, I am trying to figure out which part of my business will take off the most. I design semi-custom websites at PassiveNinja.com and my portfolio can be seen there. I have also expanded the scope of my educational resource site to include matching tutors and potential clients at Educabana.com, which is a site that originally raised money for schools and churches. I have added my own lessons as a teacher to the site, as well as opening an Educabana store at TeachersPayTeachers.com. Lastly, I am writing daily on McNewsy.com and Satisfamily.com, and my books of short stories, poetry, and scripts can be found on Amazon and Google Play. I am working with a local musician to write the music for Philadelphia Store: The Musical (a story written about working at Boston Store while attending UWM) I have many options as a freelancer, partially because of the education I received at UWM, and the Creative Writing courses in particular are being put to good use right now, especially as I try to market my services with no money.

Of course, I've written too much, and the most important part to me is really my wife of twelve years and my two kids. We are trying to raise them in the community we love with the values we find important, but budget cuts that have affected my own job, their public school, and the colleges we attended are making that option seem less appealing. I guess that's why I'm hoping a blurb in your publication will open at least one door in the area. In my own quest for employment this past fall, I referenced your magazine many times in search of others who might be able to help, and I am grateful the publication exists (even if none of those contacts paid off at the time). Thank you for allowing us to keep in touch in a meaningful way.

I realize there's no way you'll fit very much of this email into the print version of your publication. However, I am hoping you can add something about my life changes that will interest your readers, and maybe there's more room somewhere online, in which case I'd also throw in the other websites I write for and have created: Real Wisconsin News, Voucher School, Literature Database, Zoo Interchange, Man Crush Fan Club, Wild West Allis, and probably more I can't think of right now.

Thank you for your time and effort in both getting through this email and trying to figure out what you'd want to say about me.

Brian Jaeger
543 N. 93rd St.
Milwaukee, WI 53226
1999 BA English, French Minor, Urban Planning Certificate
Link to photo"

Written by Brian Jaeger, owner of Satisfamily, McNewsy, PassivNinja, Educabana, RealWisconsinNews, ManCrushFanClub, WildWestAllis, SitcomLifeLessons, and VoucherSchool.